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06.04.09 Gaining A Competitive Advantage Through Social Media  By Lee OddenAt the Online Marketing Summit in Minneapolis this week, I presented on Social Media Strategy and briefly highlighted Blogging and Twitter as tactics. This is the first of several posts that will visit the key concepts offered in that presentation. Why social media? It comes down to gaining a competitive advantage. I like the quote from Oliver Young at Forrester Research: "Marketers who embrace social media will outdistance competition, build community following, and boost loyalty" What better time to build better relationships with your customers than during a recession? Budgets are slim and purchasing decisions are often made based on relationships and connections right along with price. Word of mouth is powerful in good economic times and it's even more impactful when economic pressures drive companies to be more creative and resourceful in purchasing products and services. TopRank's informal polls as well as the research of other organizations offer insights that report a growing optimism and interest at the budgetary level for social media investment. This is in contrast to the "instant social media marketing gurus" setting up shop and trying to drum up business by evangelising all things social. TopRank's poll on top Digital Marketing tactics for 2009 earlier this year with over 530 respondents resulted in six out of the top ten digital marketing tactics involving social media: blogging, microblogging, social networking, social media monitoring, blogger relations and social media advertising. Recently, Forrester & MarketingProfs published the results (eMarketer coverage) of a joint study of B-to-B Marketing in 2009 that ranked changes in marketing budget allocation. Of the top ten tactics, four were social media focused: online video, podcasts or rich media; discussion forums, social networks or communities; other web 2.0 media. In Marketingsherpa's 2008 Study of Social Media Marketing & PR, social media ranked #1 as a marketing budget line item for increased funding next to email marketing.
There's reason for such optimism surrounding the social web. Companies that properly plan and implement social participation, can reap a variety of benefits: • Build thought leadership • Improve customer relationships • Improve recruiting • Reduce customer service costs • Improve search engine rankings • Increase media coverage • Influence sales Despite such optimism and benefits, social media is new territory for most companies. One issue is that a discconect continues to exist between how companies are structured to formally communicate with customers via marketing, sales and customer service touchpoints and customers that increasingly want to have a conversation with the brands they buy from. Microsoft Advertising put out a great video a while ago called "The Break Up" that does a good job illustrating this point. The notion of engaging with customers socially is a new paradigm and will take a shift in thinking for most organizations to adopt. In fact, there are a number of barriers to social media adoption. Marketing Sherpa's Social Media Marketing and PR Benchmark Survey reveals that the most significant challenges for implementing social media within organizations include: lack of knowledge, inability to measure ROI, lack of budget/funding, management resistance, technical complexity and the perception of social media not being relevant to the market. Continue reading this article.
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