Reloaded – Personal Web Manager

One of my most popular posts was my vision of the personal web manager. Most of my friends or business cotacts even thought that my next business follows this idea and invitations to next web generation events followed.

And yes, I still think and know from C-level executives that it would solve one of their biggest problems when getting engaged in the social web: Having more time when they need it in the future while staying in contact and up to date in the social web world!

Now the vision of the personal web manager is reloaded. Gina Trapani tries to “work against” the idea in her post Work Smart: Mastering Your Social Media Life with a new solution named “funneling”. And thus, she brings the value of my personal web manager vision back to live. Most comments go against her vision and obviously, I have to disagree as well.

Nevertheless, watch the video and maybe rate her funneling against the personal web manager…

The problem of personal productivity versus being a “perfect” social median remains unsolved. Vision are there, the world wants this problem to be solved and someone will realize the personal web manager business model in the future. Don’t you think?

Social Web: “When you decide to jump in, resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell.” – Interviewing Scott Monty

At the Detroit motor show 2010 Ford executives from around the world spent one entire day engaging with Ford Fans and online influencers on social web platforms like Twitter, Facebook, BlogTalkRadio, CoverItLive, and more.

TheStrategyWeb was given the chance to exchange some questions with Scott Monty, head of social media at FORD Motor Company, about the company’s digital tactics, the social web and their web-strategy.

Q: Scott, FORD has launched the new Ford Focus. How much was the design and product development influenced by the “One Ford” strategy and your social media activities?

Scott Monty The design and development process was very much a One Ford process. German-based Gunnar Hermann has been the lead for the new global C-car platform. He worked with a team of global engineers, including people such as Jens Ludmann and Jim Hughes, who are the Focus lead engineers in Europe and North America, respectively. While we’ve seen a steady stream of customers in the U.S. showing interest in the current generation of the Focus in Europe, the process for developing a global car was well underway before we implemented our social media strategy.

Q: In which way is the One Ford strategy influenced by your team’s social web activities, or vice versa?

Scott Monty When Alan Mulally joined Ford in September 2006, he set the company on a course of brand consolidation and product planning that incorporated the One Ford vision. Our business plan and communications goals were set, and our social media strategy was developed to support both.

Picture above: FORD CEO Alan Mullaly and Social Media Scott Monty at Detroit motor show C-level social media jam.

Q: What were the biggest challenges when the Ford top-management decided to implement a social web-strategy?

Scott Monty Surprisingly few. There has been no resistance to change, and indeed, there’s been an incredible interest in this developing field by a wide range of our most senior executives. While we’ve enjoyed success in our social media activities over the last year (especially in the U.S.), the challenge ahead of us is how we effectively scale the operations and how we roll it out regionally.

Q: How important is it for companies to have all employees understanding and living the social web engagement of the company?

Scott Monty To the extent that a company is involved in social media and invites a culture of participation and transparency, it’s vitally important. But more than just understanding the tools and platforms; what we’re talking about is cultural change and a transformation in the way we do business. If we can help employees to understand that, we’ll be successful regardless of what social network our strategy is executed on.

Q: How important is web-strategy for the Ford business today?

Scott Monty It is vitally important, as that’s where our customers are. It’s where they do their research and it’s increasingly where they’re having conversations about our brand. We’ve dedicated 25% of our marketing budget to digital and social media – more than twice the rate of others in our industry. And when you consider that consumers trust people like themselves more than companies, it’s vital for us to open up ourselves to them and have them experience our vehicles and tell their networks about us.

Q: Why should companies have a (social) web-strategy in place in the upcoming decade?

Scott Monty The web – particularly the mobile web – is increasingly where people are spending their time. When they first stop to research your product is Google, everything you and your customers do on the web is trackable. And it’s where your company’s reputation is being built, every day.

Q: What advice would you give to companies that think about setting up their social web-strategy?

Scott Monty Listen first. Take time to discover what people are saying about your business and to understand the unwritten rules of the online communities in which your customers participate. Become a member of those sites or networks and spend time looking around. And when you decide it’s time to jump in, resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell. People are on these sites to talk with each other, not to be marketed to. Try to provide value. Be helpful. Ask for feedback. Give them unique and interesting material they can’t get elsewhere. Doing all of this over time will build trust and a deeper relationship with your customer base.

THX Scott for the time and your interesting insights!

About Scott Monty
Scott is head of social media for FORD Company. Or do you want his official title, then here you go: Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. And he is a blogger. As a marketing and communications professional he has worked for a number of industries (healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, and communications), and numerous clients, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. Today, he is a strategic advisor on all social media activities for FORD.

Studie zu Social Media Nutzung: Von den Top 500 US Firmen lernen

Das dritte Jahr in Folge findet eine Studie des Center for Marketing Research at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth den Beleg, daß Social Media immer stärker Anklang in Unternehmen findet. Die Studie belegt dabei, wie Social Media bei den am schnellsten wachsenden US-Firmen im Aufschwung ist. Zudem liefert sie gutes Zahlenmaterial für Marketiers, Geschäftsführer und CEOs, wie man sich im Social Web bewegt.

Die Studie besagt, dass 75% der befragten Firmen sich mit Social Media 2009 stark vertraut gemacht haben. Dies entspricht einem Anstieg um 18% zu 2008. Das starke Aufkommen der Nutzung von Business Netzwerken hat hier sicherlich seinen Teil zu beigetragen.

62% der ‘C-Levels’ kennen sich mit Twitter aus, 52% haben die Micro-Blogging Platform und Social Networking genutzt, um ihr Business zu promoten. Sicherlich interessant ist, daß eine von vier Inc. 500 B2B Firmen angeben, Twitter sei ein angemessener Platz, um mit Partnern und Händlern online zu kommunizieren.

Blogging spiele generell eine besondere Rolle. 45% betrieben 2009 ein Blog mit ihrer Firma (39%/2008 und 19%/2007). Das Wachstum bei Message Boards, Online video, Wikis, sowie Podcasting ist eher gebremst bzw. leicht fallend.

Social Media = wichtiger Bestandteil der Marketing-Strategie

43% der Inc. 500 Firmen glauben, daß Social Media ein “sehr wichtiger” Teil ihrer Business- und Marketing-Strategie ist. Sogar 91% gaben an, zumindest ein Social Media Tool einzusetzen (77%/2008). Und auch weiterhin wird Social Media in der Strategie der Firmen eine große Rolle einnehmen. Von den nicht bloggenden Firmen planen 44% einen Firmen-Blog in 2010. Mit Twitter wollen im nächsten Jahr 27% der Firmen einen weiteren Zugang für ihr Business schaffen.

Der Erfolg gibt Social Media Einsatz recht. Denn 48% der Unternehmen haben mit ihrem Einsatz von Social Media Erfolg. Bei Twitter ist die Quote sogar 82% und bei anderen Social Networks kam eine unfassbare Erfolgsquote von 87% zusammen.

Spot On!
Der Siegeszug von Social Media hält an und das Annehmen der neuen Medien geht rasch voran. Kein Wunder: 87% der befragten Firmen berichten von Erfolgen hinsichtlich Engagement, Leads oder Abverkäufen. Die Argumente sprechen für sich. Wer sich diesem Trend verweigert als Businesszweig, läßt zahlreiche Optionen aus, die Kundenkommunikation und Kundenbindung zu fördern.

News Update – Best of the Day

Is Facebook the future of micro-payment? Pete Cashmore, CEO of Mashable, is discussing this question on CNN and he quotes Murdoch who says what all platform owners think.

“There’s not enough advertising in the world to make all the Web sites profitable. We’d rather have fewer people coming to our Web sites, but paying.”

Yes, there needs to be paid service on sites to monetize the value of the content. The only question is: Is micro-payment really the best web-monetization model or will we get ‘intelligent’ subscription models like SKY in the TV world?

On Facebook people admit their affinity and love for brands in a way the world has never seen this before. Custom Facebook Page Gallery is a new site showing a collection of the best and most inspiring VIP and brand sites that exist on Facebook. The most interesting category is probably „1M+ Fans“ – presenting sites with more than 1 mio. fans. If marketers want to more data to explain this phenomenon to their C-levels, they should also read the study by Razorfish which we have published in another News Update – Best of the Day. Also see, Yew York Times post on How to market your business with Facebook.

OK, I have to admit I do love American TV shopping commercials. Why? We all know the Americans are great in selling products. But do we really need an egg cracker…?

Social Media and Advertising – how to explain an antithesis to C-levels?

Facing the pure intention of social media versus advertising, we have to admit that we are talking about an antithesis – no matter if you can book advertising on a social networks or not. Social Media is conversations while advertising is the monologue from company to customer. And in between lies some undefined (or shall we say unqualified) customer dialogue that we have been through for years of online advertising.

So, how can we explain this type of modern ‘customer engagement setting’ to C-level executives? How can we bring these two anti-poles together? What could have been a better idea than asking to the people that have been through this process of explaining, evaluating and engaging C-levels from both sides – platform owners and brand companies.

Maybe you want to listen to their thoughts…

Blake Chandlee, vice president and commercial director EMEA, Facebook (recorded after the DMEXCO panel ’social media and advertising’) – sees the biggest challenges in the evolution from their traditional management roles of strategy and investement thinking towards a new business world called ’social networking’.

Tony Douglas, Innovation Manager, BMW Group – advices to make senior management aware of the potential that social media offers, and knows off the trial-and-error process companies might be going through.

“Firstly you have to get the channels on the agenda that means you have to convince/demonstrate to senior management that the channels are relevant i.e. they are a valuable addition to the marketing communication mix. Just because you have a new channel does not mean you have more budget so you have to prove that this “new” channel is better than some “old” one only then will you get a shift in budget.

Social media and “advertising” are two very odd bed fellows…you cannot do a traditional banner campaign in social media it does not work you need to target and get your context and content right. “Targeting” is also a new science so you have to educate the C-level on what this is. The content is not one size fits all as is often the case with ATL content….here we are talking a mass of niches. However the really tough bit you have to be social now that can be a real challenge. I think it’s fair to say that not many professional marketers have been schooled in how to be social (in marketing). This is new ground for many marketers and brands and like all new stuff it takes time to adapt and learn.

So start early, start small, learn by doing and adapt quickly and if you demonstrate success and a greater return on investment you’ll find those obstacles and challenges will disappear. They are disappearing in the BMW Group.”

Tim Meier, Brand Manager, Bacardi – focuses on the customer dialogue as the main point for his argumentation.

“Generally speaking, it is necessary to enhance top management understanding of social media as a qualitative target group related dialogue communication opportunity. Any figures to measure social media ROI need to be accompanied by the level of qualitative consumer references. In how far are you able to define the GRP level of a positive brand related post from a celebrity/opinion leader? Social Media will certainly emancipate as an equal part of the marketing mix to support future brand campaigns on the image level. Nevertheless you´ll be rewarded with additional coverage if you´re doing a good job and offer a consumer relevant content.”

Spot On!
It would be interesting to get some more views on how we can help making C-levels understand the values of social media quicker, better or more accurate. If we don’t do it, your customers might become the teachers of modern successful customer engagement – but this might be painful for your companies brand. So maybe you and your company are in the same process of evaluating social media and advertising. Wanna share your knowledge with us…

Looking forward to it.

dmexco: Rückblick auf die Premiere

Die Premiere der dmexco war ein Erfolg, … oder nicht? 14.200 Besucher, 290 Aussteller (mit 2900 Mitarbeitern) und 250 Pressevertreter. Zahlen sind gut. Zahlen sind beeindruckend. Denn Zahlen sind das Messinstrument der Branche und entsprechen der Sprache der Marketiers. Auch in dem von mir gehosteten Panel hatten Zahlen die entscheidende Bedeutung und eins wurde auch hier deutlich: Zahlen sind wichtig für das C-Level bei der Entscheidungsfindung und Investitionsbereitschaft, Marketing-Dollars zu “approven”.

Aber Zahlen beziehen sich nicht nur auf Page Impressions und Clicks. Und das war sicherlich eine der neusten Erkenntnisse der Marketiers seit dem Aufkommen von Social Media: Engagement ist gefragt. Das Blut des Engagements ist der Dialog (bzw. Multilog), denn nur der führt zu nachhaltigem Business-Leben, sprich zum Erfolg. Eigentlich ist das aber nunmal die Antithese von Werbung, die eine klare Sender-Empfänger Botschaft beherbergt.

Engagement als Messinstrument in die Überlegungen der Bewertung von Plattformen einzubringen, die dann auch von Marketingentscheidern und Media-Plannern entsprechender Wichtigkeit gewürdigt werden, dürfte eine der größten Herausforderungen der Web-Industrie werden. Die aktuelle europäische Yahoo!-Studie „Online-Werbeformate – Wissen, was wirkt“ bringt die Werbebranche bei der Definition von digitalen Erfolgskriterien vermutlich weniger weiter als eine Studie “Welche Erfolgsdefinition will das C-Level Management sehen”.

Zur Erfolgsmessung der dmexco könnte man in diesem Sinne die “beste OMD aller Zeiten” mal mit einer Bannerkampagne vergleichen (egal ob auf einem traditionellen Portal oder in einem Social Network gebucht). Entscheidend bei beiden ist, was am Ende dabei rauskommt.

Weder die Page Impressions noch ein Click haben einen Wert, wenn am Ende kein Engagement steht, d.h. die Staying Time am Stand (bzw. der Landing Page) wenigen Sekunden entspricht und keine Aktivität nach sich zieht. Da kann die Dwell-Time dann doch als Messkriterium wesentlich mehr an Erkenntnis leisten. Ist der Besucher am Stand stehen geblieben, hat er/sie sich den Stand angesehen, hat er/sie das Gespräch mit dem Standpersonal gesucht und hat er/sie sich Unterlagen oder Broschüren mitgenommen.

Ja, Erfolgsmessung ist mehr als nur zwei vordergründige Zahlen, die eine Koeffizienten (CPC) ergeben… Sicherlich ein Grund, warum Webanalyse groß im Fokus der Messe stand.

Grundsätzlich bleibt auch nach der dmexco die Frage bestehen, ob das bevorstehende, zukünftig den Ton angebende Messinstrument der deutschen Internet-Industrie, die Visits, wirklich zielführend für eine Modernisierung und die Monetarisierung der Branche ist. Hierzu habe ich mich im Vorfeld ausführlich auf dem dmexco Blog “Create Effects” geäußert. Die Messe hat hierzu keine neuen Erkenntnisse gebracht. Nur positive Stimmen waren zu vernehmen, die ebenfalls der Meinung waren, daß man hier nicht wirklich einen Schritt in der Vermarktung und Bewertung der Web-Plattformen weitergekommen sei.

Man mag mir verzeihen, wenn ich -trotz einer positiven Bilanz des Veranstalters oder der Branchengrößen (des BVDW)- dennoch in der Messeinheit der Marketer spreche. Die letzte OMD hatte 20.000 Besucher und 380 Aussteller, was einem Verlust von über 30% bzw. 25% entspricht. Liegt es an der abwartenden Mentalität der Deutschen: “Erstmal sehen, wie die neue Messe ist…”, oder an den Vermarktungs-Packages für die Standfläche? Es war nur eine Halle statt zwei wie in Düsseldorf- die vermarkteten Quadratmeter der Fläche im Vergleich zur OMD wären hier interessant. An der Rezession lag es offensichtlich nicht, obwohl die auch vor der Internet-Branche vermutlich nicht Halt macht. Man weiß es nicht so genau. Im nächsten Jahr (15.-16. September 2010) wird man es suggerieren können.

Über die Zahlen der offiziellen dmexco Party im Vergleich zur Kontraveranstaltung trg OMclub kann man sich jeder sein eigenes Bild machen. Eine Party ist nicht der Kernpunkt einer Messe – auch wenn man dies in den letzten Jahren beim Run um die Partytickets der OMD oft gedacht hat.

Spot On!
Mit Satellite Events und Twitter hat die dmexco internationale und neue Zielgruppen erschlossen sowie Anschluß an moderne Web-Standards gefunden, die eine OMD seinerzeit nicht berücksichtigt hat. Ob Google dann ausstellt oder nicht, ist kein Messkriterium für den Erfolg einer Messe. Der Zuspruch für die dmexco war ordentlich: offline wie online – Optimierungsbedarf gibt es immer. Und noch ein Gutes: Im nächsten Jahr wird man vermutlich nicht mehr an den Zahlen der OMD gemessen…

Und wie seht Ihr das?

News Update – Best of the Day

Today, the focus is on personal branding and your career…

Are you a top executive? The so called C-level manager? And you want to understand what you resume needs in order to be interesting for recruiters. Meg Guiseppi has 10 top secrets for a great senior-level executive resume.

In our online social networks the term ‘friend’ has a complete different meaning than in our offline world. Getting this straight in terms of a strategy becomes even more complicated. Chris Brogan writes an interesting summary on friends, reputation and endorsement. And he makes us think how we handle this topic.

One thing is for sure… In order to be successful in business we all need a good contact network. Now, in the era of social networks the question rises what is more important: quantity or quality? Thomas Power gives an answer… (although there is no proof it sounds quite realistic).

Interested to hear about your view and how do you handle your friend, colleague, partner or customer relationships… – Tell us about it!

Personal Branding – how to build your career 3.0

Personal branding is the way to stand out of the crowd and being noticed in some special way in the business world which makes you unique. It is your value proposition for the future of your career. In a session at the webinale09 I held a speech about ‘Career 3.0 – split between personal branding and productivity’ and gave some projections on the relevance of social media activities and how these affect your career development.

Today, we want to learn from Dwight Cribb, founder of his successful recruitment agency, what professional recruiters think about personal branding and what is the relevance for personal branding. You can follow his offline and online thoughts via his Twitter account.

Q: What is the first thing you do when somebody is being suggested as a perfect candidate?
Dwight Cribb Of course I will first probe what the relationship between the candidate and the person suggesting him is. Supposing that the recommendation is made during a phone conversation, I will in parallel check the candidate’s profile on Xing. If that does not provide the information I require I will probe deeper with people search engines.

Q: Let’s imagine somebody is not doing anything for personal branding. This person is not blogging, micro-blogging or social networking. Does this have a positive or negative impact on your perception of that person?
Dwight Cribb This largely depends on the type of position I am recruiting for, both in terms of seniority and discipline. I would normally expect someone in a directly client facing role or someone who communicates directly on behalf of a division or company to have at least some presence on the web. It is, however, true that not being on a social networking site is today more of statement than being on one. A few years ago one could be forgiven for thinking of people who had not yet discovered Xing, LinkedIn and facebook as being somewhat backward or conservative. As it is today largely impossible to not have noticed these networks flourish, we must assume that those not on them have shunned them on purpose. This may be a good strategy if one relies on others to communicate with clients and the public, especially as a senior manager. A C-Level executive will through his utterances on social networks have a severe impact on the brand communication, it thus needs to be 100% in line with the other communication, if not it will cause at best confusion and at worst it will undermine the credibility of the brand.

As for blogging, I think that is a very personal decision and I would never think badly of anyone who did not blog. I may, however, think badly of someone who blogs badly or in a manner inappropriate to his or her position. So overall it would not reflect badly if I found out nothing about a person online, it would just peak my interest and make me more curious to receive other information in the form of a CV or a recommendation from a third party.

Q: Will personal branding and the individual online reputation replace the traditional CV some day?
Dwight Cribb I doubt whether it will replace the CV, it is more likely that it will continue to augment the CV. Online reputation is a fantasy product. We each spin our profiles in a manner which we feel supports the image we want to convey. It is self marketing. A CV is more strongly based in chronological fact and provides a picture which comes closer to the reality than the pictures which get drawn in communities.

Q: If everybody has a strong personal brand, don’t companies fear these people could get chased by some competitor and recruiters? Or that employees just work for their own career purpose?
Dwight Cribb Most successful employees work for the own career advancement. But in the long term they will only achieve this by delivering results to their employers, because people are very good at spotting meaningless self marketing and will not fall for it for long. Good employees have always had a strong personal brand (also called reputation). It has been true in all areas and across the ages, if you do something well you will be admired by your peers and your reputation will spread. This means that others will try and employ your services, sometimes via a recruiter.

Q: What is your advice on how companies have to handle personal branding of the employees in the future?
Dwight Cribb Let people define themselves what they are comfortable with. Give them a clear guideline what company resources and what company information they can use to build their reputation and to what extent they must make clear what is their opinion what the company’s.

Q: What do you think of the personal web managers vision?
Dwight Cribb There are instances where this makes perfect sense, but I belive they are far and few between. This is a role which has precedence in the offline world, many high-profile business people, politicians and celebrities employ someone with this brief. Whether they do their job online, offline or in both really does not make much difference. We have come to expect that the picture we get presented of these people has been scripted and planned in detail. We even often admire the way in which they craftily manipulate their image. But I think we would be less inclined to condone or accept this level of abstraction in communication in our closer environment of colleagues, family and friends. A facebook status update from a friend loses relevance if I know that it was posted his or her personal web consultant, who was busy making them be liked by their friends and acquaintances.

Q: Give us 3 tips how to create a personal brand, please.
Dwight Cribb Be yourself, be honest, laugh at times.

Thank you for your time and your advice, Mr. Cribb.

OMD: Ende Gelände in Düsseldorf

Das Gelände der Messe Düsseldorf beheimatet keine OMD mehr. Gestern sagte die Messegesellschaft igedo die OMD 2009 und alle weiteren Onlinemessen ihres Namens ab. Damit endet ein Todeskampf einer Messegesellschaft um ein Format mit Zukunftsperspektiven.

Nach langem Hin und Her, wer nun die meisten Unternehmen unter Vertrag hat, macht die Düsseldorfer Messegesellschaft igedo die Pforten für die Internet-Industrie dicht und gibt gegen den Neu-Konkurrenten aus Köln auf. Die ‘Leitmesse für digitales Marketing’ hat ausgelitten. Der ‘digital marketing exposition & conference’, kurz: dmexco, gehört die Zukunft.

Schaufelte der Macher das Grab?
Als The Strategy Web vor zweieinhalb Monaten Frank Schneider interviewte, da konnte man den Kampfeswillen des ehemaligen Gründers der OMD spüren. Die dmexco (damals noch dmex) sollte den modernen ‘Stellenwert der digitalen Wirtschaft’ verkörpern und sich klar an alle Marktplayer der Branche richten. Das Einläuten einer neuen Ära der Internet-Messen? Oder hat ein altbewährtes Format einer digitalen Messe nur ein neues Zuhause gefunden? dmexco Projektleiter Frank Schneider hat sich eine große Bürde aufgeladen. Dieser muß er jetzt gerecht werden – mit einem europäischen Konzept und kreativen Messe-Neuerungen für eine ganzheitliche Internetmesse, nicht mehr nur für das Onlinemarketing. Denn das Ziel ist klar definiert: “Die dmexco soll die europäische Leitmesse” werden.

Wird die dmexco der neuen Herausforderung gerecht?
Die Antwort ist prinzipiell unerheblich. Denn erstmal steht eines fest. Frank Schneider hat alle überzeugt, dass sein Konzept das der Zukunft ist: die Display-Vermarkter, die Performance-Vermarkter, die Search-Spezialisten sowie die interaktiven Medienanbieter. Er hat es mit seinem Team geschafft, eine Messe in Frage zu stellen, die einzigartig war und als gesetztes Messe-Brand galt. Grundsätzlich hat er seinem eigenen ‘Baby’ das Grab geschaufelt und es gleichzeitig wieder auferstehen lassen. Warum, wollen wir gar nicht erst erläutern…

Der Witz an der Sache ist, daß die dmexco, respektive Frank Schneider, eigentlich niemandem etwas beweisen muß. Einen ebenbürtigen Mitbewerber gibt es nicht. Es sei denn die Internet World Messe schafft es, sich hier als Gegengewicht aufzustellen. Die Zahlen sprechen allerdings nicht von Konkurrenz: 3.500 Besucher kamen 2008 auf die Messe. Ob die Internet World Messe dementsprechend aus Wettbewerbsgründen auf die Sommerzeit im nächsten Jahr vorverlegt wurde? Oder will man dem Wettbewerbsgedanken gerade aus dem Weg gehen? Auf Antworten dürfen wir gespannt sein.

Ist die igedo der großer Verlierer?
Die Antwort ergibt sich, wenn man sich die blanken Zahlen vor Augen führt. Wer es nicht schafft, 20.000 Teilnehmer, 380 Aussteller und 44% Wachstum bei seinem Zielpublikum (Besucher wie Aussteller) so ins Feld zu führen, dass man einen Herausforderer mit einem lauen Kölsch im Regen stehen lässt, der muss sich wohl Gedanken um seine unternehmerischen Qualitäten machen. Wer als Messegesellschaft nur in ‘Spacevermarktung’ denkt, läuft vermutlich genauso dem Markt hinterher wie diverse Medienunternehmen, die immernoch auf klassische Onlinevermarketung bei ihren Wachstumszahlen hoffen.

Spot On!
Kurz nach Bekanntgabe des Endes der OMD bekam ich von einem Ex-Kollegen folgende Aussage in einer Mail: “Endlich hat sich der Blubberkram erledigt!” Meine Antwort lautet: “Nein, der geht weiter – an einem anderen Ort, auf einem anderen Messegelände, auf hoffentlich höherem Niveau”. Die Hoffnung bleibt, daß die Reise nach Köln nicht als ‘Blubberkram’ endet. Sonst hätte es sich nicht gelohnt, die OMD zu ‘killen’. Die digitale Branche muss langsam aufhören, sich selbst zu beweihräuchern. Ziel muss es sein, die Unternehmen auf die Wichtigkeit dieses Zukunftmarktes aufmerksam zu machen, verstärkt über Chancen und Risiken aufzuklären und Firmen für das Web sowie seine Optionen empfänglich zu machen – nicht nur hinsichtlich Onlinemarketing. Unternehmen sind im Gegenzug gefragt, auch die C-Level Ebene auf solche Messen zu entsenden. Dann hätten wahrscheinlich sogar zwei digitale Messen ähnlicher Couleur eine Berechtigung gehabt.

Dell and Social Media: Efficiency is more than numbers

At the Social Web Breakfast in Munich I was focusing on the efficiency discussion around social media in companies and how firms need to define measurement anew. To start the ROI discussion will be misleading as we have not many proofs in terms of numbers as to how profitable social media will be for companies. Now, finding new solutions of a tracking mode is a big challenge and then finally the C-levels need to believe in that new vision. So, the target must be to elaborate on reasons why companies need to start kicking off social media activities versus just talking about efficiency and tracking methods.

Last week, I did a quick poll on Twitter what the drivers are for social media. My intention was to figure out if there are other efficiency measurement method than just revenue figures. And I was surprised to see that most companies see other reasons as their main argument for social media.

Looking at these results, it becomes clear that marketing, pr activities and sales must work closely together to maximize the companies’ efficiency. Now, we all know how difficult it is to measure pr and marketing (although we have hundreds of techniques) as one tracking number. But the question remains: Do we have to measure every effort we make if we find good examples of proven track record in other companies? They did not have a double bottom when they started – and no measurement method, too. But right, what worked for one company does not have be applicable to another.

Dell has been through this measurement process with Idea Storm. Last week Richard Binhammer explained why Dell decided to face social media. It was a decision backed by ratio and emotion, so not only pure numbers but also the wish to talk to, understand and learn from the client perspective.

Let me quote the most important insights as a summary to motivate other companies to follow this decision:

“1. The Magnitude of Change: One billion people are now online — a figure that will double by 2011. In fact, every day 500,000 new users come online for the first time. Content is exploding.
(…) News cycles can start from anywhere today. News and conversations are not just local/regional, they are global. Single blog posts can have as much power as major news stories. People are publishers, content providers and decision-makers.(…)

2. The Value of Personal: (…) The move from “objective,” fact-based, third party reporting and commentary (traditional media/advertising/controlled messages/interruptions) to individual, “subjective,” and “crowd sourced” perceptions is very powerful. Perceptions are no longer just reality. They are real. The “new facts” are based on real interactions and experiences that people share with each other.(…)

3. Connecting with Customers: Since when did any business not want to connect with its customers? Seriously, what is the issue here? Do we need to justify using today’s efficient, effective and readily available technology to spend 30 minutes or couple hours a day connecting with real customers? Social media is an ideal tool to reach customers more quickly, efficiently, frequently and cost effectively.

This week Richard Binhammer took the argumentation on efficiency to the next level but sees the problem in the ROI discussions going on at top management level…

“The problem: ROI as it applies in the business world and as understood by C-level executives means but one thing–how much money was returned on our investment. Simply put ROI = gains – investment costs ÷ investment costs. Just because that definition and formula might not meet our needs does not mean we can redefine it in our own way to justify the use of Social Media (SM) and Social Networking (SN) or any set of communications and marketing tools. If we use ROI in any other way than dollars returned, C-level executives will quickly come to lose respect for us and our efforts and see SM and SN as fluff.”

Did not Dell take the ‘fluff’ approach? Dell was courageous and in doing so the IT company has a lot of experience to profit from today – experience through authentic communication. It was not only numbers – but finally resulting in a new measurement point of view.

So, efficiency for Dell means a long-term transition which is defined by a combination of mass usage of media, by the ‘power of the few’ (remember Malcolm Gladwell’s vision?) and by the ‘listening’ factor. The last being one of the first rules in the sales business if you want to be successful. You don’t even have to think about ROI if you listen carefully. If you do so, word-of-mouth is working in your favour. Numbers will follow.

If companies just see efficiency of social media from a financial point of view, then I may ask, why companies ever started building corporate homepages? Did they have a proof on efficiency? No, they had to go down that route because their competitors started and they had to follow to stay in that competition.

Let me tell you our own success story: I asked myself last year why companies were placing pr news and buying space on platforms like silicon which launched in 2000 as one of the first business communities in Germany? This community had no track record and no proof that we might convert our clients’ investment in numbers. Most of the companies were not even in the shape of tracking anything. To be present on the web was key, not more.

There was no such thing like measuring efficiency in terms of new contacts. No lead generation via bannering or newsletters or follow up on calls they had after we published content about those companies. But we called them… When we though their marketing campaign could perform better with different texts – no matter if this campaign will be running on our platform or not. All of these clients came back and numbers followed. Our efficiency was closley connected to pure communication and word-of-mouth.

Talking about efficiency in those days was more a question of: Can you track pis and clicks already? We could not, but it did not bother anyone of our clients. They tried it out as Dell believed in social media before there was a proof of concept.

Spot On!
Be aware that the efficiency discussion around social media will go on. Nevertheless, there is Michael Dell in a Business Week Discussion with Jeff Jarvis encouraging companies to start their efforts on social media.

“The conversations are going to occur whether you like it or not… do you want to be part of that or not? My argument is you absolutely do. You can learn from that. You can improve your reaction time. And you can be a better company by listening and being involved in that conversation.”

If companies see the possibilities, effects and the value of social media, there is no reason to talk about measurement anymore. It’s more a topic of identification and reorganization: ‘Why did you face the options of social media so late and have tried to find numbers to justify social media?’

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