Social Media

Is Your Market Strategy Wile E. Coyote or The Roadrunner?

When I was growing up, one of my all-time favourite cartoons was the one with Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.

For anyone not familiar, Wile was (as his name suggests) a coyote, and he was always trying to catch his titular nemesis, the Road Runner (a large bird whose signature sound was ?meep meep?).

The problem was, no matter how many times Wile tried to catch Road Runner (and they were numerous!), he always seemed to fail in ways almost as spectacular as his plans were. It usually ended with Wile being flattened, falling off a cliff, being run over by a train or truck and more.

So what has this to do with taking social media and marketing from theory to operational? More than you might imagine.

Planning for Prolonged Success is Crucial

One of Wile?s biggest failings is that he only saw the immediate future and what he could do to make Road Runner his next meal. While short-term goals are fine for your business, it?s the long-term strategy that will see you succeed or fail.

Going for the quick hit may result in initial success, but you have to really plan for prolonged success.

Being fluid with your plans

Twitter and Facebook may be the golden child now, but you only need to look at MySpace and Friendster to see how the mighty can fall. You wouldn?t put all your eggs in one basket offline ? why act differently online? Watch to see how networks are being viewed by the analysts and be ready to change ahead of any meltdown.

Building partnerships for profit

Wile relied on Acme Products for some of the traps he put together to ensnare Road Runner. Having a loyal client partnership is one thing, but again, do you really want to just have one partner? Look at what your marketing needs are; look to see who?s enjoying significant success in the social space with tools that will meet your marketing needs; and build partnerships with each. Be prepared so if one partner falls, you won?t fall with them.

Having a solid back-up plan

Every time Wile failed to catch Road Runner, he?d move onto his next harebrained scheme, which was also doomed to fail. As the economic meltdown last year showed us, we never know what can happen ? but we can be prepared. Make sure you?re not relying solely on social media to make your business a success. You still need to adhere to the Four P?s of Marketing ? Product, Price, Place and Promotion ? and build upon your offline success with this matrix. Some products and services just aren?t built for a social audience ? use the Four P?s to define whether yours is or not.

Operation Social Audit

While on paper it might look like Wile had everything planned to a tee, the truth was a lot different. He didn?t really have any QA measures in place, and his projections on project success were always way off.

Again, he was blinded by the target and the possibilities as opposed to the mind of the target and the potential pitfalls.

Your success in mixing your marketing needs with the social media space can be defined early on by a social audit. This allows you to get into the minds of your target and also catch any pitfalls before you trip up on them operationally later on ? something Wile could have learned from.

The target is not the only thing to shoot for

Any business needs to know its target audience, sure ? but you also need to know how to aim properly. Connect with your existing audience before adapting to any social tools and ask if they?d benefit from you being there. If not, and you?re not aiming for a new audience altogether, do you really need to pull the trigger on an empty target?

Social media is not cost-free

No matter how many times you?re told social media is inexpensive, it?s not. It may save you on ?traditional? advertising or marketing costs, but the time expense and the strategy meetings, research and follow-through all cost money as well.

A poorly executed social media strategy could cost you much more money in the long run as you count the cost of wasted man hours, talent, development and
execution. The Price part of the Four P?s is very evident here ? make sure you scope your long-term investment costs and how you?ll measure return.

Another way to make social media operationally viable for you is to think how you can service your clients. Wile failed because he never had anyone in a similar situation to share his views with, and they could have corrected or recommended other methods to his approach, and taught him from their experience.

Your success so far has been because of your expertise in your sector. Clients and customers trust you. Why not use that trust and build on it?

Share some of your social marketing success with your clients and help them grow. Ask what?s worked for them. Build ideas together, both brick and mortar and online.

There?s no success more solid than shared victories and strengthened partnerships; as your knowledge and social marketing success grows so can that of your partners and clients, all led by you.

The Why of social media and marketing is long gone; the How is the now. Plan ahead; plan for longevity; build strong partnerships and best practices.

Learn from Wile E. Coyote and be the Road Runner. Be that one step ahead.

How to Counter Fake Social Media Reviews

According to leading business analysts Gartner, as many as 10-15% of social media reviews will be fake by 2014.

Instead of honest customer reviews, praise and feedback on sites like Yelp and Google Places, we’ll have professionally-paid for reviews, either from a company trying to damage a competitor, or raise their own profile by posting multiple glowing reviews.

The report does mention that this will probably be more in the Enterprise market, but what’s to stop smaller businesses hiring interns and specialist agencies to post a review for them?

Mind you, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at this analysis – as social business continues to take a stronger grip in the mainstream consumer business world, it’s perhaps stranger to ask why these percentages aren’t already in place now (maybe they are).

The good news is, there are steps that can be taken to protect your reputation as a business, as well as stay on the right side of the law when it comes to this newer form of peer and customer recommendation.

Make Social Media Reviews Socially Accountable

On this blog, you’ll see I use the Livefyre comment system. Now, currently I have it set to accept guest comments – however, by a flick of the switch in my admin area, I can change that up and only allow readers to comment after logging in via the likes of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

So, when it comes to posting reviews on the likes of Yelp, Google Places and elsewhere, make it the same process.

If you want to leave a review, you have to log in with your Facebook profile, or LinkedIn account. This immediately adds accountability to the process – your name and business is inextricably tied to your review. This makes it far easier to see which is a valid review, and which belongs to a fake.

For instance, let’s say Joe Smith left a crappy review on Yelp for Acme Restaurant, Toronto. The owners of the restaurant can see the review, and then check Joe’s profile on Facebook.

If it’s a valid one, they can then ask Joe to come in with his receipt and they’ll refund the cost of the meal. What, Joe doesn’t have a receipt because he was never there?

Gotcha – that takes us on to the second part of the process.

Build a Digital Ethics Agreement

In the last couple of years, social media has attracted the interest of organizations like the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) in the U.S., the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) in the U.K., and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in Canada.

These organizations are forcing the hands of advertisers and marketers in social media to be above board when it comes to how they’re targeting consumers in the space and, in the case of the Privacy Commissioner, making Facebook change their privacy terms when it comes to sharing information about its users.

So, there are already governing procedures under way and ongoing when it comes to making sure the medium isn’t being used in questionable ways.

The problem is, they’re splintered. The FTC has no real jurisdiction outside of the U.S, and vice versa with the U.K. and Canadian equivalents (although they can work with each other in cross-border cases).

So, technically, a Canadian business could operate around U.S. consumers and (unless picked up) be outwith the legalities of that country. This is where the fake social media reviewers (solo or agency) would win.

However, the Internet is one big global community when it comes to e-commerce. I don’t care if I need to buy a British import CD from Japan to complete my Canadian music collection using Bitcoin – it’s a global market and I’ll use whatever means I need to.

Now, while this may be too simple in actuality over theory, if there was a global Digital Ethics Committee that handled stuff like online reviews, social marketing, etc, and created a governing law that applied to online transactions and subsequent reviews – well wouldn’t that help counter the fake reviews?

The businesses that are caught paying for fake reviews are banned from review sites for X amount of years, with a disclaimer on their Yelp or Places page that advises visitors why there’s no official presence.

By naming and shaming (as well as the obligatory fine and damages paid), consumers can see which companies live by their product and which live by their producing of lies.

As Consumers, We Need Protecting

It may be that these two suggestions are too simple for such a legal minefield. And, despite the Internet’s global reach, the arms of it at a country and cultural level are still too disparate for the simple approach to work.

For now, anyways.

But as we move into a more socially-led and active world, and the stakes continue to rise as to those businesses that will succeed versus those that will flounder, the playground needs to take a stand now.

While social sign-ins may not be the answer (although it’s a lot easier to spot a fake Facebook or LinkedIn account than it is to filter a bogus email), and cross-border integration into a single unit might be a ways off, it’s important we start to think of solutions today.

Otherwise, that tomorrow of 2014 will come a lot quicker than we think, and it’s more than just our reputations at stake – it’s our very future business success.