So you want to start or grow a customer engagement, community-building or social media practice at work (or for a client) and you’re having a tough time getting the key decision-maker onboard?
Guess what: You’re probably doing more selling than listening. Shut up and ask them what they need. Chances are, they’ll tell you they need more sales. And unless you understand how to talk about social web, customer engagement and sales impact in the same sentence, guess what: You can’t solve their problem.
Let me throw a little moment of divine clarity your way: If you can’t solve their problem, your value to them and the value of your idea are both precisely zero. So watch this video and see if something clicks:
Instead of talking about social mention and brand loyalty to a guy who thinks that Marketing falls into the L section of his P&L, maybe you should focus on what matters to them, right?
If you like this video (and if you found it helpful) let me know and I will post more on the same topic. I’ve just skimmed the surface with this. There’s a whole lot more to talk about.
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
Olivier, a great post/video! This is a great way to kick off the week after last week’s dicussion about taking social media from the same message delivery to doing something impactful.
That said, I think there are folks that need beginner, intermediate and advanced advice/conversation…would love to get your thoughts on that. Perhaps in this economic situation until organizations see social media bringing dollars in the front door, the conversation aspect falls flat.
Hey Olivier,
This is really good and yes, you should do more. Now that we’re starting to see a surge in organizations interested in SM, it’s critical that we find ways to show them the value. Without moving in that direction, SM for business may find itself in a deep “trough of disillusionment”.
Beth, GREAT idea on advice for those at different levels and in different situations regarding selling social media. I’d love to see that too.
Olivier, this video rocks. I want more of these from you (selfishly, I admit… what a glimpse at what you provide companies as a paid consultant!) Given the recent Twitter discussions you and I have been involved in, it’s so clear that even for respected social media agencies & consultants, we have to learn to communicate the value in a context corporations can hear. As a user experience consultant, my bottom line is always about impacting sales, though that is not necessarily in my speech – but I know that’s what keeps people employed and enables brand and company growth. Social media and engagement should be no different.
This was immensely helpful thinking about how to communicate the possibilities… what a shift in the social media marketing story. The gears in my mind are just churning now. Thanks so much! I can’t wait for the next video – you must do more of these, please! 🙂
Thanks so much Olivier. I have been struggling with a strategy to sell social media to the executives at my very very conservative corporation. I believe depth and breadth will be my key. Thanks for bringing this down to an ROI level.
I also agree with having advice at different levels. Although social media these days is more and more popular, most of the people use social media/networks but when it comes to the: “ok, it’s great but how do I implement social media for my organization or company?”, some fears come up to the surface.
Thanks for the blog post and video, this type of info will certainly help more people get totally into the waters of social media.
Proving how social media/networks fit into the larger marketing and brand picture will definitely help adoption (and budgets) from the top brass. While there’s a lot of curiosity and discussion, when it comes down to dollars and cents…these endevours just don’t make sense to those who don’t see value. Great post (and video).
Olivier –
Ditto Kris C. and Beth’s comments. Very thoughtful piece that speaks in plain language on how consultants and agencies need to approach helping brands become successful in the social media space. I think your breadth and depth strategies ring true for ALL digital media. Not only should the digital effort support a tangible goal/objective but it also must be measured in the same business context.
I feel that both processes and tools for intuitive, business decision-making metrics are still evolving in the social world – would love to hear your thoughts on this in future posts.
Cheers,
Michelle Batten
@iMWConnect
Sweet! Michelle just gave me a topic for yet another post/video. Thanks! 🙂
Olivier –
Glad I could inspire – the series rocks!
Michelle
@iMWConnect
Wow. Cool. Okay, more videos then. 🙂
Incidentally, when I say we’re just scratching the surface by looking at breadth (net new customers) and depth (product penetration) – and their unique impact on sales, I am not kidding. This is going to be fun.
Beth, I like what you’re saying. Are you talking about beginner/intermediate/advanced discussions in terms of execution or just strategy? Strategy-wise, it isn’t difficult to get an organization new to this ramped up. The tricky part is the execution. Internal training can take a lot of time and frankly isn’t always realistic on its own. Someone has to manage this stuff and make it work, and as you know, that’s the biggest challenge here. In other words, someone has to be brought in to do this.
And here’s the kicker: How many people know how to “use” social media in the US? Millions. But how many people really know how to do this at the corporate level? Probably less than 100. (Actually, I would put that number at less than 50 if you want it done well.)
So yeah, I would love to hear your thoughts on this as well. 🙂
Kim, Armando, Dawnaj, Kris, thank you!
Doug, your “trough of disillusionment” comment sent a chill down my spine. What a powerful way to express what’s going on. That’s exactly it. (Did you coin that?)
I have to tell you… My original plan was to keep these bits of advice completely private and only share them with clients. But lately, I have been noticing that the social media conversation isn’t evolving, and it is obvious to me that most companies trying to jump in the space either aren’t getting good advice or simply aren’t able to justify their investment, even if things seem to be going well. So here we are: If someone doesn’t give this conversation some teeth, most companies will end up choking on that trough before you can say 2010.
Since the secret sauce is in the execution, not the strategy, I don’t mind if these little bits of insight get out. Knowledge will hopefully empower companies to hire the right consultants/engagement advisors – as opposed to finding themselves at the mercy of social media hacks looking to make an easy buck.
And a social media hack equipped with this knowledge still won’t know how to help a company execute properly even if they can sell them on the idea now… so they will get weeded out a little faster. Having specific goals and metrics in place makes people accountable – and accountability has to be part of this equation if we want to move away from the tough of disillusionment. 😉
Great post and video, Olivier. Should be required/reading on the subject of social media for business. Look forward to your future posts on the subject.
Thanks, Jon. 🙂
As anybody else seems to agree, I get tempted to disagree. But actually I don’t. What I do feel is that this is about How do I sell Social Media to my boss (his/her boss etc)? As if having / being part of Social Media is a goal in itself.
I believe that one should never forget that things that companies do need to have a clear (and preferrably measurable) goal. This does not imply that every single thing you do should give you instant return, but still.
So please: don’t all go chasing for the same Goose. Make a solid business case based on research and pilots.
In this Vlog Olivier Blanchard gives great input on building that business case.
Wim Rampen
More about “chasing goose” can be read on http://contactcenterintelligence.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/chasing-the-goose/
Will, thanks for your candor. It’s a little bit weird for me to talk so pragmatically about ROI when we are dealing with a medium that lends itself to human connections and relationships, but the truth is that just being friendly with customers isn’t enough when we talk to folks who only care about the P&L. It’s difficult to balance both aspects of this since they are so different… But they’re yin and yang: Opposites but inseparable.
Oliver,
Amidst the love-fest, I feel the need to inject discord in the form of a reality check. While I really like and agreed with the message in the video, I find two problems with it:
Firstly, it is sad that it needed to be said at all. “Breadth” and “depth” goals are central in any marketing effort. Irrespective of the medium, marketing is about getting more customers and/or selling customers more stuff. So, to highlight those goals as strategy leaves me thinking, “duh”.
Secondly, your message doesn’t address the real problem that so many of the decision-makers have – they aren’t convinced that social media marketing delivers breadth and depth. We need to be able to bridge the gap for them. (I do realise that you have suggested measuring the results of a social media campaign and that is the sort of “money-where-your-mouth-is” approach that a decision maker will likely agree to).
Perhaps what all of this shows is that there are still a large number of people who think of social media in terms of lovely conversations only. And, maybe, we are now moving to a phase where real marketing rigor will be applied to social media marketing efforts. It is “marketing”, after all, and for it to be seen to be effective the conversations have to lead somewhere.
Eric
By the way, how did the ultramarathon go on Sunday? 🙂
Thanks for the replies, Eric. Your concerns are valid, and that is why I am putting together these posts. I know how to bridge that gap for them even when they are hostile to SM (the point of these posts), and I want to share that with folks who can’t seem to “break through” or get the message across with “softer” goals like positive mention, brand valuation, etc.
Your “duh” comment is well taken, but man, you would be surprised what I run into out there. 😀 I have learned not to take simplicity and common sense for granted. 😉
Thanks a bunch for the double-comment.
Thanks, Oliver. I realised after re-reading my post that the “duh” comment sounded a bit nasty towards you. I didn’t mean it that way. I realise that you are very aware of the requirements for measurable results in marketing efforts of all kinds. I was trying to highlight my surprise that the environment required you to have to spell it out so basically.
Eric
Oops! I should’ve read the comments fully before commenting. I see that in one of your replies you discussed the topics I raised.
One other thing that should help a decision maker: when your investment is low (e.g. social media costs) it doesn’t take a lot of return (or a lot of time) to create a positive ROI.
Eric
Eric, I personally feel the fact that Olivier is getting so much “love” on this video and other recent conversations is because so many folks are either being asked to do social media efforts at work (because they have some mastery in the social media space personally) but really do not have the strategy background to apply real marketing ROI to those efforts, OR conversely, they are marketing people who understand how to apply measurement and gauge ROI to traditional marketing efforts, but are at a loss to see how to apply it to buzz or social media marketing. Soclal consultants have beat people about the ears regarding conversation and engagement, without applying the bottom line business metrics. Olivier has identified a huge “missing” gap that not a lot of folks are talking about, and I hope he’s just getting started. If this is too obvious or basic to some, it stands to benefit many others, from the things I’m hearing about and reading from people, clients and agencies in the trenches. I think this is the right conversation being introduced at the right time. I’m ready for him to write the definitive book on it, myself. I think we need to hear & think about this… my opinion only, of course. 🙂
Kris, you are right. Social media has grown to the point that the old dogs of marketing are starting to pay attention (but maybe not fully grasping it – e.g. the Skittles Twitter experiment). People like Olivier, with traditional marketing groundings, who understand social media intimately will be the ones who really help social media marketing take off in the mainstream.
I am new to the use of social media for business and have immersed myself in it for the last few months, trying to get up to speed, reading everything I can find. I’ve become very excited by it’s potential. So much so that I’ve decided to refocus my new consulting business to help companies with their social media efforts. However, I come from a background of creating and executing business development strategies for startups and early stage ventures where budgets were tight and efforts had to meet ROI criteria.
This afternoon, I was planning a client meeting (first client for the new company!) and thinking about how I was going to convince them that a social media marketing campaign would bring them new, increased revenue, when I came across Olivier’s video. When he talked about “breadth” and “depth” and ROI, I thought, “surely that’s the obvious starting point for any campaign discussion.” Then I realised that, as you illustrated above, there are a lot of people who love and champion social media but don’t think about it in terms of measurable success.
I, too, am eager to see if Olivier continues to develop discussions along these lines. Might even throw a post or two in myself.
Eric
I understand a little better where you’re coming from now, Eric, so thanks. I am one of the people who has SOME understanding of marketing, etc. (having done brand identity and worked with product marketers a lot) but I am NOT a traditional product marketer and am more the other person I described, who has people coming to her for advice and needing services, but who is not the most qualified to determine the ROI. I find this conversation invaluable, and really it’s just the tip of the iceberg.
I can’t wait for Olivier to go deeper (for folks like me, not necessarily you!) and that’s why I’m wanting a book on it. I would love to read posts from you about it too – I hope you will write some! And definitely more video’s like this for the quick shots of intelligence that get us thinking about the right path. 🙂
I agree Kris. I am ready for the book, too. Downloadable on Kindle please. And more videos. Once you try social media and connect with some customers it’s simple to see the power and value, but explaining that “upstairs” to folks not engaged can be challenging to say the least. This is exactly what they are looking for. Speaking their language, after LISTENING to what they need/want. Being social media believers, we should be pretty good at that listening thing, right! 😉
OHH Very Interesting post! Thank you for such interesting resource! PS: Sorry for my bad english, I’v just started to learn this language 😉 See you! ^_^
Hey oliver,
Good thing I watched some guys video on youtube promoting your blog.
This is excellent information and right on time. Back to the rest now.
Keep your business sense coming.
p.s. laughed at the wtf’s and bulls##ts on the social media formula. Funny stuff and killer business content.
Awesome Vid……..
We are in discussion with a very large brand who has no competition domestically in the US, has a decent social media presence but they have no clue that these conversations are in place.
They have a couple SM arms on the web that are moving but not an overall strategy. In discussions with their Agency, it is crucial that they understand how SM can impact their bottom line and better yet how SM can be measured and impact the bottom line. Your example was very elementary in terms of comprehension and hey at the end of the day, the decision makers have to be accountable for their decisions. I think we all know that SM is very valuable and does affect the bottom line but we need to do a better job at communicating this with the decision makers who are primarily focused on dollars and cents. Your video helped a ton. Thanks!!!
Wilson
Glad I could help! Be sure to read my other posts on the subject. 😉
Please post and discuss more on this most important topic!!!!!!!