Question for You- New Marketing

This is such an open ended question but as the owner of a marketing agency focused on the social media space and emerging technologies I certainly have some thoughts.

Obviously they need to work and play in this space. They can’t just talk about the tools and communities, but they have to be active participants in them.

Measuring results and setting the measurements for success up front with clients is vital. Not every campaign or initiative will be about hits, visits or sign ups. Sometimes it will be about engagement and awareness building. Determine that up front.

I also think it is critical for agencies to execute on the plans they come up with. This space is changing so fast that I firmly believe the with every campaign you run that you are going to learn new things, change your way of thinking and thus help the client even more because you will have lived and worked through it before rather then just reading about it or hearing it in a presentation.

I’m going to collect some more thoughts and come back and share, but off the top of my under caffeinated brain this morning this is what comes to mind.

Good question.

I think it’s about building your community online, meeting your community offline possibly in an open and free unconference such as a Barcamp.

After that it is about consolidating communities with integration, so that what you have build in your environment does not get lost.

Can you make market products or services with this formula?
I am.

Julius

The services a new generation of marketing firms should offer include:

* Web content creation & strategy
* Brand reputation management and buzz monitoring
* Active social media engagement & participation
* Online community design and management

A bit wordy and off the cuff but those are the four that sprang to mind.

Great question (and I’m looking forward to hearing what your research digs up).

It would be interesting to learn how marketing companies are shifting from ads (from banners to tv commercials) which don’t work as well and are creating 2-way, attention grabbing and information filled conversations.

It’s not rocket science but that’s the beauty; we need more conversations (I know this is second nature to you Chris; it seems it’s taking a while for other people to catch on and actively do this outside of the blogoshere).

Simply put: create great conversations and you’ll attract great audiences (and earn trust that leads to loyal customers for your offering(s)).

That’s my 2 cents worth–hope it helps with the research and your summit!

Hi Chris, the key word in your post above that sticks out in my mind is *listening*. I snicker (cringe?) when I monitor people/agencies in this space – many of whom pretend to be SoMe experts. The problem I see here is that what works in SoMe for one company, does not necessarily work the same for others. It bothers me that many (the majority)now in the SoMe space come out of a PR background (no disrespect, I have some PR background in me as well). This tends to give SoMe initiatives a one dimensional view IMO. So for me, I would like a real new media agency to truly be bi-directional, and not so myopic in its roots. Social Media is not just about PR, and not even about just marketing. It is all encompassing within an enterprise with reach that should cover everything from HR, to product development…and yes, of course marketing.

Your blog has become a personal favorite of mine, keep up the great posts!

http://www.twitter.com/A_F

Hi Chris, the key word in your post above that sticks out in my mind is *listening*. I snicker (cringe?) when I monitor people/agencies in this space – many of whom pretend to be SoMe experts. The problem I see here is that what works in SoMe for one company, does not necessarily work the same for others. It bothers me that many (the majority)now in the SoMe space come out of a PR background (no disrespect, I have some PR background in me as well). This tends to give SoMe initiatives a one dimensional view IMO. So for me, I would like a real new media agency to truly be bi-directional, and not so myopic in its roots. Social Media is not just about PR, and not even about just marketing. It is all encompassing within an enterprise with reach that should cover everything from HR, to product development…and yes, of course marketing.

Your blog has become a personal favorite of mine, keep up the great posts!

http://www.twitter.com/A_F

Aside from all the Web 2.0 communication channels that are opening up, I really believe any new marketing agency worth its salt will recognise that you still have to understand that these new channels require different rhetorical strategies on the part of marketing folks.

Blogging, tweeting, vlogs, facebook facilitate different ways of talking to each other. But it’s essential to understand that old school corporate rhetoric won’t get you anywhere here.

Globally we have more opportunity to get our message across than ever before. Whether or not people listen will rely on the stories we tell about ourselves whether we’re corporations or individuals.

So for me it’s not just the applications themselves; it’s the personas, voices and forms of discourse we employ that are exciting.

Hi Chris:

I think the first mistake is to focus on the tools. The web is plumbing that enables us (as marketers) to communicate in new and different ways.

The blocking and tackling of digital communication is:

1. Understanding what people are passionate about.
2. Feeding that passion.

Communities of interest gather for THEIR OWN reasons, not yours. Your efforts should be informed by the community’s interests and motivations – not yours.

I have examples to share if anyone is interested.

TO’B
MotiveQuest LLC

I think it can be summed up in two items: relational marketing and analytic. First people buy from companies they trust & second, need to be able to measure result and tweak if necessary.

Just my $0.02 & I think this was covered in more words above.

Cheers!

Hi Chris,

Marketing in itself has transformed of being both revolutionary and evolutionary. Things like blogs, twitter, discussion board, and I am sure you will know better than me about various other options. However I have just got access to the Google Ad Planner and I truly recommend to all new age marketers to get access to the same not only to plan your online media but also for research purpose.

Further in the age of mobile technology hyper-disruption I would recommend looking into not only the internet space but also to build into the mobile space.

I would say that this is an art where there is no bad or good ideas. There are just ideas…some work some doesn’t. But even then they are ideas.

Best Regards
Shiraz Datta
http://www.shirazdatta.com

I think it’s about figuring out what makes a product/service/company really stand out (old school) and then using new school techniques get your “thing” to resonate on a very individual level.

THEN it’s about creating space/tools/stuff that helps individuals pass the word along.

So as marketers, we have to get better at figuring out how to personalize our approach so people will say “hey, that thing really speaks to me and what I’m all about.” And then becoming their partner in spreading the word to the people they know who share that “identity”.

Chris, I’m not sure if this is really answers your question but I blogged about something related the other day:

http://mediadriving.com/2008/09/15/the-post-big-idea-world/

That perhaps takes the discussion in a different direction…

Aside from that aside, since you said “new media” as opposed to “social media” (which I for one see as a subset of new media) I’d have to say that creation of things like websites, banners, emails, widgets, videos, etc. is still the primary job of most agencies that work in the space. The social web is of course becoming an increasingly important consideration for all brands (or it certainly should be!) but the reality, at least in what I see as common at least here in Canada, is that the biggest job of digital marketing agencies is still to build the creative assets that are on strategy for the brand, the same way as the traditional agencies are there to create television, radio and print.

Hi Chris. Great question. Those of us who have spent more time in traditional media than new media will really learn a lot from your conclusions. An area I think is underestimated is the Gen Y market. This group is way bigger than the boomers and a bit more complicated when it comes to how they are influenced by marketing. While not all companies may target that demographic now, those Millennials will surely be in the market for most products at some point (cars, investment funds, mortgages, childcare, etc.). The are fickle, self-assured, ready to jump to a better product or service (often mislabeled as disloyal), and have the technical savvy and inclination to do their own research. They can spot inauthenticity a mile away. They also have more influence on household purchases than any other generation (i.e. vacations, houses, cars). Some forward-thinking companies are even marketing to the 18-24 year olds to reach the parents! They live in the social media space and marketers will have to get into their heads and understand what/how they perceive value and how to give it to them.

I think new marketing has a lot to do with reaching people on a more personal, more individual level. A billboard won’t do it anymore. You need to reach more in my networks, in a way that feels personal and not like a billboard.

The new media of marketing is going to be about creating a voice and presence online. This is mainly going to be by engaging with discussions and participating when necessary with users as well as others to try to establish a voice and to be recognized as a thought leader.

Craig
http://www.budgetpulse.com

Segmentation.

Mass customization.

Prediction.

That’s what is next.

To Chris’s list I would add:

Accurate tracking of brand, video and other social media tools.

Right now there is no perfect answer to tracking/reporting.

I agree with Andy Finkle re listening and Tom O’Brien’s comment about not focusing not on the tools, but rather what you do with them.

I see marketing becoming more closely allied with social psychology, borrowing and adapting its findings and even its terminology, in an effort to understand better peer-to-peer interaction. At the moment, social media seems to be hovering at the edges of social science, still clinging on to a lot of the old marketing pseudo-science and certainly not ready to throw out the 20th marketing textbooks.

Great Question Chris. I feel a new media marketing agency will focus on assisting companies with quality content creation,SEO/M, community building and helping their client have a presence online where their target market interacts (This could be Twitter, Social Networking sites,Youtube, blogs, forums etc). Another key thing I feel new media agencies will do is to help their clients identify and develop strategic relationships with other complementary companies & bloggers to cross promote or assist in marketing their brand. (A company like IZEA has a good platform for this and it will get even better with time) Agencies will also find ways to better measure their clients social media efforts and will closely monitor feedback from consumers.

I see Social Media as different from “New Media” but… marketers need to know how to start with the person, not their product.

They are also going to have to come down from the ivory towers and listen. That’s not an easy thing for a company to do but it’s not impossible. They are going to have to learn to be a little less sensitive about their brands so that they can have the courage to use social Media tools and strategies and their audience to strengthen it.

They are going to have to learn that it’s not about “marketing at” but “working with” and “listening to” their customers. They are going to have to get better about simple basics like customer service, and that people like to talk to people rather than robots… new campaigns mean squat and only serve to irritate if I’m a customer who descends into a veritable voicemail hell when all I want is said company to solve a problem with their product or something they’ve promised me in their ad…

They are going to have to have the whole organization enabled for Social Media… not just marketing. It has to be top-down so it’s supported and consistent. Which means their biggest challenge may be to sell it to the CEO.

I don’t think the fundamentals of marketing have changed (marketers must still have a strategy, goals, success measures resources, conversion, etc for Social Media) but the buying behaviour of those they are trying to reach definitely has.

I think the roll of marketers is shifting away from content developers and towards content accelerators. No longer is that the department where all outward messaging is produced and/or approved. With both large and small companies, so many more spokes of the corporate wheel have a public voice. So the role of the marketer is in helping the entire organization understand the communications goal, coaching them on the various tools they can use to achieve it and then offer a helping hand as they wade/dive in.

This appears to be a question on many minds lately… After attending HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston, my boss just posted on this topic (PR perspective).

In summary, “Inbound [or new] marketing is powered by content. In order to grow smarter and faster than the competition, organizations must continually publish great content online… you can’t ignore or resist where the market is taking us. It’s time to expand our knowledge and services. Think critically about the value we deliver to clients.”

(See the post in its entirety at http://pr2020.com/Blog/post/2008/09/Dawn-of-the-Inbound-Marketing-Agency.aspx if you’re interested.)

New media marketing is about understanding and leveraging conversations. Conversations are happening. Its up to us as marketers to identify and understand who is participating, what are they talking about, and where are they talking. We then provide strategies to brands on how to participate and actually be part of the conversation. If traditional marketing was about talking to an audience, new media marketing is about talking with an audience.

As a 17 yr marketing comm person I differentiate “Social” media from “New” media, which in peer journals/blogs/sites the term “New Media” seems to be defined as Websites, video and flash type production.

As a Social Media & Web PR agency, we are active in the channels, and work to ensure integration with traditional channels and tactics.

Mostly though, two words define (successfully according to our clients) what we do “Listen” first, then “Talk”, a Social Media agency needs to understand conversation skills and impart those skills to a company. Business/marketing needs to learn how to have conversations.

Businesses need to have CEO’s spend less time analyzing spreadsheets and understand marketing the whole organization. Cutting marketing costs in a recession is the wrong approach.

Peter Drucker was right 40 years ago: Businesses need do only 2 things – innovate and market.

I’d add to my last;

Bring on sociologist and anthropologist.

Those are 2 skills that are going to be in dire need soon with the advance of the Social Web.