Social Objects - A Brilliant Way of Thinking About Your Marketing

A couple weeks ago I listened to a fantastic podcast with Hugh MacLeod on HubSpot - http://bit.ly/s6AKdY. The podcast presented a unique way of looking at social media and marketing. I've had similar thoughts over the last few years, but I have to say that the way that Hugh articulated the issues was refreshing.

Social (sharing) is an objective for much of what you create. Say what?
When you create something higher up in the sales funnel (white paper, eBook, video, guide, or similar) in order to educate the potential customer, you want the collateral to cause the individual to want to share it. Or, if you have described the customer problem very clearly and "nailed" the answer (with what your product or service does), the reader will want to share it.

When you find something remarkable you...
Think about it, what do you do when you find something remarkable in the digital space? You send the link to your colleagues, buddies, and/or your boss, with a note that includes something like, "found something very interesting, suggest that we take a look at it or consider it, we might use it to accomplish...", or found something that really explains X. In contrast, when you read something boring, non-persuasive, or unclear, you move on. The objective of our content creation is first to motivate the reader to act in some way that we value, and second to create something so good that the reader wants to share it, the latter being your "multiplier". Person X discovers it and shares it with Y individuals who might share it with their community, and on and on, and you might have a little viral thing going on.

Why do people share?
The reasons for sharing vary, from wanting to propose a new way of addressing an opportunity or problem to wanting to connect. Yes, sometimes we share a link because we want to spark a conversation that connects with a person.  We might want people to think, "Wow, you found something really cool.", perhaps a bit of an ego boost in there as well, you found it, you shared it, people love it, you matter.

Be remarkable
With the shear volume of content that is being posted these days, by your competitors and those that are vying for "eyeball time", if you don't stand out you will most definitely be ignored or greatly diminished in influence.  

Marketing apostates
Once your content starts to read-like, or look-like, "marketing", you lost the consumer, they need to be inspired. They have a problem or need that you must address. If you come across as someone that is "just" trying to "sell" something you will fail to persuade them and they will move on.

Accidental marketing
Or course if your brand or reputation is strong enough you might benefit from "accidental marketing" (boring unremarkable content that succeeds in spite of itself), but you are missing out on a much larger opportunity. Don't count on just so-so content to sustain you forever. Competition for eyeballs is fierce. Attention is the battleground. BE REMARKABLE!

Social Signal Influence Reaches From Beyond

Hollow Tweets?
A while back I tweeted about the seemingly near meaningless impact of someone following an individual on twitter when the person follows so many others. I am not talking about the auto-followers and those that follow thousands, they are mostly a lost caused from the start, but those that follow hundreds. You are easily lost in the noise. When you track clicks on links, the the click number dissapoints and your suspicions are confirmed, few are engaged. So, is the follow meaningless?. Perhaps not. Social signals reach from beyond. 

The Signal Begins to Matters More
With social signals influencing search, the biggest benefit of the follow, the +1, the Google+ connection, etc. is that the individual has given a "signal" to Google and Bing of those whose opinions you value. Now and forever, when the person searches and you have related content, their search results are influenced in your favor. They may never or rarely see a tweet from you, they may never retweet or message you if you are connected, and you could even tweet only once a month; the signal is set, the influence lives on.

The Tweet itself Matters Less 
That is not to say that the tweet has no value at all, and of course to get the follow you need to start somewhere.  I tweeted a link to this post after all. I click on links in twitter from time to time. I jump in the stream and scan 40 or 50 recent tweets looking for something interesting and I do value tweets. Twitter searchers might find and read my post as well, but the numbers are not astounding. People come and go on twitter. When I want to do some real searching and discovery I go to Google.

What to Do?
Build connections, enable sharing, get the follow and don't be too concerned about your click rates, your influence reaches from beyond. IF your objective is to have a conversation on twitter, tactic will vary. 

Social Media Marketing

Another social media post, really?
Wait, wait, this is not just another social media marketing post... well, maybe it is, but it may not be what you think. At some point for most of us, social media popped up on our radar screens. Like a submarine captain we looked through our periscopes. Was it a friend or foe? Was it an attractive destination where we wanted to head for and dock or was it a distraction taking us off course and into unexplored and potentially perilous waters where we might also fritter away time best spent elsewhere?

Our reactions varied
Some took at look at social media and saw that potential could exist, but then scratched their heads, and went back to doing those things that were pressing and where they were already seeing value that they wanted to repeat: creating and posting content to their corporate Websites, optimizing their landing pages, improving their organic search ranking, posting paid search ads and exploring new paid search channels, launching email campaigns, content marketing, usability studies, and exploring rich media like images, audio, and video. 

Some recognized the need to set up listening posts to monitor conversations, though often not sure what to do with what they read, and went about creating a corporate policy to remind employees to be careful. They were not ready to deal with negative comments and saw the entire social space fraught with complex challenges and issues. 

Others launched into creating a presence on facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, twitter, and started various blogs, then realized that social media marketing was not a trivial undertaking, and learned the hard way that it is better to not have a social media presence then to not be responsive. They also learned that social media gaffs were magnified by the nature of the medium. As a result, efforts were abandoned or left on life support. 

A few more sought to understand the ROI of social media and experimented to see what would happen if... They built test cases and looked for integration opportunities. They sought to create careful strategies and steer their companies through waters that were at times treacherous, and saw a future that could not be denied. They confirmed the ROI of social media, actually measuring outcomes, and saw social media as a means to connect to and do business with their customers.

Still others outright dismissed it, exclaiming that "my customer doesn't pay much attention to social media channels, they rely on me, my Website, my email marketing, my search results in Google, so why waste my time?"

Our need to attend to social media varies
Social Media may not the most important thing for some companies to launch into. They need to assess where they are. Despite what we hear from many consultants, the most important thing for some might not be to create a facebook page or start blogging. We need to back up and have a serious conversation about other, perhaps larger issues. We might need a "digital marketing audit", to more fully appreciate where we stand on even more important issues.

Much of social media marketing is about sharing links to compelling content. Is your content "link worthy"? Is your content measured and optimized to drive whatever action you are seeking? If your answer to these two questions is "yes", and you have a well-oiled publishing machine to continue to crank out the content and measure results, then by all means explore and test additional channels to get more attention to drive eyeballs to that content. Explore social media, you've earned it. Just be sure that you understand the many rules and nuances of the channels. Playing in social media opens up you and your company to a new set of challenges that you need to understand. 

Social media demands your attention to one degree or another
At some time in the past, you might have been justified in outright dismissing social media marketing. That time has past. We must have a policy and we must be listening. And depending on the outcome of your "digital marketing audit" and review of messaging, content generation, etc. you must now acknowledge that social media is no longer an island to be visited or not on its own merits. Social media is permeating everything, everywhere and influencing and interacting with by search and email. A conservative approach might be entirely appropriate for your type of organization and priorities, but some approach is warranted.

A shifting landscape
Just as soon as you think you have things figured out, something changes that throws you a curve ball and demands that you rethink a big chunk of what you do. Back in the day when I was running PPC for my company, I would have weekly conference calls with our Google AdWords account team. On many of those calls Google would inform me of a new tool, feature, or opportunity that "changed my world". As time went on, even though I knew that opportunities existed, I had to let some go by because I still had not sufficiently exploited a prior opportunity that looked more promising and had a greater ROI. We all have to make those decisions everyday. Resources are not unlimited and when resources can be added we need to weigh and balance many different opportunities.

Where you start with Social Media marketing or any channel marketing strategy depends on where you are today and your willingness to walk on a shifting landscape, weigh competing opportunities, and manage risk.

Inaugural Post

About time to get started
I suppose that we all had to start somewhere. I have left a lot of unexpressed ideas fall by the way side over the years, missed opportunities. Time to change that. My start begins here, now.

Digital Marketing Experience
I have been in the digital marketing field since about 2001 and have been "in the trenches" for quite some time, working inside of a large B2B company that has given me the experience, freedom, and opportunity to learn about all things related to digital marketing: Web development, SEO, PPC, Email Marketing, Analytics, LPO, Measurement, Testing, Social Media, digital marketing campaigns and strategies, and much, much more. I have also applied, tested, measured and learned a great deal along the way.

In addtion to my B2B corporate experience I am a prolific reader and listener of podcasts. I have also experimented with niche blogs sites and social spaces where I have gained additional  experience and insights. 

Geology, Science, and Analytics
I am also a scientist, trained as a Geologist having attended Penn State University and finishing up at the Universitiy of Houston with a Bachelor's of Science in Geology. Most of my Digital Marketing experience has been related to Oilfield Services though I also work on some outside interests that I have helped to broaden my experiences. My "bent" towards science plays out in my love of data and analysis. I am very intrigued by the idea of data-driven decisions and measurement, which in turn has been a teacher so that with each new experiment, experience has given me a higher plane from which to start, though so times a tear all of that down, take a fresh approach and see where it leads. We are all learning. Things are changing fast.

Why I am Blogging?
I am probably a bit like you. We all have a story. We all have something interesting to share, regardless of who we are. Our experiences are real, they are relevant, and they matter. We are marketers and we are also consumers. Each of us have learned things along the way worth sharing. I also enjoy wrtiting and would like to develop my writing skills over time, and a blog can do that.  So here we go...