Think lawyers are expensive? Maybe so. But it’s cheaper to bring them in before you have a problem. This common wisdom holds especially true for your corporate social media strategy, which is why your social media team should have a legal representative as well.

It should be a requirement to make legal professionals part of your team from the inception. Bringing them in on the back end to clean up a mess is never desirable. Plus it doesn’t make for a great collaborative relationship, because you messed up and you now need legal’s help. And solving legal problems on the back end is never pleasant. It’s far better to know and establish legal rules of the social media road before you’re entering into and engaging in conversations on social media sites. Let’s face it, corporate social media activities are really public relations (PR) in the new social networking space. Therefore it makes sense

Part of the POST method, your new media team should, at a minimum, get legal involved in the O (Objectives) and S (Strategies) phases. At a generic level, legal can help you stay out of trouble, guide you in all policies relating to news media and customer-facing communications. Legal can also provide you with guidelines on what an employee can and cannot (or should and should not) do in the social media arena. Here are some specific roles of legal participation within the social media team:

• Social Media Policies. Comments, backtracks, discussions on and off of your site. This covers locations both within your own websites, blogs forums, and on other websites, blogs and forums. It also controls how your employee(s) should start new topics, and how to resolve complaints and negative feedback. Legal can provide guidance.
• Authorized Corporate Bloggers. If you’ll have just a few key individuals actually doing the engagement with the outside world, establish rules for them to follow. Otherwise if you encourage a wider employee participation, then have a different set of rules applied to all. The key words here are guidance and coordination, not hindrance. Legal can help establish rules.
• Social Media Interaction. We all know that the Internet is always open, and with the global reach that it provides, the corporate social media team (and therefore your company) is also always open. Consumers worldwide are active in the social media space all the time (and especially after work within their local time,) your social media team must be ready to engage at any time of day, within reason. This is especially critical when a potential issue (positive or negative) about the company and its products is going viral. So you’ll need to be involved early. Legal can help define the dos and don’ts.

With all these guidelines in your pocket, you are now ready to go all out and promote your company, products and services. They will protect you while you’re out there engaging, supporting and solving your customers’ problems.

So go ahead. Build your social media team. Select the best and sharpest marketers, PR people, and technologists. Just don’t leave out the legal rep.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Creating a Social Media Strategy? Don’t Forget the Legal Team

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Most businesses sell some sort of products or provide services to other businesses or consumers. This selling or providing process relies heavily on the staff in marketing and customer service department of a company. Marketing can be seen mainly as a pre-sale responsibility, while customer service traditionally takes care of the customer after the sale. In actuality, and most importantly in the current social media environment, the line between marketing and customer service is becoming more and more fuzzy. In fact from the customer point of view, marketing and customer service of a company may be slowly becoming one and the same.

It’s the case of “marketing promises me this, but service gives (or not) me that.” It’s one of the classic examples of customer dissatisfaction, and in the social network environment, the news goes far and wide, at a very fast rate. What a business needs to realize are two things:

1. Customers are now talking, researching and sharing on the Internet, in general, and on social networking sites, in particular.
2. You need to be where your customers are and engage them, especially with those who make the most noise.

The best customer experience is achieved when customer desires and needs are fulfilled by your products or services (good marketing,) and their issues are resolved quickly and satisfactorily (good customer service.) If these do not give you strong reasons to get your business into the social networking arena, then I don’t know what will.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Marketing and Customer Service Are Really One and the Same to Customers

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How does an organization implement social media? A better question: How do you implement social media with resources at your disposal or do you go outside for help? The answer lies in who owns social media in an organization.

Ownership of social media can cross several organizational lines, at the same time it may require specialization in new sets of skills and disciplines. The line of responsibility is fuzzy at best and confusing at worst. As Jason Baer writes over at the MarketingProfs in an article called “Who Wins the Struggle for Social Media Control?” there are four combatants who may rightfully claim social media ownership. Although the article looks at the struggle between outside agencies or specialists rather than that within a company, I think the struggle is just as valid for internal departments. The 4 combatants are, in Mr. Baer’s words:

• Advertising. Because social media often requires making stuff, and can impact overall brand perception, advertising should be in charge of social media. The rising importance of video within social media also favors advertising types.
   
• Digital. Because social media is (at least for now) an online construct, the Internet marketing agencies should be in the driver’s seat. Plus, social media has major SEO implications in some cases, and most SEO is still handled by digital specialists.
   
• Public Relations. Because social media is ultimately about conversations, and is non-linear, public relations is best equipped to manage social media efforts. Especially so given the demise of traditional journalism, the importance of blogger relations, and the blurring of the lines between customer and reporter.
   
• Client. Because social media is ideally an extension and manifestation of the brand’s operations and culture, and requires near-constant vigilance and engagement, the client is best able to oversee social media. Comcast is a good example of this philosophy.

In closing the article, Mr. Baer advocates that public relations should be the gatekeeper for social media, but admits that PR still has a long way to go. To me this is a valid conclusion, but I would go a few steps further to clarify the issues and offer more realistic solutions that enable successful corporate social media thrusts.

Social media itself can have variations in definition depending whom you talk to. As Wikipedia defines it,

Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

The key words to take away here are: sharing, discussing, communications, social, human beings, interaction, Internet and mobile-based, communities. Social media was clearly embraced by the public/consumer. Millions are already participating in “social media” activities as a way of life. All this while corporations are still trying to figure out how to get involved.

The answer is to keep it simple. From a corporation’s viewpoint, social media should really be part of marketing and PR, but the rules are really set by the consumers or the audiences. So you’ll need to get in the game, provide the resources to do so, and make sure you follow established rules of the game and not insist on pushing your own rules. If you’re talking about a specialty agency, then I think it’s still about marketing and PR, and the rules are still set by the consumers or the audiences. The only difference is what you want your agency to specialize in, in the same way that advertising agencies decide to specialize in print, radio, TV, Internet or a combination of these.

Either way, there is a final critical element to the answer of who owns social media in corporations: leadership. Corporate leaders must understand what social media is, what it’s for, why it can be a powerful tool, and how it can help. Alternatively, entrust it to and empower someone who understands it. This is important because only with informed knowledge comes informed decisions; deciding not to pursue social media because you don’t understand it is really an uninformed decision. Social media is already an important communication tool chosen by the consumers. Therefore it must be a part of corporate marketing and PR tools used to reach those consumers. There just is no other way.

There are still a few outstanding questions. Companies, by competitive nature, have been very aggressive in bringing messages to the consumers using whatever new communication tools to get an edge on the competition. And marketing and PR, by definition, are very creative groups of people. So why is social media, as a communication tool, not being looked at as another important tool for marketing and PR? Are we sleeping at the wheel, or what’s really holding us back? Is the social media concept so difficult to grasp that we’re still scared of it? Share your opinions and comments.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Social Media: Who in Your Organization Should Own It?

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Most of us recognize a marketing creep when we see one. But not many are willing or equipped to deal with it.

What’s a marketing creep? Marketing creep is comparable to feature creep in web development, or design creep in engineering. In whatever name or industry, marketing, feature or design creep refers to unforeseen requests for additions and changes that are outside the project scope. Generically it can be called scope or requirement creep, but again they all mean the same thing: You’ll run into trouble if you’re not careful.

Why is this important? We all have our own way of dealing with marketing creep in a traditional marketing, but with online marketing, the problem can be much more easily compounded. New features can creep into the project at any time, therefore strict project management and control is crucial.

The fact is, features are normally agreed upon with the client and formalized in a contractual agreement at the beginning of the project. Considering today’s communication options are available in many forms including voicemail, email, text, instant messaging, even through social media channels like Twitter and others, ideas being kicked around in these remote communication methods can easily become a new, undocumented feature or requirement without a formal agreement. Over time the list grows uncontrollably and can spell trouble for your marketing project or campaign. SEO itself is especially vulnerable to feature creep.

Kevin Lee writing for Online Marketing for Marketers touches on this issue in his article “Learn How to Say No to Dumb Ideas“. He suggests to deal with the issue by paying attention to these 4 things:

Beware “Pet Projects”
There are always plenty of tasks and projects on any road map or agenda, many of them with a high likelihood of success. Otherwise those tasks and strategies wouldn’t have made it onto the roadmap (assuming the team putting the roadmap together was competent). Yet it isn’t unusual to see a strong personality on a team or outside supervisor suddenly derail a highly profitable project plan with some pet project…

Remember: You’re Being Paid For Your Expertise

Sure, saying no feels dangerous. And there’s still a decent chance that a superior or client will override your objections. In reality, once you become a search marketing professional, your opinions (backed up by experience and expertise) are what you get paid for…

Fully Analyze the Cost of Changing Directions

The question becomes how do you present your case when you think a campaign is about to go off track due to a “pet project” inserted by a well-meaning senior manager or a client. The first method that can be effective is the pros and cons discussion…

Search Engine Reps Will Never Have Your Unique Expertise

Interestingly, as a search marketing expert, your responsibilities include protecting the marketing budget and campaign from outside influences who promote projects that have a low expected return…

Jacob Gube also offers some excellent ideas in “Eight Tips on How to Manage Feature Creep” in his post over at SixRevisions.com. Based mostly from his own experience, you may find them useful below:

1. Accept that feature creep will happen.

Feature creep is a natural part of any project-based work. Acknowledging this eventuality will allow you to be prepared when it finally rears it’s ugly code-retrofitting, design-wrecking head. Anticipating unforeseen changes in your plans forces you to be more adaptable, and promotes the development of a solution that’s flexible and malleable to your client’s ever-changing needs.

2. Commit enough time to requirements-gathering.

Easy and fairly common sense. Just don’t rush the planning phase of projects.

3. Giving a hand might cost you your arm.

If you constantly give in to changes, you might be get more of them in the future. Try to set boundaries of what is and isn’t appropriate to revise, this not only prevents unneeded requests for changes, but gives the project strict quality-control guidelines.

4. Be the devil’s advocate when changes are requested.

You were hired and assigned to the project because of your knowledge and expertise. Don’t be afraid to contradict unwise feature requests by providing well-formed reasons that the project should proceed as originally planned.

5. Be task-oriented, not vision-oriented.

Be clear on what it is, exactly, you’re developing for the client. Don’t promise a grand, exciting, but ambiguous/ambitious end result.

6. Shed the “Customer is Always Right” mentality.

You, more often than not, are a more qualified judge of how things should be developed. You’re not working to get a big tip at the end. Don’t feel pressured to do something that isn’t in the job description or something you feel will lead to a less desirable end product.

7. Research before committing.

If you think the budget and timeline can handle a modification in plans, research thoroughly on what the change actually entails before committing.

8. Realize that feature creep is a two-way street.

Clients and employers aren’t (purely) evil. They don’t intend to make our jobs more difficult. Oftentimes it’s our desire to please, to prove our worth, and our perfectionist mentality that can be, in part if not equally, to blame. If feature creep happens, it’s only because we allow it to.

So how are you dealing with your own marketing creeps?
What would you do if you realize, way deep into a project, you now have a long list of features that were regretfully accepted verbally?
And what do you suggest the best ways to bring feature creep back to the negotiating table?

Share your experience with us.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Beware the Marketing Creeps

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This is from an older article at Forbes.com titled “Peter Drucker On Marketing” by Jack Trout. While it’s dated back in July 2006, good writings stand the test of time, and this one is no exception. Mr. Trout wrote that perhaps today’s executives are just getting it wrong in their priorities.

Peter Drucker observed:

“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.”

Top management surveyed today probably name their priorities to include the likes of finance, sales, production, management, legal and people. Missing from the list, as Mr. Trout pointed out: marketing and innovation. He listed 4 important steps to help an executive find the proper direction. These are:

1. Make sense in the context. What does the market place perceive you and your competitors to represent? Do you know what the market wants? If you do, how do you differentiate yourself from the competitors?
2. Find the differentiating idea. Be different, be one of a kind, be not the same. And it does not have to be a differentness in just products. There are other areas of the business that can be used as your secret weapon.
3. Have the credentials. However you are different or claim you are different from the pack, you must prove it with credentials, demonstration, and logical argument. Customers are smart and knowledgeable. If you let them ask skeptical questions about your claim, then you have a faulty start and an uphill battle on your hand.
4. Communicate your difference. In the Internet, social media and social networking market environment, you can’t be too sure that customers will beat a path to your door. You have to work for it. Tell them what makes you different.

Marketing is definitely not everything. But it’s one very important thing. Management who understand that marketing is a high priority must-do item on their to do list will be way ahead of their competitors, in any market condition. They will enjoy rosier roads ahead of them. And much sooner too. Because marketing should be a way of doing business, and not a new company initiative.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Executives May Just Be Getting It Wrong the Whole Time.

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Wise words from an ad copy described in the book Ogilvy On Advertising by David Ogilvy.

I don’t know who you are.
I don’t know your company.
I don’t know your company’s product.
I don’t know what your company stands for.
I don’t know your company’s customers.
I don’t know your company’s records.
I don’t know your company’s reputation.
Now – what was it you wanted to sell me?

Today’s customer is tough and knowledgeable. With the Internet as a tool, anyone can easily Google his/her way to a piece of information, an answer or a list of comparison. For this reason marketing and sales must work hand in hand to develop spot-on and effective strategies and messages for your products and services. From the customer’s or prospect’s point of view, there is only one entity: the company. Not the sales department, not the marketing department.

If marketing and sales just collaborate to develop message to address the I don’t knows, then we’ll be more than half way there.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Take Care of the I Don’t Knows

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Whatever your passion is in your personal and work life, professional tools and skills are an important and critical element for success. We often think of carpenters and plumbers or even doctors and lawyers as requiring the right tools and skills to do their jobs right. Well think again. We all need them, whatever our professions. Communication. Negotiation. Relationship. Interpersonal. Time management. Marketing. Sales. Each of us must possess an effective set of our own Tools For Life in our back pocket.

I just got a good friend and colleague of mine, Tom Bartley, started writing his own blog called Tools For Life. Tom always seems to have lots of things to share, and he’s one of those guys who can talk your ears off, in a good way. Professionally, Tom possesses a wealth of information in the energy, environmental, transportation and high tech fields and is a problem solver. He’s a result-oriented professional always looking for innovative and new ideas to overcome obstacles, while stimulating creative thinking and inventive solutions in people around him. But in life in general, Tom can also give you tidbits and nuggets of wisdoms from interesting points of view and from his substantial knowledge of how work and life actually work, or should work, either separately or together.

What do you consider some of the most important tools or skills necessary to succeed in work and in life? I’d bet that if we make our own lists, we’d find that those in the “work” column would be just as applicable in the “life” column.

As marketers, we should keep our skills, tools and knowledge sharpened in both our work and life, because oftentimes they are one and the same. If not, we’re setting ourselves up with a formula for failure.

Do you have a favorite tool or skill you find critical to success in both your work and life?
If you have to pick just 3 to fully develop for maximum effectiveness, what would they be?
On the other hand, what would be a critical tool/skill that you wish you have or had developed?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

A Sure Formula for Failure: Going Through Life Without a Good Set of Tools For Life.

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Here’s something older but especially relevant in this time of continued growth in social media marketing. Most online marketers know it’s from a post by Josh Bernoff called “The POST Method: A systematic approach to social strategy” at Forrester Research, Inc. I include it here for my own benefits, and maybe for those who reads my blog.

P is People. Don’t start a social strategy until you know the capabilities of your audience. If you’re targeting college students, use social networks. If you’re reaching out business travelers, consider ratings and reviews. Forrester has great  data to help with this, but you can make some estimates on your own. Just don’t start without thinking about it.

O is objectives. Pick one. Are you starting an application to listen to your customers, or to talk with them? To support them, or to energize your best customers to evangelize others? Or are you trying to collaborate with them? Decide on your objective before you decide on a technology. Then figure out how you will measure it.

S is Strategy. Strategy here means figuring out what will be different after you’re done. Do you want a closer, two-way relationship with your best customers? Do you want to get people talking about your products? Do you want a permanent focus group for testing product ideas and generating new ones? Imagine you succeed. How will things be different afterwards? Imagine the endpoint and you’ll know where to begin.

T is Technology. A community. A wiki. A blog or a hundred blogs. Once you know your people, objectives, and strategy, then you can decide with confidence.

Still very wise words.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

The POST Method: a Mental Note.

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It’s always scarier, and more difficult, for large companies to embrace social media than for smaller companies to do so. It’s been discussed widely around the web and blogosphere, and is a general consensus at least for now.

As time progresses, however, it’s refreshing to learn about larger companies actually making the effort. As Lee Odden posted on Online Marketing Blog in Oct 30, 2008, How Big Companies Use Social Media @ BlogWell, big guys like Dell, Walmart, Cisco, UPS and Home Depot are seeing values in social media, and are making a corporate effort to get involved. The Blogwell conference, organized by GasPedal, aimed to help large corporations navigate the minefields of social media marketing.

According the Blog Council, which is a community of senior executives in charge of social media at the largest corporations in the world, best practices for corporate social media participation include the following checklist:

• Disclosure of Identity
• Personal/Unofficial Blogging and Outreach
• Blogger Relations
• Compensation and Incentives
• Agency and Contractor Disclosure
• Creative Flexibility

Mr. Ogden blogs that “Disclosure and honesty are key”, which I think is right on. He further lists a number of characteristics that companies should take with them from the Blogwell experience:

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Why Companies Should Not Get Into Social Media.

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Marketing Charts summarized a recent study done by the CMO Council, called “Driving The Bottom Line From The Front Line”. The study highlights an alarming reality among large, multinational companies: marketing and sales collaboration and effectiveness are rated as poor according to the organizations’ own assessment.

Here are some results summarized at the Marketing Charts page (noted here with my thoughts on the subject):

Unifying Sales and Marketing Still a Challenge for Most Companies.

• Barely 12% of sales and marketing professionals say they have a well-integrated, real-time view of all customer interactions, while only 37% report good visibility into prospects, pipeline, deal flow and conversion rates.
  • Thoughts: It is not a surprise on this one since we all experience very busy workload during a typical day, thus having no time to look at or analyze the data. Eighty-eight percent lacks visibility into customer interactions – that could be a lot of sales being missed. And 63% lacks the ability to see the sales process, prospects and pipeline- again this may lead to sales left on the table or going to competitors. To improve these numbers I think companies will have to either 1) add analysts to their team to provide additional support, or 2) implement policy to force the team to regularly slow down and look at what they have and re-prioritize, then proceed again.
• By comparison, 20% indicate that marketing hands off leads to sales, yet marketing has no insight into conversion and close outcomes; 13% say most leads are never captured, qualified or acted upon; and about 11% report they have no on-premise or on-demand CRM system in place.
  • Thoughts: Seems like a regular team communication is one solution to implement here. The goal here should be to get everyone on the team to collect data and report on results. One good approach is to do this manually for a while so it becomes second nature or habit to all parties involved. Then phase in a new work flow to automate and streamline the process. A full-featured CRM system is not necessary in the initial step. One needs to take baby steps first before walking and running. My motto The speed of going slow™ has served me well in many occasions and can be applied successfully here.
• Among those who have CRM applications, only 13% view the application as highly valued and widely deployed, while 42% see growing acceptance and adoption.
  • Thoughts: I think CRM systems are too complex, not user-friendly and require a steep learning curve. And it’s difficult to remember and use all the features in order to maximize the benefits. In addition people tend to have preferences for a particular tool, maybe something they’re already using or have used. On the other hand it’s very important to have a single system that the team can share, especially in corporate environments. Again I think The speed of going slow™ also applies here. The key is do not train people in one single session and turn them loose. A more effective implementation method is to give everyone an overview, then phase in portions of the system over time, in small chunks. This would force everyone to take small bites at a time, use them, get used to them, understand and like them, while keeping the level of competency consistent across individuals. No one on the team should feel overwhelmed or intimidated by the tool. Do this over time and the collaboration will improve. Problem solved.
• While CRM systems tend to be mandated and adopted across the sales organization, they tend to be more selectively embraced by marketing teams in business units and departments.
  • Comment: Ha I spoke too soon. The thoughts above also apply to this one.
• Data analytics, reporting and forecasting tend to be the biggest deficiencies in optimizing the functionality and usability of current CRM solutions. The top three areas highlighted by nearly 50% of respondents were the ability to easily create analytic reports, customization of the application and forecasting capabilities. Real-time and historic analytics placed a close fourth (40%) adding to the call for more analytics and user friendly tools.
  • Comment: While this may be partially due to the tools (and their limitations themselves), I think there are 2 factors playing out here. One, it’s just a convenient excuse by the users so they don’t have to deal with it. Or, two, the organization picked the wrong tool to begin with. While it is expected that tool developers should constantly improve enterprise CRM systems and/or create new and better ones, my experience tells me that, for a tool to be successfully implemented, it has to be properly evaluated and tested against understood, real requirements. Requirements should drive everything. Once the requirements are known, a set of best practices/processes/workflows must be created and evaluated against each candidate CRM system. The two critical elements here are the requirements and the best practices/processes/workflows. Too many people just jump in, buy the tool and start using without doing those two things. They’re setting themselves up for failure for sure.
• While 50% of those surveyed said they had pretty good or extensive visibility in to customer accounts and business activity, the other 50% said they had trouble finding customer account data, did not have enough information, or none at all.
  • Thoughts: Hmmm, assuming these are in context of the previous findings above, I would venture to say: know your requirements, get the proper tool, understand how to use it, then create a process and a habit to use it, and always improve your process and tool.

On other key findings:

• Most respondents consider their companies to be sales-driven and, to a lesser degree, product-centered or customer relationship-based. Just over 10% viewed themselves as channel dependent, and only 27% believed they were marketing-minded.
  • Thoughts: Gotta get 100% (or the majority) of those employees to be marketing-minded.
• Respondents agree that the top three measures of sales performance and productivity are lead quality and ROI, conversion and close rates, and level of action on opportunities – all of which would benefit by a deeper alignment and integration between sales and marketing.
  • Thoughts: I think this should/must be a top-down policy/directive. Left alone, individuals within the two departments may start on their own to collaborate. But in my view it’s just an accident that they do so. Why wait for accidents to happen? The C-levels should initiate it.
• When marketers were asked how they viewed sales, 40% said they had some top producers but there was mostly a need for improvement.
  • Thoughts: I don’t quite understand this one. All organizations have some top producers, and everyone can stand some improvement.
• Sales professionals tend to have a tactical view of marketing, with only 10% seeing marketers as market-savvy and on-target with demand-generating campaigns. Some 41% say marketing provide good/right content and sales-support materials.
  • Thoughts: I would agree with the sales guys here. Not everyone wants/has the ability to do sales. But almost everyone thinks he/she can do marketing. My observation tells me many marketers are not qualified at their posts, lacking a lot of marketing basics (either learned through formal schooling or from the trenches), while they employ the “trial-and-error” marketing technique.

Todd Ebert has his own take about it in his blog here: CMO Council research: 2/3rds of us are not effective.

So what do you think about this sales – marketing relationship? How does it work at your organization? What’s your best/worst experience?

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
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Sales and Marketing: How Do We Join Forces?

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