Sep 21, 2011 | Communication, Management, Social Media
What a great term, coined by Euan Semple, to describe the phenomenon of older (largely) male senior executives pretending they have “got” social media.
Like many others, I spend a lot of time trying to persuade people of the value that can be generated by intelligent use of social media, most of those people run enterprises, and usually reluctantly can be persuaded to put a modest amount of resources into SM, often I think because their golf partner was telling them on the 19th last week that he has been able to cut the advertising budget by 50% by using SM.
Anyway, they become superficially engaged, in their hearts thinking this social media stuff is just their almost adult children behaving badly and then for some inexplicable reason, posting the footage on face book.
The term “Dad Dancing,” perfectly invokes a picture of the gyrations and uncoordinated usually frenetic and short term activity that emerges from such a conversion.
Sep 15, 2011 | Branding, Marketing
Rubbish you say, marketing always matters.
Well, the next time you try and get some sense out of Optus or Telstra when you have anything that does not fit into an easily packaged Q&A form for someone in Bangalore who does not know Sydney from Senegal , try and tell yourself marketing does matter to them, and fall about laughing.
If it did, your issue would be treated as important to them, there would be someone who could fix the problem in easy reach, you would not have to wait hours being told your call was important to them, and then never get a return call.
Clearly in the current telco environment, demand is greater than supply, so marketing does not really matter, or so they think, customer churn is a part of the game, and annoying a few is a small price to pay in the chase for short term margin maximisation.
Marketing does not matter to them, at least for now!
However, the worm usually turns. Remember when you could not get a spot on prime time television without selling your grandmother, or a preferred position in the Herald Saturday classifieds, and had to wait weeks and sometimes months for the local bookstore to get in an obscure title you wanted?
Now, response can be virtually instantaneous, and we have become very used to instantaneous, and when we do not get it, we can pile buckets on the perpetrator via social media, just as we can promote their great service on the odd occasion it happens.
Marketing always matters, because without a customer, you have nothing.
Sep 14, 2011 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
About the most commonly asked question on the net is how to make money,” how do I monetarise this great idea”?.
To my mind, it is the wrong question. The right one is “How do I deepen the relationship of those who are attracted by the great idea”?. When you have made the relationship worth having for the other party, it will become evident how to make money from it.
It is analogous to asking “Have you “monetarised” your telephone”? Answer: Probably not, because at least on the surface, you do not make money from it, the phone is a tool to communicate, but remove the phone system in your business for an hour, and reconsider if it is monetarised or not.
Social media is no different, it simply a means of communication, so why the never-ending question about how to monetarise Social media? Answer: Because most have not thought about it as a communication tool, a means of connection, engagement, so they default to SM as a cash register.
Sep 12, 2011 | Collaboration, Communication, Social Media
Sharing “content” is the lifeblood of social media, as well as the older disciplines of collaboration, successful negotiation, leadership, even blue collar engagement on the factory floor. With a bit of tweaking the ideas contained in this post from Social Media Examiner work well in all the situations I can think of.
Humans are social animals, that is the way we function, so it should come as no surprise that sharing is an effective strategy to do everything from engaging strangers to become friends, to success in the workplace, and our cutting edge intellectual pursuits.
Sep 9, 2011 | Marketing, Small business, Social Media
A while ago I wrote a short post about QR codes, saying I thought they had the potential to change the way we think about marketing.
Subsequently I came across this post and video on the Social Media Examiner site, that adds to that view, and having seen them work at a trade show a week ago, as a means to capture information off the name tags of attendees, I am even more of the view, that here is something genuinely new, not just a refinement or divergent use of an existing technology.
An update from July 2013. QR codes seem to have stalled, the potential seen by marketers, myself enthusiasticly has not come to p[ass. This post by Marketing Charts details a report that looks at the numbers, and concludes that QR codes are perhaps a failing tool in the marketing arsenal. I for one am having a bit of trouble with the conclusion, somewhere, we have missed an opportunity.
Sep 8, 2011 | Customers, Management, Marketing, Operations, Small business
The mulitnational Heinz has been in the news a bit recently.
First, they announce a restructure, which means closing plants, and consolidating production, in this case to NZ, and to a remaining Australian plant that will get a bit of a kick-along. Wonder how long that will last?
Then the worldwide CFO Art Winkleblack took aim at the retail duopoly in Australia, citing it as a reason for the difficulties Heinz has had, and as a basis of the restructuring decisions. I bet the local sales management loved him for it, the next time they had to front Coles and Woolies!
In a short period, the challenges of the industry are laid bare, the $A making imports cheaper, the power exercised by the retail duopoly, and the necessity of manufacturing and marketing scale to counter it.
If Heinz, a global business turning over close to a billion dollars in Australia, and many more globally has these problems, put yourself in the position of the SME, with little marketing leverage, a plant that needs capital, banks that are so risk averse, and so stripped of people who understand small business they simply choose not to engage, how can the little guy hope to sustain his business?. Pure bloody mindedness and determination is about the only answer you will come up with, mixed in with a spirit of being prepared to really have a go, and screw the buggars!.
We wonder why we have more imports of packaged food products into this country than we produce, the position Heinz finds itself in demonstrates why.
