Well defined business objectives are the cornerstone of any corporate Social Media initiative.  Defining strategic objectives for social media has been pretty well covered across the social media blogs, but many businesses seem to be missing it.

Photo Credit - Beck Tench

So why the struggle?  Well, good strategy isn’t easy.  It takes a lot of hard work to build a strategy and even more work partnering across the organization to make it work.

Social Media is all about listening to your customers and having a dialogue that increases the ability of your company or brand to meet their needs.

But as savvy marketers know, the process consumers go through when considering, purchasing, and ultimately recommending your product or service is complex.

Many Social Media strategists try to focus their efforts across ALL steps of this process.  But a detailed understanding of customer needs for information at each point in the process holds the key for where to focus your Social Media efforts.

For discussion, here is a simple Customer Experience framework

1. Realization – Recognition of a problem or need

2. Awareness - Connection between need and your product

3. Evaluation – Consideration of your (and your competitors) product benefits and tradeoffs as a solution to the need

4. UPDATED:  Transaction – Money is exchanged for product (Great Suggestion from Alain Breillatt)
   

5. Consumption – Product is used

6. Service – Post-purchase support for your product

You’re probably already thinking of this cycle as how it relates to your own company, and it may seem simplistic.

But compare a product like HDTVs to a product like Search Engines.  Customer information needs at each point in the Customer Experience Lifecycle differ based on the product.  Understanding the details behind customer behavior and the need for information can help focus your Social Media efforts.

HDTVs – Customer Experience Life Cycle

Social Media Business Objectives for HDTV marketers should focus on creating consumer recognition of the need for an HDTV, evaluating the differences between solutions, and providing customer service.

• Realization – [HIGH] – Many don’t recognize or have a need for an HDTV
• Awareness – [LOW] - Consumers who have recognized a need likely understand how an HDTV can solve it
• Evaluation – [HIGH] – Consumers need information on the benefits of various HDTV options relative to cost
• Consumption – [LOW] – Most customers are well aware of how to use an HDTV
• Service – [HIGH] – Customers who have a problem with their HDTV need information on how to service it

Search Engines – Customer Experience Life Cycle

As an illustration of the opposite, Search Engines (who aren’t Google) should focus Social Media efforts on Awareness and Consumption.

• Realization – [LOW] – Consumers know when they need to search for information
• Awareness – [HIGH] – Consumers often don’t understand how search engines can meet their information needs
• Evaluation – [LOW] - Consumers can quickly search multiple sites at little cost
• Consumption – [HIGH] – Many customers struggle to do anything but a basic search
• Service – [LOW] – Once customers use the search engine, there is really no need for “service”

In my next two posts, I’ll cover companies I think are doing this right and companies I think have their business objectives misaligned.  In the meantime, I’m open to suggestions on the lifecycle model (should there be a step for “Decision/Transaction”?)

Also, I’d love any examples of companies you think have properly aligned objectives to their Social Media strategies through a detailed understanding of their customers.

Posted by Ben Foster

Content strategy at traditional media companies is moving in two different directions.  Companies that focus on written content are making it tougher to leverage their word-based assets.  The AP is suing blogs who “scrape” content from their sources and Newscorp chief Rupert Murdoch recently announced that they are exploring micro-payments for content.

On the other hand, video content providers are opening their doors to sites who want to embed their video.  Hulu, the joint venture started by NBC and Fox, permits web sites to embed video content they own.  ABC, a unit of Disney, decided that this model was something worth paying for, as they recently took a 28% stake in Hulu.

Good Written Content Is A Commodity

As a medium, written content is far more ubiquitous than video content.  Even at the high end, there is not much difference between the New York Times Week In Review and Slate Magazine to the typical consumer.

News companies are desperate for revenue, so perhaps giving micro-payments a shot is a last-ditch effort at survival.  But even a Hail Mary towards users payment doesn’t seem like a sustainable business model as content publishers grow more numerous on the web.

Quality Video Content Is Expensive

Relative to high quality written content, good video content is very expensive to produce.  The move to foster embedded video content seems to reflect certain media companies’ strategy to gain more of the benefit of viral content and reduce the resources it takes to chase down illegal copies.

The strategy also appears to be a desperation move, but a slightly more calculated one.  If everyone is going to watch the latest Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg video, they might as well watch it from a site the companies control.

By making it easier (and legal) to distribute video content, you can at least get some revenue from embedded advertising and traffic as well as the ability to show users “related videos”.

Someone is Making a Strategic Content Pricing Mistake

Classic micro-economics suggests to me that a non-scarce good (written content) should cost significantly less than a scarce good (video content).  Therefore, it seems one of these two groups of firms are making a strategic error.

The AP and Newscorp stand to lose more if they are wrong.  If they charge a price where “good-enough” substitutes are free, consumers will shift to the free good.  This shift could increase the reputation of alternate news agencies and diminish the brand equity of AP and Newscorp, even if they return to a free price.

If NBC, Fox, and ABC are wrong, they simply miss out on “extra” revenue.  Strategically, they benefit from destroying content pirates as well as from the savings in no longer pursuing legal action against the pirates.

Posted by Ben Foster

Photo Credit - Jayel Aheram

Making sure your customers are interested in your site’s content is one of the toughest challenges of content strategy.  Most companies trying to engage their customers through Social Media are not in the media industry and struggle with developing good content.  The employees producing content at these companies are often so focused on the brand that they can’t separate themselves enough to produce something interesting.

In Getting Things Done, David Allen talks about the use of checklists for reoccurring tasks to reduce the stress of thinking about how to get something done.  Here’s a checklist to help make your content interesting and relevant for your customers:

Is the content addressing “Tension”?

Burger King’s widely successful recent ad campaigns all have the same thing in common, tension.  Marketing Chief Russ Klein explains here:

“…My personal philosophy is effective advertising stems from tension, and when it’s provocative it’s more ingrained in the culture…I think viewers today appreciate clever and provocative advertising.”

Addressing tension is also a cornerstone of good content.  Tension comes from an issue or question with reasonable arguments on all sides, banning trans-fats for example.  Content that adds perspective to tension works well because people keep thinking about it as they wrestle with the issue.

Would your audience Recommend this content to their friends?

Companies have a habit of producing content that is of interest to the company, not their customers.  But a content strategist should think of her content as a tool.  Ideally, customers will use this tool to help their friends and colleagues.

A good way to think of this is comparing it to the Net Promoter Score which measures the likelihood that a customer would recommend a company to their friend.  Is it any wonder that Apple’s ability to make satisfying products and services a major contributor to their high Net Promoter scores?

Does this relate to a customer Problem or need?

Sounds simple, but this is the main thing most companies miss.  The funny thing is, they miss this because the people running the content strategy often do not leverage the consumer research done by the marketing department.  Studying the details of existing research gives content strategists a way to evaluate their existing content AND it also provides plenty of stimuli for new content.

Can the main point be described Succinctly?

This is an easy test to perform – Can you make an compelling tweet of the idea? Many companies who aren’t familiar with producing content (read:  all of us not in the media industry) try to cram too many ideas into one piece of content.  This dilutes the idea and makes it harder to understand.

You want to leave consumers of your content with an idea that sticks in their head long after they’ve read the content.  The best way to accomplish this is to have a clear point of your article that you can describe quickly.

Have you Proofread the content?

This should go without saying, but I’m including it because it’s one I always leave out!  There are really no excuses for sloppy content (I’m guilty), and it leaves a negative impression on your audience.

Don’t believe me that it’s a problem?  Well, it’s such an issue that companies are developing services to address this for content providers!

Posted by Ben Foster

Facebook is so worried about Twitter that they are creating monetary incentives to keep people on Facebook to check their statuses.  Mashable provides great coverage, as always:

Facebook Credits seem to (be) Facebook’s baby steps into the world of virtual currency. Right now, users can only give credits to friends for sharing great posts or having a status people like. However, it isn’t a far stretch for credits to be the medium in which people pay for things on Facebook applications or even pay for things on other websites via Facebook Connect. Imagine connecting to Amazon and buying a new mouse with a couple thousand credits.

But seriously, will anyone buy these to give to their friends?  Facebook has struggled with monetization of gifts for friends, and this is no time for users, particularly in Facebook’s demographic, to be spending money frivolously.

Rather than paying for credits, which seems to be unrealistic, Facebook should study its data to find the best creators of content and provide them with free credits to get the virutal economy in information rolling.  Giving credits to the best content creators will allow them to “trickle-down” the credits to those they recognize as providing great content.

Great Content Recognizes Great Content

• We can safely assume that Facebook knows more about us than our actual friends do.  Facebook should mine their data to find the users who share the most links, that are most commented/liked, and that are re-shared with others.
• Users who can create good content are more fitted to recognize great content than users with money to burn.  Having good users recognize content increase the value to Facebook for that recognition.

Let Great Content Providers Trickle-Down the Facebook Wealth

• Selling Facebook Credits will put power in the hands of those with wealth; this conflicts with a basic principle of Social Media, let the users determine what is good content.
• Good content creators can give credits to other good creators who will then do the same continue to “spread the wealth”.  Sound like socialism?  Well, it’s actually more like the theory behind Trickle-Down economics.

Existing creators of good content rewarding others who can create good content will provide Facebook with much more relevant, and therefore more financially valuable, data.  By selling the credits, not only will the program look silly and likely fail, the data created by the program would not be as valuable as allowing the best users to highlight where others are doing the right thing.

Will Wright has created some of the best video games in history including SimCity, The Sims, and (slightly less successfully),  Spore. Will Wright’s keynote speech during the Web 2.0 2009 Conference was billed as “A Conversation”.  It was by far and away the most talked about keynote of the entire convention that had implications far beyond video games.

So why was everyone interested in what Will Wright had to say about Web 2.0?  Well, the man can see the future and his insights were invaluable.  Here’s how what Will Wright had to say and how it impacts Social Media Strategy:

Don’t Educate Me; Motivate Me

• “Education is not the filling of the pail, but the spark of the fire.  I’m interested in how to get kids motivated.  Once they are motivated, get out of the way, and they will learn themselves.”

• Impact: Let wikipedia provide the facts, give your users frameworks or a set of tools.  I see many Social Media Strategies along the lines of “Our site will educate customers on how to improve their daily lives.”  Facts are a commodity on the internet right now.  What matters to your users is how they can APPLY THE FACTS to their specific needs.

Keep (The Content) About Me

• “My central premise in game design is that people are narcissistic.  The more you make it about them, the more they like it.”
  
• Impact - Study the deep detail behind what your users or customers want or need, and then, with laser-like focus, give them what they need.  Companies have many great ideas about what they THINK people want, but so rarely do they understand the customer enough to give them what they want.
• So rarely does our content truly match up with what our customers want.  Talk to your market research department, study what the blogs are saying, or RUN A TWITTER SEARCH!  Just make sure you aren’t guessing.

Revolve the Universe Around Me

• “The Web allows us to make games asynchronously.  Spore was a Massively Single Player Online Game; you are God in your own universe, but you are affected by others.”
• IMPACT: Give users the ability to access your content on their own terms.  Many companies have to measure Social Media Strategy with metrics like page views or unique visitors, but forcing measurements like that do not easy ways for users to see your content.

Beth Kanter wrote an incredibly relevant piece on the importance of story-telling in presentations.  She cites Andy Goodman in her article:

Andy is a master at storytelling.  In his workshops, he offers the following formula for a storytelling based on Hollywood script writing:

* Introduce the central character
* Inciting moment:  something bad happens to the character that will prevent them from achieving a goal related to the goal of your presentation
* Barrier to resolution #1:  Character tries to solve the problem, but can’t
* Barrier to resolution #2:  Characater tries to solve the problem, but can’t
* Resolution:  What you’re going to share in your presentation
* Widen the Lens:  The bigger picture

Sounds simple enough…but not all of us are master story-tellers. How do you know if your story is good?

• Does your story give your audience an lesson they can use?  – Give your audience the ability to apply a lesson from the experience of someone else
• Is the ending of the story an excellent beginning to your presentation? – It’s tempting to tell a joke, but don’t take time away from communicating your message
• Would your audience tell the story to someone else? – Don’t confuse this with simplicity; the point is to create a group who can spread your message to others
• Have you practiced telling the story to someone else? Don’t test your story on the audience; master the timing by practicing with a friend or colleague

Last night I gave a presentation to the Chicago Chapter of the Scleroderma Foundation about the basics of Social Media and implications to a non-profit.  You can download and use the presentation here. Scleroderma or systemic sclerosis, is a chronic connective tissue disease generally classified as one of the autoimmune rheumatic diseases.

They had 3 great questions that I would love to solicit your feedback

1. How could we use Social Media around goals as well as discussions?

2. How does Social Media involvement at the national level differ from the local level?

3. Should we lock down certain areas of discussion to specific people or keep it open and transparent?

We look forward to your responses!

Forrester’s classic 2007 report on Social Technographics is an easy way to explain the use of Social Media.  I’ve used this construct many times to show how broad social media participation is.  Additionally, this construct increases Social Media Strategy understanding since most everyone has done one of these activities.

Recently, some of the most valuable people in my networks don’t really fall into a class on this ladder.  I’ll propose we call them “Surfacers”.  You know who this person is, it’s the person whose links on facebook or twitter you ALWAYS read.   They don’t add commentary or content, but they play a HUGE role in what you click on every day.

Here is Forrester’s classic construct:

The Surfacer falls somewhere within the Top 5 rungs…but has these unique characteristics

• Digests massive quantities of content through RSS feeds, their friends’ content, and their own curiosity
• Avoids posting content that is super-popular
• Takes pride in ability to share new information
• Focused primarily on sharing information with friends, not with broader community
• Credits friend/source of information

I have no idea how to get to the percentages that Forrester did, but the strategic implication is clear.  These are the “taste-makers” that marketers dream about.  They provide tremendous value to their friends by finding and filtering the best content from around the web.   The implication for content creators is to make it easy for them to find information, determine its uniqueness, and allow them to clearly share and communicate its value with friends.

For Discussion:  Is this a common role in social networks?  Are those who want to play this role constrained by technology?

Seth Godin recently posted Hamster Burial Kits & 998 Other Business Ideas which hit my radar from many eager entrepreneurs.  Not so fast, ideas are only thoughts.  Without solid execution, the idea is worth nothing.  Want more proof?  Malcolm Gladwell’s New Yorker piece about “simultaneous discovery” provides a lot of historical background to support the theory of execution over ideation.  Below is a simple analysis to see what words are being used simultaneously to see if any insights can be gained from the ideas generated.

Let’s  start with the statement excerpted from the original post:

Ideas are a dime a dozen. The money is in the execution.

Need proof? For Seth Godin’s Alternative MBA program, this week the nine of us came up with 111 business ideas each. But ideas are only valuable when someone (like you) makes something happen.

5 Quick Thoughts

I only included important words by removing words like “a”, “the”, and the like from the complete list.

• “Service” was the most commonly used word (133 times) which makes me think about the balance of these two ideas
  • “Service” is a fine word for a high-level description, but it is now so generic that any relevant business case needs to put a unique spin on what ‘service’ means to get noticed
  • Or….services are so necessary to solving consumer problems that any new idea should have some service feature/component
• “iPhone” was used more than “food” and “phone”, though more people use (and search for!) “food” and “phone“s than use iPhones
• “Restaurant” cracked the top 100; anecdotally, I’ve heard that many restaurants fail
• “People” ranked really high (3rd after my filter) which says emphasizes the (obvious?) point that new ideas must not be fluff, they must relate to people
• “Podcast” (and its derivatives “podcasts”, “podcast)”) was only used 6 times…but it amazes me to see so many new content-rich podcasts around.  Simply put, I wonder how much time podcasting is worth, business wise

Statistics on Words

• 18,949 words - Total words describing 999 ideas
• 174 words – Most words in an idea
• 19.25 words – Average words/idea
• 2 words – least words in an idea

Top Words in an Idea

DISCLAIMER – The intention was to make this quick so I didn’t spend a tremendous amount of time worrying about what words to exclude/combine.  I’d appreciate constructive adjustments in the comments!

#14 – ‘service’ – 133 counts – (0.4%)

#16 – ‘company’ – 119 counts – (0.36%)

#18 – ‘people’ – 113 counts – (0.35%)

#22 – ‘Online’ – 78 counts – (0.24%)

#32 – ‘website’ – 59 counts – (0.19%)

#34 – ‘Get’ – 57 counts – (0.18%)

#44 – ‘site’ – 46 counts – (0.15%)

#46 – ‘business’ – 44 counts – (0.14%)

#49 – ‘etc.’ – 39 counts – (0.13%)

#57 – ‘store’ – 31 counts – (0.1%)

#60 – ‘Consulting’ – 30 counts – (0.1%)

#62 – ‘video’ – 29 counts – (0.1%)

#65 – ‘app’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#65 – ‘Create’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#65 – ‘Help’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#65 – ‘iPhone’ – 28 counts – (0.09%)

#71 – ‘digital’ – 27 counts – (0.09%)

#71 – ‘go’ – 27 counts – (0.09%)

#74 – ‘allows’ – 26 counts – (0.09%)

#74 – ‘book’ – 26 counts – (0.09%)

#74 – ‘way’ – 26 counts – (0.09%)

#77 – ‘based’ – 25 counts – (0.08%)

#77 – ‘school’ – 25 counts – (0.08%)

#77 – ‘want’ – 25 counts – (0.08%)

#81 – ‘local’ – 24 counts – (0.08%)

#82 – ‘one’ – 23 counts – (0.08%)

#84 – ‘find’ – 22 counts – (0.07%)

#84 – ‘kids’ – 22 counts – (0.07%)

#88 – ‘companies’ – 21 counts – (0.07%)

#88 – ‘food’ – 21 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘best’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘car’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘home’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘phone’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘set’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘students’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#92 – ‘Users’ – 20 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘don’t’ – 19 counts – (0.06%)

#100 – ‘good’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘more’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘new’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘restaurant’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘software’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

#100 – ‘time’ – 19 counts – (0.07%)

Link to Data Files extracted from Seth Godin’s site

• Raw Data CSV
• Summary CSV