TNG Blog

“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.”

Albert Einstein

I am sure that everyone who works in the social media industry sooner or later faces the million dollar question of ROI of social media. It is just a question of time and luck before they run into one of the following:

a) A business that is excited to finally join the crowd that dominates Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and can’t wait to start communicating with its fans / customers. Usually, ROI questions are not raised, as these businesses are guided by the ‘everyone is doing it and we want to do it also’ attitude (note to consultants: immediately take them as a client and help them as much as you can!)

1. ‘The Casino’ – This type of business is aware that there will be some challenges (when they might have to delete some comments), as well as many benefits (positive discussions), to opening the door to the public. It is open to engaging customers in any action or discussion that takes place on their account (taking risk).
2. ‘The Movie Theatre’ - A type of business that wants to ‘do it’ while eliminating challenges; they want to be ‘social’ without being social and what they end up having is just one-way communication. The story goes like this – I like the status and fun that the Casino brings, but I just don’t want anyone coming through my door and doing what they want – they can just sit and watch / listen.

b) A business that is aware that it should be present in social media and works towards proving why this is a good decision; however, it is not excited about social media and would be alright if it simply ignored this ‘whole social media thing’ (note to consultants: rethink if you should work with such a client, as you do not speak the same language!)

1. ‘The Safe House’ – A type of business that needs to have many logical and analytical questions answered, ASAP, with ROI usually being one of the first. They are thinking money – if we invest $1 how much are we getting back. You need to be a math geek and find a way to calculate how much each Facebook fan is worth, or Twitter follower. Not to mention how ‘like’ translates into sales!!!
2. ‘The Nursing Home’ - A type of business that has just begun doing research and long-term planning of next steps towards getting into social media. It is comfortable with being a very late adopter and will analyze any case study out there of ‘other businesses’ journeys and experiences’ in this new venture called ‘opening the first account on a social media platform’. After all research has been completed and organized, it will progress to the stage of a ‘Safe House’ where endless questions and approvals will make it impossible to even open that first account.

c) A business that openly states complete disinterest in social media (note to consultants: take a deep breath and wait for them to set the tone the conversation). In this case you can expect either to be trapped in a passive-aggressive monologue about (bad, bad) social media or manipulated into changing the topic. Please consider yourself extremely lucky if you run across a business ( a person) who will state clearly its (or his/her) disinterest in being active in social media, yet still be open to engage in a normal conversation about social media.

So, what does one do when faced with such questions about ROI and needing at least some promising numbers in order to justify a potential investment? Below are some good resources that can help you arm yourself and become better prepared to address the topic and hopefully open doors to the casino, movie theatre, safe house and nursing home.

Sounds (looks) familiar?

It is always good to start at the beginning…

And then arm yourself with even more knowledge…

Then understand the paradox

Remember when we needed to write a 500, a 1,000, or a 3,000-word essay for school? Don’t those times seem sooo last century, when the quantity of the content was equally important to the quality of the content? Am I starting to sound like my parents, who always talked about long-gone times? Would I now be able to make it to 3,000 words in an essay, after training myself to convey 140, 256, or 700 character communications all over the social media world?  The ongoing trend of shortening and compressing communication in business is becoming so common that we are becoming pre-programmed to think and communicate in a short, direct, and effective way. The handicap might only become obvious for a moment, on rare occasions when you realize that you have a great piece of communication in front of yourself,  but you just can’t fit it in your usual ‘le petit’ mold.

The trigger

As a Chicagoan, I maintain contact with the community through many subscribe lists for the area … I’m currently not residing in Chicago, so the other day thanks to one of those subscriptions, I had a nostalgic moment when I was linked to an inspiring video from Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The experience of watching the video was like this:

• It started with excitement!
• Then, emotions overwhelmed me!
• Then, I approached a moment of pride!
• Then, a moment of acknowledging a job well-done from the marketing/communications side!
• Then, moment of coolness - connecting all of their statistic with dog years and Kim Kardashian!
• Then, they got the ‘Wow” out of me for all that they do or stand for!
• Then, hmmmmm…

I couldn’t say anything bad about the video, since it really was well made…but something was missing. Something that kept bothering me for a couple of minutes….and I just couldn’t figure it out.

The revelation

4min and 21 seconds!!!  The fact was that the video was too long for me! I became nervous halfway through…even if the content, their statistics, their success were all impressive and informative, I became jittery as the video pushed my limits. I became afraid. Am I really so handicapped that I’m incapable of handling more than 2 minutes of video content/communication? What happened to that person that knew how to appreciate and enjoy quality videos, articles, and speeches no matter how long they were, if they were good?

That person micronized – as most things in business: “Your email is too long”, “Your presentation is too long”, “Your excerpt is too long”, “Your status is too long”, “Your article is too long”… “Nobody is going to read/watch that…people don’t have time”.

Micronize. Shorten the URL. Forget the introduction. Get straight to the point.

The entire concept of ‘le petit’ measures communication not in words but in characters - exaggerating to the point that even empty spaces count. How far can we push this concept of micronization if we  micro-blog, micro-write, micro-talk, micro-listen?! and then as a result of the process, even micro-communicate?

Don’t business schools still teach that the optimal balance of  effectiveness and efficiency are key to business success…so how are we supposed to transmit powerful messages, influence stakeholders and customers, and make a difference if we continue to micro-communicate – an efficient, but not necessarily effective form of communication?

Great job Northwestern Memorial Hospital! Excuse the new generation of  ’micronizers’ that can’t get through 4.21 minutes of high quality content!

Have 4.21 minutes?

We all strive to reach success. We plan, we organize, we execute…all in order to get there – to the peak of the curve. It’s a nice view from there – say those who reached the peak. They also say – it’s hard to stay there once you’ve reached it, since the winds are strong.

We hear a lot about people, products, companies who made it. Their success stories are used as case studies and lessons for others. The steps that they took are analyzed, praised and copied. While most of us could remember at least a few success stories that we have heard about, how many of us can recall what happened to the subjects of those stories after success? A day after success? A year after success?

In a couple of my previous posts, I wrote about the wunder-campaign of our time. In 2010 I joined the army of marketers and bloggers who meticulously followed a living legend – the Old Spice marketing-viral-social-etc-etc-campaign. W+K got us all hooked up with Isaiah’s perfectly chiseled body and witty monologues. Millions of people bowed down to creativeness and a new approach to marketing that Old Spice dared to implement in its marketing campaign. A direct response to customers, wow – yes, future marketing students will have the Old Spice name materialize throughout their textbooks.

The Old Spice buzz lasted quite a bit… resulting in increased brand sales and a crowd of groupies who obsessively engaged and responded to the campaign. W+K brought the Old Spice guy to the top of the peak, but what was the plan from there on?

Source: W+K Old Spice Case Study, 2010

In perfect product or brand life-cycle management, by the time a sales peak is reached, there should already have been a plan developed for innovations that might restart the cycle (I hope that Old Spice  planned something to prevent Isaiah from rolling downhill). The same rules could be applied to a marketing campaign, which also has a similar cycle, one during which marketing activities  become noticeable enough to gain customers’ attention and a positive reaction, resulting in increasing sales. However, if not ‘restarted’ at the right time, that same marketing campaign becomes worn out. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to predict what happens to the brand.

So, going back to our wunder-campaign “The man your man could smell like”…what happened almost exactly a year after the big success? Since Isaiah was such a hit, inertia dictated that rather than developing an innovation to restart the brand life-cycle, Old Spice would try to revive the man that everyone wants to smell like. The revival process was called Mano a Mano in el Baño. The most publicized ever internet duel was supposed to put Old Spice back on the peak. Brilliant!  The comeback of nice-smelling American hero Isaiah was supposed to be safeguarded by cheesy, metro-sexual Italian sidekick Fabio, a guy who had the campaign-duel taken place in Europe might  have even had some chance of winning….but, not in a land dominated by tough, primarily un-metro-sexual,  NFL-loving men.

The buzz has been created, people have spoken, and the American hero has won, but people talking about a campaign vs. buying a product are two completely different scenarios. It will take some time for both us and Old Spice to determine whether or not the revival succeeds. If it did, kudos! He lives! Or does he? Perhaps Old Spice never truly wanted to revive, but simply milk the ‘man who smells like he can bake you a cake’ for all that he is worth. And he is worth a lot….especially shirtless.

Picture this … it’s dinner time, after a tough day at work, you and your family finally get together for a nice meal and some quality family time. There is laughter, stories, and the smell of a freshly cooked meal…ideal. The telephone rings.  You are caught off guard and an enthusiastic marketer from the other side asks for only five minutes of your time, to answer some questions. How do you react:

1) You enthusiastically answer the questions

2) You grudgingly agree to 5 minutes of your precious time, answering questions while your hands begin to sweat and you feel your heart start to race

3) You politely apologize that you don’t have 5 minutes and hang up the phone

4) You pick up and angrily tell him that you are already on the Do Not Call Registry and that he shouldn’t call you at all, while irately hanging up the phone

5) You pick up, listen briefly, and hang up the phone without saying anything

6) #6 is not the case here – since you already picked up the phone – but you could just simply not pick up

Recently, I was personally targeted by a similar telemarketing campaign. I believe that I’m the worst kind of target: curious, answering questions with questions, and myself a marketer.  I found it a particularly interesting social phenomenon that I was being engaged during dinner time and was curious enough not to hang up. Even though I actively listened for a few minutes, I cannot remember the exact objective of the marketer (obviously a good indication of the effectiveness of the call), but I do recall that the marketer lacked the appropriate educational level and communication skills to even remotely interest me for his product, service, or other objective. In fact, I recall deeply considering the inadequacies of the telemarketing strategy of this company, a poorly written script that was given to a bad actor, and of course very poor timing – dinner time.  Consider that there are many other alternatives techniques and you will ask yourself why a company would choose to continue with a somewhat outdated marketing method. For example, why would this same company not invest in pay-per-click advertising or some form of Social Media marketing that would allow a target customer to alone determine when, at a more appropriate time, he or she would go to the internet, respond to an advertisement, and convert into a lead without the active influence of a marketer. Below is my quick analysis of the pros and cons of both approaches and why one might choose one over the other.

Isn’t ‘tradeoff’ the first word that comes to your mind, right after ‘wow’? Isn’t this the most typical dilemma that the business world is facing today: efficiency vs. effectiveness? We are all aware that various social media services are experiencing dramatic growth, not only for the purpose of maintaining our friendships and professional relationships, but also for building new relationships, whether mutual partnerships, employment opportunities, or business development opportunities. One can venture to say that it is even becoming the leading venue for marketing and sales generation among certain niche markets or customer segments. Nevertheless, it seems that quite a few for-profit companies and not-for-profit initiatives continue to avoid these platforms in favor of more archaic methodologies, such as telemarketing. In a time when each person wants to be in greater control of what they will do and when, and when a random mistimed telephone call is obviously annoying, it is time to let go of some old fashioned techniques and invest in a social media expert rather than an offshore telemarketer.

The appearance of social media has brought a revolution both in business and our private lives. Each of us, whether we wanted to or not, has become a part of that machinery in some fashion. On one side, there are those who are complete opponents to the revolution and continue to refuse assimilation because they ‘do not have time’ or ‘do not want to share information and news with anyone’ or ‘do not want to be victims of the greatest conspiracy theory in history’ or ‘already have an established position in the market and their old fashioned methods are proven’.

Then, there are those who are just opening their first account on the most secure platform that they could find and contemplating each status / update / info before sharing. These rookies would rather communicate with their friends and acquaintances live, and clearly have no interest in what is being read or what meetings are being attended by people they don’t know. Even when they try to become more involved, these users hold a meeting with a handful of colleagues to even approve anything that should be posted…and to debate whether or not to add a disclaimer for each post.

And, of course, there is that third and final category of individuals that have already mastered (some have even doctored) a novel shorthand language for more effective communication with limited space. These power-users swear upon their ‘home page’ as a bona fide news source, and without thought share with the whole world each and every occurrence from their work and personal lives.

This entire revolution brings a mound of experts that devote themselves to researching the ‘to share or not to share’ phenomenon, as well as the eternal topic of privacy…in fact, what does privacy even mean today? Social media has redefined the meaning of privacy in a society that was built upon family as a pillar where that which happens within a family sphere stays in the family and where issues and problems were solved within the family…that used to be privacy. Now, that same family structure is no longer needed, as each individual has an opportunity to find someone ‘out there’ on some social media network that better understands them, approves of their actions, and / or gives better advice than a family member ever could. Social media is also redefining privacy in the business world. While a once distant corporate atmosphere used to look at business as simply doing business, strictly formal and defined without delving into emotions or topics not directly related to business, it is now beginning to show care and opening discussion forums for employees and other stakeholders through social media platforms. Wow! What a major shift, whether we accept it or not.

For me, over time, it has become quite interesting to follow the activities of those around me more and more as a social experiment. What is important enough for someone to ‘tweet’ about, or to publish as a ‘status’, or to announce in some other public way? Is that which is published done so without reason, is it simply straightforward information, or is it perhaps a means to transmit something between the lines? The trouble lies in finding the true meaning and decoding each ‘say it loud and say it proud’. Here are three examples of posts / status updates that I’ve had a difficult time decoding.

It’s a wonderful world

The most harmless post is one related to the weather; for example, “it’s a beautiful day”. When used for personal reasons, it is positive…a signal that someone is in a good mood and a “let’s get together” call for action. However, it also very frequently used in the business world, where it leads to confusion as most people wouldn’t understand the logic…why would anybody waste space and write about weather on business platforms? In my opinion, it is almost a human touch to doing business, showcasing a regular person who wants to go out for lunch in the park…and maybe talk business. More importantly, it is a simple reminder that you are in someone’s network, ensuring that your name pops up before others and perhaps encouraging them to show interest and begin clicking away…on your name, website, blog – the key destinations you wish to direct these ‘incidental visitors’.

Show me the money

“I love my work” although I always love to see that someone is satisfied with his or her work, I am often suspicious of statuses like this. Such comments could be interpreted in a number of ways…someone could like his or her job because he or she really enjoys the work, has the flexibility to leave work early, makes a lot of money, or because he or she has a hot boss…or secretary. Don’t you find yourself wanting to click and learn more about that person, where he or she works, his or her position, and job description? Of course! This leads us again to a ‘yes, please click on’ result because this post is only here to encourage this action. Rarely does your clicking lead you to truly understand why this person loves his or her work.

“We heart [love] our customers” is another frequent comment that I seem to run into more than I would like. It seems like the worst way to say to customers that they are loved and their loyalty appreciated. Aren’t there more sophisticated and more effective ways to communicate gratitude and sincerity to valuable customers in today’s world? Do you think that your customers would continue to click further after reading such a simple and meaningless post? Some customers might be even insulted and start thinking about what you have really done to thank them for their loyalty. Think twice before sharing, as different people could read differently between the lines of your post.

Me, me, me

Every now and then I see some self-proclaimed ultra-professional sharing posts like “your profile has been viewed by 187 people in the last day…yesterday, you appeared in search results 538 times” via a business platform. This ‘ode to self’ and self-praise could be a double-edged sword. Yes, such a post may help generate many clicks from curious users wanting to know who is the man or woman behind the update. At the same time, this kind of self-representation could indicate an insecure and amateur braggart attempting to market oneself and his or her business...”see how popular I am” or “everyone wants to be my friend” or “everyone views my profile”. Different users could read different meanings between the lines, a risk that everyone must consider.

These are just a few examples of how social media and networking via this channel are still young and contain rules / guidelines that are open to interpretation and not well defined. The early adopters are the ones who are paying the price of following this trend, so be careful not to overpay. Ok. Think again. Yes, now you can ‘share’!

P.S. What are some of your ‘favorite’ statuses / posts where you’ve read something between the lines?

Preventing small business heartburn caused by a New Years Resolution!

February is in full swing and while some bloggers wrote about their small business’ New Year Resolutions (NYR) during December and January, I decided to skip the topic. In my case, writing about my NYR would have been like an attempt to aim and shoot blindly. You see, I have already felt all of the effects of today’s turbulent economy on my own skin, and didn’t want to betray and test myself and my business, but rather give us a full freedom to do whatever is needed to ‘survive’ 2010. However the fact that I did not publish my own NYR did not preclude me from reading and enjoying those issued by others. To be honest, sometimes I felt as though I was reading fiction or perhaps a public relations article aimed at potential clients. At other times, it felt more like statements from do-gooders like Mother Teresa about changing the world and depreciating one’s own existence, money, and profit. Interestingly, when you really take a good look, all you really see is a list of clichéd NYR that, when googled, could be seen repeating for years and years back.

So, if we consider those NYR, it doesn’t take a lot to realize that most small business owners will not be able to digest everything that they put on their plate. When setting their NYR, most people really excel at overestimating their own abilities, as well as the capabilities of their business, while at the same time misinterpreting the economy in which they are living and doing business. The reassuring part about this tragedy is that it doesn’t take a long time for most people to a) realize that their resolutions are not going the way they planned and b) begin simplifying and compromising their original decisions. After finalizing some research on the internet, I have made a list of 5 typical NYR (in no particular order) that small business owners chose to put on their ‘plate’…as well as some ‘probiotic’ to help you digest them.

Typical NYR #1…Develop a Business / Marketing Plan

Everyone is talking about it and you are aware of its importance, so that is exactly why this is your NYR. Fact #1: every small business has to have a long-term business plan, with special emphasis on financial projections and the marketing strategy. Fact #2: plans need to be flexible and regularly updated to showcase the most realistic situation and to achieve maximal responsiveness of the market and clients. This is where reality starts to set in…and panic starts to take over. You’ve spent all of your free time in December and January to write that ‘Business Plan’ and, while according to your plans should have not only completed most of the plan for 2010 but also financial projections and a marketing strategy for the next few years, you’re not even halfway through. Your tasks are piling up and you see that this NYR is slipping away from your control.

The best way to digest this huge meal is to make a very simple plan without too many details: a) chart your activities for one year, b) determine how much money should flow in and out of your business to stay profitable, and c) tackle one quarter at a time to determine what is feasible to ‘swallow’ that particular quarter. You already know one important fact for 2010 – it is not a good time to splurge – so, cut down your costs and switch your mindset to a more cost-effective gear. Whatever you promised yourself, keep in mind that you are the one who fills the plate, both what goes on the plate and how much. It is important to keep your business healthy and capable of digesting your choices.

Typical NYR #2…Be Active in Social Media

Lots of small business owners announced yet another popular NYR – become an active user of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. You spent your entire January making friends on Facebook and Twitter, trying to establish a fan club/group (while acknowledging that no one beyond your friends and family is a fan of your business!), and updating your status several times a day. But all of that time consuming effort doesn’t seem to make any difference in your business, yet. The advice that you read online about tweeting often enough to ensure that your name stays top of mind with your audience (which in your dictionary meant tweeting every 30-60 minutes) just postponed other tasks or even put some clients on hold or waiting. You are asking yourself if this was a smart NYR. Yes, it was a good choice…you just have to be smart about how to digest it.

For starters, every small business owner needs to take advice from my ‘one at the time, starter kit’ (don’t start with being active on 5 social platforms rather one), understand that he or she has to build trust among an audience (it is only a social media, so make it your ‘friend media’ – you want them to believe you, don’t you), and redefine ‘active’ for their own situation.

There are two key items that you need to address – a) how often do you actually have time to manage social media marketing efforts and b) how do you author the most effective messages via this channel. Start with a once daily portion and build from there. This is one of those business related items that I truly support and that I know (and you will see) will not overload your company’s digestive system, if you eat intelligently.

Typical NYR #3…Join new Professional Organization / Networking Group

So you ended up joining another professional organization or networking group. I particularly have issues with this NYR, which is confusing and at odds with another common resolution… that is ‘More Family Time’ or ‘Improved Work-Life Balance’. For those of you that are willing to sacrifice your ‘free time’ networking or volunteering in a professional organization, then you should first ask yourself if you are a) exchanging your free time for a definitive increase in your revenue or are you b) giving up you free time to activities which, although suggest that you are still working, for you are actually entertaining? I guess every small business owner needs to answer that question for him/herself and to figure out whether a life outside of work or more business opportunities are more important. And if you do decide to sacrifice your personal life to an organization or networking group, don’t forget to ask yourself two key questions – a) what are the benefits to my business if I am a member of this group and b) is it worth my time to come to these meetings /events?

I guess some of us will say that the bottom line is – what kind of people are you going to meet and do they have a similar interest as you, because maybe your next best friend is somewhere there. Remember, whatever you decide to do regarding this NYR, you will still have to digest it whether it is to your benefit or demise.

Typical NYR #4…Invest in Yourself, Learn More, Read More

You spent January looking for training opportunities, seminars, and classes in your neighborhood and you still didn’t bring your decision because evenings are so valuable for your family and you are still not sure which opportunity would be the most valuable for you. You also searched for books, but weren’t sure which would be the best since the market is overfilled with so many books targeting small business owners. Sometimes googling and receiving too much information could be overwhelming and make finding great choices difficult.

While some people are skeptics about the value of online courses, they are a great option for home-based and flexible education (a great starting point is the Small Business Administration). You can learn something new, join a forum that the course offers and probably even see what would be recommended literature for certain fields of interest. Alternatively, if you decided against an online course and are more of a self study person, simply talk to some of your friends, vendors, or other resources in your community (e.g., business incubator) – they might recommend some great reading material. Be open to finding your own path to knowledge and you will be able to finish your ‘serving’ without dangerous consequences.

Typical NYR #5…Improve your Business’ Cash Flow

The last one of small business owners’ favorite NYR (#5) is ‘Improving your Cash Flow’. Yes, you promised this to yourself and to your business. However, you didn’t know that improving your cash flow would be so hard to implement with your current clients and vendors in place. Each of them has their own business methodology, so throughout January you were rethinking how to ask each of them to change.

Don’t panic if you don’t change them immediately. There is a lot that you can first change on your own to have a positive impact on your cash flow. Rethink your own salary and make a sacrifice to decrease your expenses this year, all with the goal of driving better cash flow for future periods. Do you really need that latest generation laptop that you intended to buy for your business? Do you really have to pay somebody to clean your business space for you or could you do it yourself? What I want to say is don’t spend money unwisely and don’t splurge. One more thing that you can do is to think about doing business the Japanese way – try implementing a ‘just in time inventory’ approach and don’t lock up all your money on your shelves or in the warehouse. Part of being able to do this lies in your management of supply chain, but another very important part is forecasting and being able to estimate needs.

Now that you have changed your own processes, you can begin to change the methodologies of people around you. Spend some time and create a standard reminder email that you will send out to your clients on a regular basis to avoid becoming their creditor. Perhaps offer a discount for up-front or timely payments.

On the flip-side, feel free to negotiate longer-term repayment plans with your vendors. It is a tough economy so a vendor should not be discouraged if you are still providing him or her with steady monthly payments. Alternatively, there has been a recent upsurge in ‘barter’ or exchange of goods and services, so think about ways that you can partner with your vendors. All of these actions, implemented one by one should help you improve your business’ cash flow and fulfill you NYR.