All in Business
"Part One" of this series provided the foundation required to determine whether or not you should expand your integrated marketing and social directives on a global scale. Now ask yourself whether it makes sense to hire an external vendor or service to speak on your behalf in a given language. If the answer is yes, then what are the necessary steps to ensure they meet brand guidelines and gain a deep understanding of your businesses culture?
My online career began way back when Sony DiscMans still roamed the Earth – in 1994. One of many sermons we preached in those days is that by developing a website, you could reach a <shouts> "GLOBAL CUSTOMER BASE." </shouts>. At that time, the world was still very big conceptually. Digital communications was still in its infancy, and large businesses and brands that constructed a digital presence did so in a cautiously optimistic manner.
One of the countless things that internal marketing departments frequently overlook is their own staff's social graph. More often than not, every company has staffers with active social media footprints. Brands need to understand that no matter how robust their corporate social graph is, it will only get them so far.
How many times have you had a client make so many revisions that you forgot what the original idea was? How many times were you paid appropriately for all of those revisions? All to often, the math doesn't work out in favor ot the freelancer. Which is exactly why you need to start thinking about this.
Over the past few weeks we witnessed a few monumental explosions of social media reactions. One over statements made by Phil Robertson of “Duck Dynasty.” The other one was from now former public relations executive Justine Sacco, who made of the infamous #HasJustineLandedYet Tweet. Both situations fall into the always attractive “hindsight is 20-20” silo.
As much as any medium, social media plays "the numbers game" in an effort to bend perception. Let's not forget that the biggest fanboys and fangirls for social media are really marketing professionals and advertisers. They are the same people who learned to manipulate and exploit the tools before most average folks ever knew what a “Tweet” was. That being said, there is still skewed misunderstanding that numbers equal value or some type of discernible ROI.
Rarely does one construct a brand that has equal amounts of cultural significance and product association. Recently I have had the opportunity to work with Orlando Harley- Davidson, consulting them through Big Block Studios on their social media, content marketing and interactive integration. You would think that a rough-and-tumble brand like Harley-Davidson would just give the finger to the world and not give a shit about aggressive optimization.
Something we don’t talk about much in interactive marketing is what's broken or perhaps on its deathbed.
Regular readers know I have a severe case of #FOMO about my industry and its insanely ascending evolution. As if that isn’t enough to keep my mind in overdrive, I am the same way about technology, trends, tactics and strategies that might have outlived their usefulness - or are ready for an overhaul.
Many social media experts will have you believe that content is the key to successful marketing messages. There is a great deal to be said for that. Don't forget, however, that regardless of content type, you might as well not generate any content at all if your message misses the mark on creating an action.
There are very few things less interesting to me than Miley Cyrus. On an interest scale ranging from The Location of Carmen Electra’s Latest Tattoo on the high end all the way down to Parenting Tips From That “Kate Plus Eight” Woman, Miley ranks slightly above Kate only because I’m a sucker for a good train wreck.
It’s a classic “chicken or the egg” scenario. Did our thirst for blood fuel the 24-hour news cycle and TMZ culture? Or is it the other way around? Regardless, I’m not surprised that the media has been pumping out non-stop content about recent stories involving the federal government’s invasion of our privacy, interracial killings and murderous mothers.
There is a popular misconception that social media is only beneficial in a B2C environment. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I'm going to explain why. Let’s start by examining how most people perceive social media being used in a consumer-related capacity: