Social Media

Social Marketing Etiquette

A lot of clients want to get involved in Social Marketing but are overwhelmed with the landscape and simply don’t know where to go or what to do. Some of them fear opening up dialogue because they won’t have enough control over their image.

Welcome to marketing in 2008.

As with any type of community, there are rules and etiquette that must be followed in order to be successful. Generally people on the internet don’t like to feel like they are being advertised to in a traditional way. But if people can provide their feedback, creativity, opinion, or gain some value by interacting with a brand or company, they will be far more receptive to interacting with a campaign.

Here are 3 simple rules for Social Marketing that should always be considered when launching a campaign:

1. Foster Conversation
Whether it’s a company blog, a branded social networking site, a microsite with comments enabled or a video posting site, LET PEOPLE TALK. Even if it means that they might say something negative.

Of course there needs to be some moderation to disallow inappropriate content, but let people voice their opinions and talk openly and freely. This is the only way to build trust in a social marketing environment and the only way to truly understand what your customers are saying, be it negative or positive.

2. Don’t Fake It
Let your employees post content, create aliases or star in viral videos, but don’t ever lie about it or try to deceive the public. People know a fake viral video when they see one and if they think you are trying to deceive them, it won’t fare favourably for your brand.

If you are securing sponsored blog coverage, always be up front if it is a sponsored post, otherwise you will end up looking bad as a result.

3. Reach Traffic with Sponsorship NOT SPAM
The days of spamming out your message to mass groups of people are long gone. People are disgusted with spam these days and anything that even closely resembles it immediately becomes a target for bad press among net citizens.

Sponsorship opportunities on Facebook & other social networks, or branded contest pages on YouTube may cost more, but your message is getting out in a more effective and ethical manner. This also ensures that the individuals who participate in your campaign, do so because they are interested and because it was their own personal choice to do so.

So have fun out there with your projects, be innovative, and let your customers have some fun too. Maintaining an honest open relationship with your customers will give you the sort of PR that you can’t pay to receive.

If you simply aren’t ready to dive into Social Marketing yet, hire a consultant, and let them help you navigate your way through the landscape. You’ll be glad you did.

Cast Your Vote: Introducing Social Capital Value Add

As I wrote about last November, social media is at a critical time as it catapults into the marketing mix, blurring the line between traditional and “new” media.

One of the key points in the history of brand management was the whole “Barbarians at the Gate” period, when the link between brand value and corporate valuations was established, touching off a wave of corporate deal making. Deals like Nabisco and Kraft commanded the headlines but the main outcome was the broad realization in global boardrooms that brands are a top priority. They require commitment, investment and special management methods.

I worked with Michael Cayley while he was CEO of a VC-Microsoft backed startup and talked to him today about his idea to establish a link similar to brand valuation, between social media and corporate value.

He developed the idea while doing an MBA in Paris last summer, wrote a paper and sent it around to reviewers for feedback. One of them turned out to be a co-founder of www.ChangeThis.com who suggested submitting it to their editorial board. He did and ChangeThis has posted the idea, along with 15 others selected for this month. ChangeThis is sort of like a www.digg.com, only you vote for ideas instead of news stories. The top ideas on June 19th get distributed to more than 20,000 so-called influencers … editors, journalists, academics, authors, bloggers, etc.

ChangeThis has helped spread ideas by well know authors like Richard Florida, Chris Anderson, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki, Tom Peters and Malcolm Gladwell. “Introducing Social Capital Value Add” is currently the leading idea posted and Michael made a point about its support, “Corporate valuation is a complex topic. The SCVA manifesto is designed to help break down the walls of understanding between social media and the boardroom table. If the ChangeThis voting gets up over 500, we enter the territory of some of the most demanded manifestos in ChangeThis history. I’m not Chris Anderson or Tom Peters. So maybe there is a demand out there to make the corporation more socially motivated and a need to understand how social media impacts future earnings”.

CMA members all understand that social media is “game changing”. Instigating the conversation about how and why social media is becoming integrated into the marketing mix is an evolving story that we are all involved in and this is one way to help that story emanate out of Canada.