We have been doing Social Media Marketing for Sutter Home Wineries, Wells Fargo, Plantronics, Shogakukan, Ebates, Pleo and many more for about 10 years. Social Media Marketing is the new term for what was called Word of Mouth Marketing. Before WOM, we called this type of marketing Guerilla marketing, and before that, newsgroups marketing (I am dating myself!) We still have a large number of clients (companies in entertainment, wine, travel and many B2B) and prospects who don’t know where to start. Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Friendfeed, RSS, Mashable, Kaboodle, etc…

…ARGH! It’s no wonder they are confused!

Here are some recommended baby/first steps that many corporations/organizations can follow to get involved:

Phase I:

• Review, evaluate and select a buzz audit tool/social media metric tool such as Radian6, BuzzLogic, BuzzMetrics, Kavaa, Umbria, Cymphony

• Ask the account manager for the tool company to run queries (and grouped them by themes/categories) on your company’s name, product names, services, key executives, competitors, competitors brands, products, services
• Analyze for the last 3-6 months who are the influencers, what are the top social media channels for your company (forums, blogs, photo sites, video sites, news sites, social networks, mobile networks, etc.), high level topics, negative and positive word of mouth

Phase II:

If you analyze the information from Phase I, next you should be able to identify the following information:

• Trends: what consumers or B2B professionals are talking about
• News: what consumers or B2B professionals have noticed and is newsworthy to them
• Negative sentiments about a brand, a product, a service, your company, your competitors
• Positive sentiments about a brand, a product, a service, your company, your competitors
• Top influential bloggers, forum leaders, Flickr groups/person, YouTube Partner Pages, Facebook groups, MySpace

   

  Phase III:

Once you have identified the information and started to analyze it, you have the following choices:

Observe and Report:

• Continue to observe trends and report them to marketing, product development, corporate management and PR
• Continue to provide brand, product, service reports on negative and positive word of mouth and comments on forums, blogs, Flickr, Amazon reviews, etc.

Observe and Ask Questions:

If you have observed and analyzed information, there is naturally going to be a lot questions you as a corporation/organization you are going to ask yourself. This is one of the powers of communities, social networks, blogs, etc – you can initiate contact with prospects and customers. Here are some of the things to think about before you do though:

• If you ask questions, you will get feedback, good and bad
• If the feedback is good, be ready to say thank you
• If the feedback is bad, be ready to say thank you, and answer honestly. Marketing, PR speak is always seen as dodging the real issues and many bloggers, consumers will call you on it. If you answer honest about what you can and cannot do as an organization, consumers/B2B professionals will respect you. As a matter of fact, we have had many occasions where your worst enemy becomes your best advocate – why? Because you were not afraid to be honest and you engaged in a two way dialogue with them – not a “push marketing” dialogue.
• Keep in mind this statistic – reducing negative word of mouth by 2% has the same effect as increasing positive word of mouth by 7% according to a London School of Economics study. Reducing negative word of mouth is 3 times more effective than trying to increase positive word of mouth – which one should you invest in first?

Proactively Participate in the Conversations

Once you have started to engage in two way conversations, you could start initiate conversations, you could start engaging with folks proactively. Here are some examples of ways to do so:

• For a B2B company, if there are many forums that speak about your product, service, brand, you can dedicate some of the support, marketing personnel to proactively answer questions on them. Take a look at xdadevelopers.com – this extremely active forum with consumers and developers about every cell phone on the planet is peppered with experts from AT&T, Verizon, Vodafone, Singapore Telecom who are genuinely answering questions.
• For a B2C company, if there are many forums, blogs, flickr, YouTube comments about your company, brand, product, service – go ahead, answer their questions, thank them for their comments and correct misinformation by backing every statement you make. Just remember, you are engaging in a two way conversation

Proactively participate and engage them into your company

You can take the next level and participate but more importantly, engage influential bloggers, forum leaders, group leaders etc into your company. How? Simply have multiple conversations with them, and overtime you can evaluate who are the bloggers, forum participants, etc who know about the industry you serve or don’t. From there, you can invite them to participate into your company’s growth; here are some ways it can help:

• Product Requirements
• Product Development
• Support
• Internal Knowledge
• Market & Customer Feedback

In conclusion, if organizations follow Phase I, II and 1) & 2) of Phase III, they can dive into Social media marketing or at least intelligence by using the power of social media networks, sites and Web 2.0 communities to gather real information about their prospects, customers. These recommended steps are not very resources intensive, and can help organizations be much more aware of their customers needs.

She’s more complex than you might think, according to Advertising Age. She is probably married, educated, environmentally conscious, works full time, sleep deprived and short on time. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Marie Claire magazine surveyed 1,800 women ranging in age from 24 to 49 (with a concentration on those in their 30s) to determine what this person is really like. The result? Even though this demographic is time crunched, they are a smart value shopper. That might seem pretty cut and dry for a marketer, right? Not exactly. These women just don’t fit into one nice bucket. Here’s the top five priorities and issues that this demographic thinks about:

Society and politics. More than half are concerned about environmental issues, and 25% actively shop for and use eco-friendly products. For marketers, there is enormous opportunity to sell items that have eco-friendly packaging and recyclable plastics.

Health and wellness. Over 60% follow a healthy diet and lead an active lifestyle. It is important for them to set a good example for those around them. Half also make it a point to constantly learn about health and fitness news. For marketers, this means acknowledgement of the target’s health concerns without dropping the “let’s get serious” gavel — after all, we’re talking 30-somethings here. Even though there are best intentions, perfection is not necessary.

Career and finances. Fulfillment is extraordinarily important to this group. Over 75% want work that they find enjoyable; over two-thirds are looking to achieve career success and personal goals. A whopping 78% are planning for retirement and personal finance goals. 60% said that having a shortage of money is more challenging than not having enough time (noted by 30%). For marketers, this means knowing that the target is going to do a great deal of research prior to purchasing. This goes for you and your competitors. Don’t waste her time — give her what she needs and wants up front.

Family and emotional health. 85% believe that having time to recharge is very important. Finding that time to recharge can be elusive — 61% stated that the biggest challenge is to actually find the time to recharge. For marketers, this means providing your target with time saving measures. Again, give her what she wants up front.

Fashion and Beauty. Expect strong opinions in this category, right? Surprisingly, no. Only 36% stated that they enjoy learning about makeup and beauty trends. 31% like to keep up with the latest styles. Only 13% follow what celebrities are wearing. Where are they buying their products? Almost 60% are purchasing clothing and accessories on the Internet. For in-person purchases, department stores, specialty boutiques and discount department stores are getting their business. For marketers, this means knowing that your target likes to mix things up — inexpensive with expensive, high end brands at lower priced stores. One thing that trumps all: authenticity of the product.

And that is the multi-bucket profile of today’s 30-something woman.

Recently, I’ve seen much more talk about lead follow-up than lead generation. Where have y’all been??? For years I’ve been shocked at the fact that marketers have concerned themselves with generating leads yet couldn’t care less about where the leads go. What a waste of money and time! Most marketers admit that once the lead is generated, it goes into the black hole called their CRM system, never to be seen again.

Now I am aware of the centuries old feud between sales and marketing. The ol’ blame game. This doesn’t have to be. There can be peace and in fact, the relationship can improve immensely with just one small shift. Marketers, care about your leads and stop blaming the sales team. You worked hard to get those prospects interested in the product or service you provide. Why would you just throw them away?

Let’s take the webinar. You planned the topic, found a presenter, created the message, collaborated on the deck. You may have rented one list or more, partnered with an analyst or a publication (or both), advertised, contacted your in-house database, etc. You’ve received a phenomenal response rate knowing that 50% or so will attend. This has taken weeks if not months. The day arrives, you get a great turnout and several interested parties. Then you do the final step in the process, you dump the leads into your CRM system. Shhh… can you hear it? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. A bottomless pit.

There are several actions that are critical to your business that you must take once you have delivered a webinar, or all of your lead generation efforts are for naught. Remember, the attendees to your webinar have already expressed interest in your product or service. Not only have they opened your email or responded to a banner/text ad, but they have clicked through, signed up, AND attended. I’ve outlined 3 critical actions that must be taken in order to achieve a successful campaign, justify your ROI and ensure that you will get budget next year, quarter or the next round of reviews.

1)      For those who attended the webinar and asked questions, deliver these names directly to your sales force with the questions asked and the answers provided if any. These prospects should be responded to immediately, the same day, while the information is top of mind. Send an email and copy the sales team ASAP.

2)      For those who attended, a thank you email should be sent out immediately with a link to the archived recording AND a PDF of the slide deck so that they can forward this and/or use it to speak about your solution to others, perhaps the decision makers who have asked them to research your product or service. This prospect should also be contacted within 24 hours by your sales team as this prospect is ‘hot’.

3)      For those prospects who registered and didn’t attend: Send them a thank you email immediately following the webinar with a link to the archived event. You should also add these names to your ‘house list’ and use them for further marketing efforts as they were interested enough to register yet for some reason couldn’t attend. I recommend that your sales team follow up with these folks within 72 hours and remind them that the event is archived and invite them to view it. Don’t just take my word for it, check out this report that by the Artemis Group and Knowledgestorm (now TechTarget), The Fine Art of Lead Management and Follow-Up: What Research Shows About Lead Qualification and Nurturing, where they discuss why immediate personal contact is critical to closing leads.

Imagine this: You are selling a car. You meet the prospect on the lot and talk to them for an hour about all of the features of the car, and even take them for a test drive. They love the car and are ready to talk to you about the terms and write you a check. Then you walk away and leave them standing in the lot while you go and talk to someone else who has just arrived on the lot. Would you do this? No you wouldn’t. It’s crazy, isn’t it? But you are doing this if you don’t follow up on your leads. Now you might say, “But I’m not a salesperson. This is not my responsibility.” Websters Dictionary defines marketing as:

1)      the act of buying or selling in a market

2)      the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling

It IS your responsibility. If you are spending the money, building the strategy, and staging the execution of these programs…it is your responsibility. You are selling the product, as a marketer it is your job. Follow up with your prospects. Work closely with the sales team, folks, it is critical for your business. Not only with you see sales improve but your marketing ROI will increase and you will guarantee that budget for another round! Whew!