The one thing you need to do to be successful on Twitter

Posted on December 21, 2011 by GG Benitez

According to Forrester:

Most marketers still don’t understand Twitter — neither the tricky challenges or its unique possibilities.

It isn’t just marketers.

Even though Twitter has been around for five years now, most everyday people still don’t get Twitter, especially when all their friends are on Facebook, and they are not on Twitter. They feel a little disoriented and confused with all these messages from unknown people.

With that said, that is where the problem lies.

When marketers know that Twitter is an extraordinarily efficient medium for spreading messages, they are already primed to want do exactly that. As marketers, if all you do is join Twitter to bombard people with content without showing your hand first, you’ll be ignored. Why? Because people won’t trust you.

It’s that simple.

Think about it. Put yourself in your customers shoes, would you trust your brand? Answer honestly.

Now if you want people to listen to you, the first thing you need to do is help them with something they need to do. Everyone gets extra points for helping out in the offline world, the same holds true in the digital world.

Why is gaining people’s trust important? Beyond the obvious reasons, because we remember those who helped us. Whether it’s information, an email, a link, a photo and audio/video message; we remember information from trusted sources.

Evidence points to information from trusted sources getting a better hold on our brains than the noise from everything else.

Bingo!

Creating content, participating in chats, adding value to conversations are all means to being helpful. To gaining trust.

That’s the first step.

Marketers need to understand that their job description has changed. They are now relationship builders.

Twitter: Is Anybody Doing It “Right”? (blogs.forrester.com)
Twitter: Marketers Still Struggling To Understand Social Channel (mediapost.com)
Tweets by mail? This guy replicated Twitter via the postal system (thenextweb.com)

Winning the Zero Moment of Truth

Posted on December 14, 2011 by GG Benitez

Did you know that Google published an ebook about how social media has transformed marketing forever and how it affects how you do business?

If you did, good for you. If not, then you should. Why?

Coming from Google, who knows a lot about what works and doesn’t, it should be important.

But that’s not the only reason. The book is called Winning the Zero Moment of Truth. What is ZMOT?

Shoppers today want to explore and think about how products can improve their lives. They do reconnaissance to gain the insights they need, and they’re driven to bond with others and enrich relationships as they learn. They are motivated by a desire to take charge of their own identities and the well-being of their families and homes. These are universal truths, regardless of culture or circumstances.

Google’s argument is that because of the internet, we now have access to more information about a specific product we want to buy. Essentially, decision making has now shifted to us, the consumer. For example, when we are browsing through an aisle of office supplies in Target, we spot that product. Instead of putting it in the cart, we pull out our phone and go to Amazon’s website to see how much it costs there. We also look through the reviews left on the product page.We may also post a status update on either Facebook or Twitter asking our friends what they think about this product.

We make our decision based on this information.

This is a Zero Moment of Truth.

It is at these moments, when shoppers are thinking of making a buying decision, where you must exist. You must be there, in their wish list.

The question is: are you there? If not, how can you be there?

Here are seven nuggets from Lecinski, crunched down, on how to win at ZMOT:

Put Someone in Charge. If it’s nobody’s job, it’s not going to get done. You need a ZMOT evangelist, in on every meeting and empowered to do the job.
Find Your Zero Moments: Find out exactly how people search for your product. Where do they go? Who do they trust to give them information?
Answer the Questions People Are Asking: There’s no point meeting people at ZMOT if you’re not giving them the kind of information they want, as and when they want it.
Optimize for ZMOT: Show up more when it counts by making your content super-relevant, and being where you need to be (Lecinski makes the point that having a great mobile presence is a big part of this).
Be Fast: Know when something’s making people search for your product, and do something quick to capitalise on it. Speed beats perfection.
Don’t Forget Video: SISOMO rules. Do it.
Jump In! Emotion leads to action. Make something happen!

If you still don’t understand social media marketing, I highly recommend you take one hour of your day to read the book.

If you don’t have the time, here’s a good summary of the key points of the book.

What The ZMOT? (mediapost.com)
Are Your Digital Assets Optimized For the ZMOT Decision (customerthink.com)
Google What the ‘Zero Moment of Truth’ Means for Marketers (slideshare.net)
Social Media Insider: The Infinite Moment of Truth (360i.com)

5 Ways Social Media has ruined Marketing

Posted on December 8, 2011 by GG Benitez

OMG! I found this discussion on a group on LinkedIn. It’s definitely a good way to get people to sign up for an up coming conference but couldn’t help and read some of these and think about how things have changed. I don’t think it’s ruined marketing, I think it’s made it more important and meaningful. It’s changed it for the better.

1. WE REALLY DIDN’T LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS – Ok we had focus groups, but we conducted a monolog with our customers. Not a dialog. Customers couldn’t moan and groan about our poor customer service, or faulty products to the whole world. We could crush small business with the strength of budgets, not the quality of service and products. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT – Because now small business can compete on a more level playing field, and the strength of your marketing does not necessarily have to rest with the size of your budget.

2. WE COULD USE EXPENSIVE COMPELLING CREATIVE FOR MAGAZINES, DIRECT MAIL AND OTHER MEDIA – Ok, there are still magazines and newspapers, but unless you have been living in a cave you have seen them get smaller and smaller. Direct mail is down substantially from a decade ago and the USPS will be bankrupt by December, without a government bailout. magazines are on iPads. Now we have text ads (little things), tiny banners, or 140 character tweets, social groups, fans and likes. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT – Because now we have to get even more creative than ever, in the way we present our company, on Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin (and other Internet media). We have a smaller canvas on the Internet and therefore must get much better with our brushes.

3. WE COULD MEASURE – With Nielson, Arbitron, ABC, and so on we could get reliable numbers that had been proven for decades. Today we are bombarded with statistics, but how much is necessary to make marketing decisions. WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT – Now we need to reduce our metrics to actionable and relevant statistics, instead of just pouring over data dumps.

4. WE COULD KEEP OUR JOBS – In the old days, in order to make your numbers and keep your job, all you had to do, is what you did before. With social media looming, and new technologies and devices appearing out of thin air, we do not have the historical data to ensure success. So we have to take chances. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT – Because marketing is no longer “safe” – and the risks are higher than ever, but so are the rewards.

5. WE COULD DRINK MARTINIS AT LUNCH – Doesn’t seem like that’s being done much anymore. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT – Because it was fun.

What do you think, how else has social media ruined marketing?