THE

SOCIAL
MEDIA
ISSUE

Marketing and Social Media:

EVERYONES
SOCIAL (ALREADY)
Your customers are increasingly connectedto you, to your competition, to each
otherbut youre not supposed to be the center of every network | By Jessica Tsai

ver since word went out that

marketing had to become more
science than art, marketers have
shownwell, lets just say they havent
exactly shown mastery at either one.
Its not entirely their fault. Faced with
too many channels, too much fragmentation, and too much data, the dreamedof 360-degree view has always been just
out of reach. Every time it gets close,
that pesky thing called innovation always pushes it further away.
Now social media has entered the
marketing mix, and its influence is undeniable, yet again generating a need for
newfound creativity. Worse, the battle
for quantifiable metrics is unrelenting.
Scared yet? Dont be. Its an exciting
time. Were on the cusp of something
incredible: Customers are talking. Companies are listening. Questions are being
answered. Customers are helping each
other. Were social beings who have long
been told to check our personal lives at
the office door, but the lines are blurring
nowsocial interactions are (slowly)
becoming critical to business operations. The world is bigger than the walls
of our cubicles and were discovering
that some problems might be better

34

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2009

www.destinationCRM.com

THE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
ISSUE

solved with the input of a few (hundred?

thousand?) twitterers.
Social media is providing new means of
acquiring and distributing information.
More important, its facilitating relationships: Whether its with a high school
crush or a favorite pizza place, people are
connecting. These relationships stem
from mutual interest and mutual gain,
and thats extremely powerful when it
comes to building customer loyalty.
WHATS THE RUSH?
Were still in the early stages of this,
says David Dalka, an independent marketing consultant. What Dalka ultimately fears is that the power of social
media will go untapped if enough people fail to see its value, simply because it
doesnt yet meet the test of hard metrics.
But marketing has always struggled with
this requirement, Dalka says, suggesting
that the changes arent really new: Is it
the same old 50 percent of marketing
you cant measure? he asks.
Unfortunately, social media is gaining
momentum during an era that demands
efficiency and results. The economy is
oversimplifying it, Dalka says. Trivialization of the medium, he adds, discredits social media in the eyes of outsiders
and true believers alike. Twitterers, for
example, are sometimes judged simply
based on the number of followers they
haveremember Ashton Kutcher and
his race to a million with CNN?as if
that number alone indicated whether
they have something of value to say.
Are you following @TheMime on
Twitter? If youre one of the 9,703 followers the account had at press time, you
know the joke: All @TheMimes tweets
are cute, yes, but not really valuable. Remember when the worst thing
that could happen to your marketing
message was that it might fall on deaf
ears? Times have certainly changed: Now

www.destinationCRM.com

we have a social media channel with

10,000 opt-in listeners, and the message
is literally silence.
MUCH ADO ABOUT SOCIAL
New social media tools are emerging,
from site aggregators to wikis to blogs to
photo sharing, but social media marketing hasnt reached its tipping point yet.
The massive amount of data floating
through these channels goes largely unmined and individual users are loosely
connected across multiple accounts.
The point right now is that youve
got to try everything, because you never
know, says Jeremy Farber, president and
founder of PC Recycler. Marketers are
being forced to think outside the box, and
that requires the courage to experiment.
As a small-business owner, Farber sees an
even stronger imperative to draw upon
social media as a competitive advantage.
Enterprises have millions to spend on
research and development, but for small
businesses, he says, social media provides
a platform that can be just as effective.
Farber says his confidence in social
media is a direct reflection of its prevalence. Im not trying something nobodys heard of, he says. The problem,
though, is that most people dont recognize social media as a marketing tool.
They subscribe to the flawed conventional wisdom that platforms such as
Facebook are for younger generations or
for personal use. As a member of Generation Y, Farber admits the value of social
networking comes more naturally to him.
Im on Facebook anyway, he says. Its
easier for me to justify the time investment. PC Recyclers decision to launch a
Facebook strategy came as a result of the
fact that its employeesmost of whom
are Gen Yalready have accounts and an
established base of connections.
When social networking platform provider Pluck Enterprise launched in 2003,

the social Web was in its early stages.

(Facebook didnt launch until a year
later.) A couple of years passed before
Adam Weinroth, Plucks head of product
marketing, noticed an uptick in adoption.
Brands we talked to actually started
to embrace social media in their own
lives, Weinroth says. There was broad
recognition shared by the industry that
this stuff s not going away. Its the future.
Its the new version of the Web.
Whether companies like it or not,
social media is impacting business. Consumers, and even competitors, are talking about your brand even if youre not.
Its up to you to join the conversation
and work it to your advantage.
Getting involved is only just the beginning. You dont want to be on Facebook and say, OK, checked the Social
Media box, Weinroth says. Unfortunately, the industry has yet to establish a
method of calculating the perfect formula for social engagement.
That X Factor, Weinroth says, means
that sticklers for hard returns are likely to
be the most hesitant to adopt.Across the
board, everyones recognized that [social
media] is relevant, he says, but sometimes the prioritys different.
Erick Mott, communications director
at marketing platform provider Lyris,
recalls an instance when a customer

One-third of all
companies say they
dont engage in
social media
marketing because
they lack suitable
performance metrics.
Source: Aberdeen Group

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2009

35

THE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
ISSUE

Marketing and Social Media

posted a service issue on Twitter, to

which Lyris responded within an hour.
The customer conveyed his satisfaction
across Twitter, influence Mott says Lyris
would never have had with traditional
methods. The free publicity may or may
not lead to future sales, he says, but
thats secondary to the fact that Lyris has
a responsibility. [We] have to listen, to
respond. This is our world now. This is
not going away. (See the sidebar Talk
Is Cheap, Unless Its a Recommendation, below.)
Paul Harris, an independent interactive marketing consultant, says that youd
better take any opportunity to connect.
You have to identify the trends in technology andrecognize those things that
are going to happen with or without
you, Harris says. When it makes
sensejump out in front and drive as
much as possible.
For the average marketer, says J.D.
Peterson, director of products at Lyris,
investing in a social media marketing
strategy now is just a nice-to-have. (In
fact, in an October 2008 survey by the
Marketing Executives Networking Group,
the top two benefits of using social media
marketing cited by respondents were
simply customer engagement and direct
customer communications.) Many still

struggle with marketing basics such as

analytics, email marketing, and posting
relevant content. Leading-edge marketers, on the other hand, need to get on
board now, especially while its still relatively inexpensive.
Like any business decision, a social
strategy requires a plan and a purpose.
The social networks themselves are
struggling to establish revenue models,
which provides an opportune time for
businesses to take advantage. You cant
create relevancy later, Dalka says. You
have to have [it] from the beginning.
Decide how social media fits into your
entire digital strategythat is, how it
will affect brand-building, product development, marketing communication,
and advertising.
Despite the uncertainty, early adopters
are reaping the advantages. The sooner
you get moving, the more likely youll be
able to adapt when new channels emerge.
At the first-ever User Generated Content
Conference and Expo (UGCX) this past
February, Richard Jalichandra, president
and chief executive officer of Technorati,
spoke to the advantages of early adoption:
Those who started with social media early
may not have it totally figured out, but
theyve done the test runs and are closer
to knowing what fits with their strategies

for social outreach and interaction.

The caveat is that merely being involved wont save you. Companies that
are early adopters of social mediaand
getting resultsare also likely the ones
that have been successful in their overall marketing strategies.
A MANDATE
Responsibility for succeeding with social
media goes beyond the chief marketing
officer. A social strategy requires operational, technological, and customer service resourcesall of which extend
beyond the marketers control.
Typically, because social media is still
considered exploratory, its often delegated to junior-level employees who
have limited access to the necessary resources and support. If you cant take
the time to open your own blog, Dalka
says, maybe you shouldnt be a CMO.
Point being: You cant manage something you havent done yourself.
Matthew Fraser, co-author of Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom, argues that
its not the senior-level executives who are
against social media. Rather, its often
middle management worrying that social
media has the potential to usurp its
responsibilities. (See Required Reading,
page 19, for an interview with Fraser.)

Talk Is Cheap, Unless Its a Recommendation

A 2007 survey conducted by Powered, Inc., a provider of

online community sites, gauged the effects of a user community on purchase behavior. More than 112,000 people
responded to the survey six to eight weeks after being exposed to a brands soft sell (i.e., after engaging with the
community of customers and experts).

 HOW DID THIS EXPERIENCE AFFECT

YOUR LIKELIHOOD TO PURCHASE?
Less Likely
to Purchase
2.2%
Not Sure
3.8%
Neither
More
nor Less
28.4%

36

 WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS EXPERIENCE

TO A FRIEND?

 WOULD YOU RECOMMEND THIS BRAND

TO A FRIEND?

Definitely Would Not

0.9%
Probably Would Not
1.8%
Might or Might Not
5.2%

Definitely Would Not

0.8%
Probably Would Not
2.1%
Might or Might Not
12.2%

More Likely
to Purchase
65.7%

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2009

Probably
Would
22.9%

Dont Know
0.1%

Definitely
Would
69.2%

Probably
Would
29.8%

Dont Know
0.1%

Definitely
Would
55.1%

www.destinationCRM.com

THE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
ISSUE

Dalka has also worked with companies

held captive by these warped incentives. Enterprises are notoriously resistant to change, he says, but its a mistake
to assume social media will eliminate
existing roles rather than enhance them.
What companies need is a culture that
looks at things in terms of abundance
instead of scarcity, Dalka says.
Pamela OHara, president of smallbusiness CRM vendor BatchBlue, says
theres nothing to be afraid of: Social
medias just another communication
channel, another tool. What differentiates this tool is that its consumer-driven.
LETS BE FRIENDS
Customer expectations are rising, due in
large part to standards set by innovative
retailers such as Amazon.com, and an
economy thats forcing consumers to
examine every dollar they spend. (See the
May 2009 cover story, Selling Out, for
more on the challenges facing retailers.)
The confidence they require demands
authenticity and transparency from the
companies they transact with. By now,
many feel entitled to talk to the brand, a
phenomenon that will only intensify as
Millennials drive the market.
A few years ago, social communication
between customers and companies simply didnt exist, says Samantha Skey, general manager and senior vice president
of business development at social networking platform provider Passenger, Inc.
Now, companies are expected to answer
in real time. The challenge, of course, is
maintaining a true conversation.A closer
dialogue with your consumer, Skey says,
is going to yield deeper loyalty.
For PC Recycler, the goal of social
networking isnt necessarily conversion,
but providing valuable contenta free
video, for example, on recycling cell
phonesdrives traffic, and hopefully
sales. Thats what I think is the real gem
of social marketing, Farber says. Besides the connection between individuals, its the facilitating of information.
In terms of engagement, social networking allows companies to provide an
access point to engage in a meaningful
discussion instead of a corporate pitch:
www.destinationCRM.com

What do you think about this? Whats

something you want to see? Whats a
mistake weve made? What problems are
you struggling with? Theres an art to
channeling conversation into a meaningful activity for marketers, Weinroth says.
By committing toand participating
insome form of social engagement,
companies are putting a face to their
brands, and that face can be anyone from
a customer service rep (such as Comcasts
Frank Eliason, @comcastcares on Twitter) to a social media manager (Fords
@ScottMonty) to the chief executive
officer (Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh,
@zappos). Theres also Dells Lionel
(@LionelatDell), @jetblues Morgan,
@DunkinDonuts Dunkin Dave, and

Krafcik was on the receiving end of rapidfire questions regarding products, strategy, even car-model names. Everyone
liked having access to the highest person
in the company, Mahdi says.
Social media has the potential to pick
up where traditional marketing drops
off. Most of the time, Dalka laments, interest wanes immediately after the sale.
Reaching out to the customer to follow
up on a purchase not only reinforces customer service but helps the organization
better understand the life of its product.
In Weinroths opinion, insight derived
from social media is much more powerful than any previous research because
its unsolicited. Its more authentic,
more on the customers terms, he says.

Social media marketing in the U.S.

will grow from $716 million this year to
more than $3.1 billion in 2014.
Source: Forrester Research

Sprints Justin (@JGoldsborough), to

name just a few.
The brand starts taking a backseat to
the person representing the company,
said Brian Solis, principal of public relations and new media agency FutureWorks, in a panel discussion at the recent
UGCX conference. Thats the whole
point of this, he said. Social media is
about people [and the] personalization of
content. Where the dollars may be missing, Solis offers an alternative gain:Social
capital is measured in relationships.
Automotive manufacturer Hyundai
had long collected data through primary
research, consumer feedback, new-buyer
behavior studies, and a brand-tracking
tool. What it actually needed, says Eileen
Mahdi, manager of consumer insights at
Hyundai Motor America (HMA), was a
way to listen directly to our customers.
Relying on a social networking platform provided by Passenger, in November
2008 the automaker launched its Hyundai Think Tank, a community that hosts
live chat sessions with top executives including John Krafcik, HMAs chief executive officer and president. For an hour,

Lawn-care specialist Scotts opened a

social media site for its Miracle-Gro
brand in February 2008. Aside from providing expert gardening and lawn-care
advice, Scotts allows users to communicate with one another. One user uploaded
a Google Earth image of a neighborhood
where one lawn in particular was a
noticeably richer green than those around
it. The image was accompanied by the
caption, Which do you think is the
Scotts lawn? It was a piece of marketing
Scotts never would have had otherwise.
PARTY POOPER
The question that Weinroth says hes
most commonly asked is: Am I fundamentally turning over my brandwhich
Ive spent years buildingto the crowd?
The answer, he says, is yes.
The upside is that companies have the
opportunity to increase their transparency,
increase trust, and empower the community to police itself. There are risks, and like
trying anything new, its wise to understand them and have a back-up plan.
According to Adam Sarner, a research
director at Gartner, community members

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2009

37

THE
SOCIAL
MEDIA
ISSUE

Marketing and Social Media

want freedom, but they dont mind

ground rules. They need direction, he
says. If youre all over the place, they
dont know why theyre there. Tell them
what youre looking for and how they
can benefit to create a sense of what
Sarner calls mutual purpose.
WHEN SOCIAL MEDIA STRIKES
That purpose can be to defend your
brandor to giddily join a mob intent
on destroying it. In the old days, a corporate crisis-management team could
take the time to strategize and respond
deliberately when a brand was threatened by some material suddenly
appearing in public. Those days are
long gone. In the social world, companies need to have a crystal-clear strategy
for mitigating any disastersand, ideally, to help prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Social impact requires direct involvementengagement within customers
chosen social channels. People understand
that there are often two sides to a story,
Weinroth says. Its incumbent upon the
brand to be there in conversations being
had about it, he says. [Brands] must be
able to facilitate productive conversation
versus aimless criticism.
Mahdi recalls a Hyundai Think Tank
member who took allegedly unverified
information out of the Think Tank and
posted a negative blogpost on the automotive site Edmunds.com. This is
bound to happen when youre building
relationships, Mahdi says. You have to
understand that information is going to
spread. All Hyundai could do was to
provide the correct information and let
the visitors decide for themselves.
Consider the fates of two companies
that almost simultaneously found
themselves at the mercy of social technologies earlier this year: online retailer
Amazon.com and Dominos Pizza.
Amazon.com found itself barraged by
accusations of prejudice when it was discovered that certain books had been removed from the sites sales rankings.
Initially, the issue was met with corporate silence, allowing the online maelstrom to gather force.
38

Dominos, on the other hand, reacted

quickly when a now-infamous video
popped up on Googles YouTube, causing immediate damage to the national
delivery chains brand. The company
opened a Twitter channel (@dpzinfo),
and posted two apologies online (one on
its Web site andensuring the response
fit the crimeone on YouTube).
NEW KIDS
Theres an opportunity, one that will significantly increase marketing relevance,
for CRM vendors to integrate the intelligence from social media into their existing systems. The demand, however, has to
come from the customer. Users have to
demand that, Dalka says. Its not going
to happen magically otherwise.
Most companies treat social media
and CRM as two distinct marketing
silos, Dalka says. Instead of hiring social
media specialists, what companies
should focus on is training their existing
marketing staff, who are better equipped
to see the big picture. Demand for the
two to merge, he says, is just not there.
I havent seen anybody thats said, I
have this mandate to tie this Twitter account to my CRM system, Dalka says.
Marketers may go as far as monitoring
keywords, but in his experience, social
media is still a giant blob of data not
connected to individuals.
Pluck, for example, targets the concept of social syndication, attempting
to piece together interactions and conversations between marketers and consumers in a way that seamlessly unifies
the consumers social life online.
Both Lyris and BatchBlue have seen increased demand from customers struggling to keep up with conversations on the
Web, but its still a rather manual process.
BatchBlue offers social media supertags
to organize contacts and track the social
media content (e.g., tweets, blogposts)
that prospects and customers are creating.
Lyris enhanced its Lyris HQ integrated
marketing suite with a social component
that tracks the reach of email marketing
campaigns using what Peterson refers to
as the Web 2.0 version of forward to a
friend. This adds valuable visibility to

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT | JUNE 2009

the extended performance of the original

campaignhow its being scaled, shared,
clickedto understand where visitors are
coming from and to locate new prospects.
Both solutions, however, require the
user to self-identify. BatchBlue cannot
find the personal blog of a customer unless the customer provides it, nor can
Lyris know which Twitter account belongs to a Web-site visitoronly that
the person arrived there via Twitter.
Soon, consumers will have a single
online identity, such as OpenID. (See The
Tipping Point, page 48.) Before they give
that up to a marketer, though, theyll definitely want to know whats in it for them,
Dalka saysand it had better be good.
An understanding of consumers social behavior will move marketers closer
to that fabled 360-degree view, and enhance the ability to target. Social behavior, Weinroth says, could be a leading
indicator of purchase intent, compared
to the current emphasis on transactions.
Catering to a social reputation will
amplify the effects of viral, word-ofmouth strategies as campaigns reach
into far-extending consumer networks.
Search and analytics may also play a
role. Five years from now, Mahdi hopes
the Hyundai Think Tank will reach
5,000 members and have the ability to
incorporate text analysis for more indepth discussion tracking.
Weinroth imagines that once we reach
content critical mass, there will be real
power in searching the social, real-time
Weba resource, he says, that will allow him to perform a Google-like search
across years of online exchanges within
his own network.
The beauty of social media, Dalka says,
is that you can start right now. Analysis
paralysis, he says, has long hindered
progress. Social media doesnt have to be
another one of those hurdles.
Engage every person, whether its a
positive idea or a complaint, and show
them youre listening and reacting,
Dalka says. Youll gain fans. Theyll root
for you to succeed.
Assistant Editor Jessica Tsai can be
reached at jtsai@destinationCRM.com.
www.destinationCRM.com