Social media marketing: in search of perfection

Social media marketing is incredibly powerful. It can do amazing things. But is this just theory, or is it really the answer to all our marketing problems? Can we reach brand utopia via social media? And if not, what is stopping us?

Written by John Bottom, Base One

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What are the obstacles between you and social media marketing perfection?
According to Thomas More, 16th century statesman, writer and philosopher, if you sailed out West into the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland, the first landfall you would make was not the Americas. Instead you would come across an extraordinary island state - Utopia.

Utopia was extraordinary because it contained a perfect society. There was no famine, no crime, no war. There was complete tolerance of belief. There were few laws. Even better, there was no need for lawyers. This is why Utopia has become a modern byword for a perfect society. But Thomas More was not an idealist; Utopia was a satirical work to highlight the inequality and imperfection of real life. And this historical introduction gives us a fascinating context for the challenge we currently face with social media.

Can social media help you find perfection?

To read some of the material buzzing around the social web, there are many who would answer yes people for whom social media is the perfect answer to the modern marketers problems. They would argue that, if people embrace the principles of social media, we can achieve business success in a way that was unthinkable a few years ago. More brand awareness. Greater customer loyalty. Higher revenues. But what is perfection, and how can we achieve it? I asked a number of colleagues and clients what brand utopia would look like, and they offered the following suggestions - all of which can theoretically be addressed by social media. Lets look at them in turn:

social media is the perfect answer to marketers problems.

Copyright Base One 2010 - Social Media Utopia

Social Media Utopian Principle #1: Customers would come to us instead of making us go to them.
Why not? This is the concept at the heart of inbound marketing. We know that buyers are increasingly looking for brands to help them with issues rather than products. Creating good content and making it available over the web is a proven way to pull prospects into your sphere of influence when they are at the right stage in the buying process rather than interrupting them when they are not ready to buy.

Social Media Utopian Principle #2: Our customers would work for us
Its a nice thought, isnt it? But isnt this what they are doing when they distribute your content for you? You just need to create something useful and release it to the world. If it is thinly-disguised sales collateral it wont travel far. But if you do something that transfers a little of your expertise to people who want it, they will pass it on. People want to help, people want to look good; and passing on highquality does that. In effect, they do some of your work for you.

Social Media Utopian Principle #3: We wouldnt have to compete on price

It stretches even a purely philosophical argument to suggest that you could charge what you like for your product. But wouldnt it be great if, at the final stage of negotiation, your sales team could close the deal with a 10% discount instead of the 30% they usually have to give away? The rationale for brand building is that buyers will pay a premium. And the right social media presence can give you a brand that is seen as expert, personal, helpful. This will help protect your margins because people would rather buy from you.

Social Media Utopian Principle #4: Our products could not be copied
Its too easy these days. Technical features can be duplicated and brought to market in weeks. Ideas can be reproduced, even improved on leaving the original innovators with a big R&D cost and little to show for it in return. But what if some of the investment went into establishing a presence in the social communities where your buyers are most active. When presented with identical products, which supplier will they prefer? Again, it is a brand preference situation and social media can be an extremely powerful tool for encouraging buyers to perceive greater value in your version of what might otherwise be seen as a commodity product.

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Welcome to the real world

So much for the theory. And Im sure every reader will have picked holes in the logic above. So you should, because that is the very difference between an ideology and real practice. The real world contains constraints, problems and inconsistencies that make perfection impossible. But the beauty of viewing things in this way is that we can now look rationally at the obstacles that stand in our way. What is stopping us from achieving this perfection? If we can write them down, we can then work to systematically minimise their effect. Taking us closer towards the ideal, and bringing us better business results.

So whats stopping you?

The factors that are preventing you from realising the full, perfect-world benefits of social media break down into four obstacles. Overcome each one completely and utterly, and social media perfection brand utopia can be yours:

1. The Expertise Obstacle

Product/industry expertise: Do you have people who know and understand the professional issues facing your customers? Can they share that expertise in order to help solve those problems? This knowledge needs to be both at a strategic level and at a tactical product level in order to accommodate prospects at different stages of the buying process. And of course, in B2B we have lots of people involved in the buying process, so expertise needs to be relevant to all interested parties, from the technical team, to the finance guys and everywhere in between. You want perfection? Youve got to start with the expertise. Social media expertise: Do you have people who understand social media itself? People who have an appreciation of the etiquette that is required? People who can guide you to do the right thing in the right place without alienating your target audience? Writing skills: Much of social media happens via the written word. You dont need English majors throughout, but if you write poorly, you will affect your chances of success. Social skills: Do your people know what to do and say in a customerfacing environment? Can you trust them to say the right thing?

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2. The Infrastructure Obstacle

Guidelines: Do you have an agreed set of guidelines in place? This will help to prevent any problems with staff saying the wrong thing and undoing all the goodwill you have built up simply because they dont have guidance on what to say. Training: Similarly, do you train staff so they can be effective ambassadors of the brand across social media? Appraisal/HR: Is social media considered part of each staff members duties as an employee? Social media utopia can only possibly happen if it is considered as important as any other part of their job. Technology: Does the technical infrastructure in place in your organisation encourage social media? Or does it block it? There is always a compromise to be found between web security, and the freedom to engage customers via all available web channels. Also, do staff have the necessary devices? In a perfect world, all staff members would have an iPhone and a laptop to carry with them at all times...

Does your companys technical infrastructure encourage social media usage or block it?.
3. The Attitude Obstacle
Senior management buy-in: If you have a CEO who thinks social media is a nice thing to have rather than a way in which you are addressing a fundamental change in buyer behaviour, you have a big obstacle. Every director-level dissenter, every senior management sceptic is working against you if you want to achieve perfection. Build it into the brand: Is true engagement with customer something that is part of your companys stated vision? Is it in the brand guidelines? If its not fully sanctioned and recognised at brand level, it is going to be impossible to implement across the company. Customer attitudes: In a perfect world, your customers would be using every social media channel every day, making them perfect candidates for engagement. Of course this is not true. Yet. But it is changing. According to Morgan Stanley figures, at the end of 2006, users spent twice as long using email as they did using social media. The figure is now reversed.

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4. The Time & Resource Obstacle

Time: Is a reasonable amount of time allocated to engagement with customers on social media? Or for creating content that will help promote you online? Or is it an afterthought? Even worse, are you simply expecting staff to do it in their own time? Unless your formal time allocation processes include the time needed to make social media work, it never will. People: Do you have enough people? Do you have the right people? Do you look for the necessary skills when you employ new people? Money: Do you formally allocate budget to social media? Or does it have to be borrowed from other budgets, such as PR, advertising etc. Are there separate budgets for content creation, as well as online engagement? Does the money allocated reflect the potential importance of social media or is it still the poor relation of other more conventional channels?

The bitter truth

Of course, these obstacles can never be completely removed. You will never have an infinite budget. You will never have a 48-hour working day. There will always be competing ideas and other considerations that will reduce the effectiveness of what you are trying to achieve via social media. But if you consider first of all what the ultimate prize is, and then systematically analyse the factors that prevent you from achieving it, it gives you a crystal-clear overview of the social media marketing challenge. The truth is you will not reach Utopia because it only exists in theory. Anyone who tells you social media is the answer to everything is wrong. But the sceptic who tells you that social media is a passing fad is equally misguided. Somewhere on the spectrum that stretches from misty-eyed idealist at one extreme to blinkered sceptic at the other is a practical, achievable midpoint. Exactly how close that point is to the ideal is up to you and depends on how effectively you can deal with the obstacles that stand in your way.

The truth is no one will actually reach Utopia. But some marketers will get a lot closer than others.

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