Tag Archives: social networking

FEAR!

Welcome WVFF Guest Blogger
David Meerman Scott, author, speaker, guru

Every day, I run across FEAR of marketing on the Web. We’ve got to work together to help people overcome this fear in 2010.

  • Fear comes from bosses who insist on calculating the ROI of the marketing based on sales leads and press clippings.
  • Fear comes from offline advertising and PR practitioners cautiously making the transition to Web platforms to generate attention.
  • Fear comes from those who insist on copying the competition.
  • Fear comes from people who think “online video is just for kids.”

What’s behind the fear? Let’s take a closer look and then debunk a few myths:

FEAR OF PEOPLE SAYING BAD THINGS ABOUT US
Many company executives and public relations people trace their worries about “new marketing” to their belief that “people will say bad things about our company” via social media.

This fear leads them to ignore blogs and online forums and to prohibit employees from participating in social media. In every discussion that I’ve had with employees who freely participate in social media, I’ve confirmed that this fear is significantly overblown. Let me repeat – everyone who has experience tells me this fear is overblown.

Sure, an occasional person might vent frustrations online, and now and then a dissatisfied customer might complain (unless you’re in the airline industry and then it might be more than a few).

But the benefit of this kind of communication is that you can monitor in real-time what’s being said and then respond appropriately. Employees, customers and other stakeholders are talking about your organization offline anyway, so unless you are participating online, you’ll never know what’s being said at all.

The beauty of the Web is that you benefit from instant access to conversations you could never participate in before. And frequently you can turn around impressions by commenting on a “negative” post.

FEAR THAT WE WILL LOOK SILLY
When you wrote a first blog post, started shooting videos for YouTube, or begin to tweet it felt like you’re just a big dork, right? I certainly did. But like anything, experience brings mastery. Tell those who are fearful to just get going!

My daughter is learning how to drive. Yes, she gets honked at and may even get “the finger” as she gingerly tries to park in a crowded lot. But she’ll figure it out. Learning to drive takes time, but it is worth it because it beats the hell out of biking or walking in a Massachusetts winter.

FEAR THAT IT DOES NOT WORK IN OUR INDUSTRY
One of the most frequent manifestations of fear is that web marketing does not work “in our industry.” The proof people provide is that nobody else is doing it. I’ve heard “The new rules do not work for mutual fund managers or lawyers or dentists or politicians or Singapore based software companies or Canadian blood donation centers or Florida based real estate agents or churches or rock bands….” I’ve heard them all. I see the excuses of “this doesn’t apply to my market” and “people in my market do not use social media” literally every day.

Duh. Someone has to be a pioneer.

So my style and strategy in my books and speeches is to show examples from many different organizations. I also show examples from non-profits, the military, government agencies, doctors, rock bands, plus big companies, small companies, B2C, B2B and much more.

I am firmly convinced (and my audiences agree) that you can learn more from what a broad range of people are doing than from what other people just like you are doing. Let’s help people get over their fear by insisting that they not insist on copying the competitors. Instead, tell them to learn from a rock band or hospital.

Better yet, tell people who are fearful to learn from Nalts. He’s the master.

The long-anticipated second edition of David Meerman Scott’s book The New Rules of Marketing and PR releases in late December 2009. The first edition, a Business Week bestseller, is published in 24 languages.
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Companies Shouldn’t Engage in Social Networking. They Should Give People Woodies.

Here’s a press release by Cone (a division of Advertising Conglomerate Omnicom), which did a study about consumer expectations of companies in social media. I’ve got an important point of clarity:

Cone Finds that Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media: Harder-to-reach audiences are ripe for social media interaction.

Some stats:

  • Sixty percent of Americans use social media, and of those, 59 percent interact with companies on social media Web sites. One in four interacts more than once per week.
  • According to the survey, 93 percent of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media.
  • In fact, 56 percent of users feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

sxephil\'s brother in hooking upSo I’m not arguing with this study, but I want to make an important distinction. I believe people don’t want most companies truly involved in social media. That’s because a company can do little more than issue an ad or a press release. A company can’t leave a comment, respond to my note, post a vlog, or even write a blog. The company’s employees, however, can get involved individually.

But their names are not Coke, Mac, American Express or Kraft. They’re Mike, Ed, Tom, Jennifer, Micki, Karen or even Woody..  

Think about your favorite companies or brands, and the feeling you get when you reflect on them. Do it right now. Picka cool brand. Now think about a different company (maybe a small web-based one) in which you’ve had a positive interaction with a specific employee. You remember his or her name. Often your bond is as strong or stronger with the latter. For me, Revver will always be Micki. Metacafe was Talia. DailyReel was Alex and Felicia. TVWeek is Daisy. blip.tv is Mike. YouTube is BigJoe or Mark (because Chad and Stephen are now under PR-induced witness relocation). These companies are cool because the person I’ve met there is cool. These companies are harder to trash when you’ve met someone whose job isn’t PR or sales.

Like G. Gorden Liddy once said of FBI agents (paraphrasing): we had to behave knowing that the person whom we interact would probably not interact with another FBI agent in their life, and would tell friends and family about that experience.

Vivid Example: On the early videos of the recent “Hooking Up,” the show’s writer was reacting to comments, and signing them “Woody.” I thought that was far more intimate than a comment from “Hooking Up” or “HBOLabs.” Sadly he didn’t have time to ride comments on Professor Klein (Nalts) first appearance. 🙂

People want to get social with actual humans, and companies are just collections of these humans. Woody was funny, laid back, and he did a good job acting as Sxephil’s brother. So when I think of HBOLabs I think of Woody.

It’s a lot easier to trust HBOLabs when they give you a Woody.