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Products I Can’t Live Without (Or At Least Don’t Want To)
Over the holidays, I finally had a few days to clean out, reorganize and play with new features on some of my favorite products. This gave me some more clarity on how I can, and want, to use these products moving forward to best fit my needs, and I’m already seeing the benefits.
This has inspired me to write a series on products I can’t live without and how I use them.
Here is an initial list of the products, which I’ll likely be tweaking as we go.
One thing is becoming clear to me: there are just too many great social networks for one person to manage alone (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Instagram… the list goes on). While enthusiasm for social media, mobile and apps is still growing, I wouldn’t be surprised if fatigue starts to set in trying to keep up. Soon, there will be a need for a platform that aggregates your feeds and communications. Some might argue that need already exists. After all, there are plenty of SMMS (social media management system) products out there (e.g. Hootsuite, TweetDeck, Spredfast). But, these were really built for the professional and enterprise in mind. The UX of these products clearly reflects that. I think that there is now a need for a product that aggregates your feeds and communications in a more consumer-friendly experience. I’ll touch on this in more depth in the individual posts.
If you have any thoughts the above listed products or think there are some I should add, please share.
Defining ROI of Social Media by Identifying Opportunities with Social Media
The social media industry as a whole is following a strikingly similar approach.
In the startup world there are rumblings of a bubble. It’s sexy to invest in social media startups in hopes of getting in on the next Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn or even Groupon. The problem is that many investors trying to get into the industry don’t know what to look for, and so many entrepreneurs are, as Charlie O’Donnell so adequately stated in his newsletter a few weeks ago, “solving to get funded” instead of building products that are creating value by improving the lives of the greater population. It’s about the sprint, and the finish line is getting funded by a VC. While any VC or entrepreneur worth their salt knows it’s really about the execution, and that is akin to running a marathon several times over.
In the marketing world, we are reporting on the most-viewed, viral branded videos. We’re creating badges for every action and trying to figure out which new check-in or check-out startup we should use on the next campaign. We’re confusing brands about what’s important and valuable – probably because this is all still so new that we are, in part, figuring it out as we go.
So, I have a challenge for everyone: keep it simple and focus on the longview.
Here’s what I mean by that:
Social Media Is Not New
Instead of trying to give you a lesson in the history of social media, I’ll just refer you to a series of posts by Marc Suster. Honestly, he explains it better than I could. Here are Part 1 – Social Networking: The Past, Part 2 – Social Networking: The Present and Part 3 – Social Networking: The Future.
What it comes down to is that there is a common thread between the technologies from thirty years ago, and the ones today. What has changed is that the internet is now ubiquitous and the platforms more sophisticated in enabling people to connect with each other, and find, filter and share content that they find relevant and valuable.
When analyzing new technologies, focus on those that solve a real problem for a large audience (broad or niche) and create a community (i.e. a network or fan base) around that product/service.
So, What’s the Value of Social Media for a Brand?
The most valuable thing that a brand can do in social media is leverage its platforms to listen to, and communicate with, their customers to create an owned advocacy network where a brand’s most avid advocates can
- inform the brand directly on valuable improvements that the brand can make to its product/service
- help other customers solve issues that they’re having with the product/service
- gain exclusive access to content that the advocates crave and can use for their own social activities (participating in forums, blogging, etc.)
This is valuable because
- customers transform into advocates with an emotional connection to the brand
- brands can implement the insights from their advocates into product/service updates, improving their brands in a meaningful way
- advocates earn a real voice in the brand’s development and identity, which only deepens their connection with the brand and makes them want to participate more, leading to more insights and more positive word-of-mouth and content (and high search results) for your brand
- less money and time spent on a customer service team because your advocates are already answering many of the questions that a customer may have. And, they may be answering those questions in a clearer and more timely fashion than your customer service team would
What Does This Really Mean for a Brand?
A tectonic shift in the way a brand manages its business. It must start behaving like a transparent startup, and that directive has to come from the C-Suite down. The value can be tremendous. Social media gives brands a channel to encourage innovation informed by its greatest advocates. It eliminates the guess work when thinking of improvements to your product/service – just listen to your advocates and you know that there will be a consumer base that appreciates the updates.
I’ll leave you with two Warren Buffett quotes:
- “The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective”,
- “There seems to be some perverse human characteristic that likes to make easy things difficult”.
Well, essentially, the same goes for social media. The press and ad agencies and VCs and startups generate a lot of noise and make social media sound a lot more complicated than it really is.
Focus on the simple behaviors – the basic actions that people take online. Understand why people take those actions and empower them to do more of it, while providing them value with your brand. And, remember that it all starts with listening.
A Brand’s Journey to Discovery
Previously, I wrote an introduction to the Reciprocity Theory – my theory that brands must earn their seat in the conversation by becoming a Valued Community Member (VCM). You can read that post here. In this post, I’m going to describe how a brand can identify the types of content to produce and curate, based on the ways that audiences discover brands online, so that the brand can become a VCM.
First, let’s recap that in order to become a VCM, the individual/brand must produce or curate Valued Original Content (VOC). According to AOL’s study “CONTENT: What Drives Consumption?”, the formula for VOC is:
Unique Content + Quality (trusted, fresh, relevant, authentic) Content = Valued Original Content
Now, let’s discuss what kind of content a brand should be producing.
In its study, AOL broke down online activities into two buckets:
- Content Activities; and,
- Communication Activities
The following are my assumptions and interpretations of the infographic above:
- “Seeking/getting info” refers to search (through a search engine like Google or Bing, or within an experience such as within a news site or social network)
- “Seeking/getting info” is not mutually exclusive with “Entertainment” or “Shopping”, as the former can lead to the latter and vise versa
- “Social Networking” refers only to the act of communicating with individuals in one’s network, not the act of discovering or sharing content. The latter is reserved for “Entertainment”
Just as there are two main online activities that audiences participate in, there are two main ways for brands to be discovered by their audiences. I call these the “Discovery Points”, and they are:
- Passive Discovery; and,
- Active Discovery
Passive Discovery
Passive Discovery addresses audiences in their passive state – i.e. while they’re participating in the following activities (defined by AOL):
- Social Networking (which = 15% of online activities); and,
- Entertainment (i.e. video, games, music) (which = 16% of online activities)
It helps me to think of these as activities that you participate in while sitting back in your chair.
You enter an experience (Facebook, Twitter, your favorite news site or celebrity gossip site, etc.), and passively browse, discover and consume the content that is featured that day or in that moment.
In Passive Discovery mode, the VOC is lifestyle/interest focused.
Now say you discover something interesting, and you want to learn more about it. How are you going to discover more information or find more related content? You enter Active Discovery mode…
Active Discovery
Active Discovery addresses audiences in their active state – i.e. while they’re participating in the following activities (defined by AOL):
- Seeking / getting information (i.e. search) (which = 26% of online activities); and,
- Shopping (which = 11% of online activities)
It helps me to think of these as activities that you participate in while sitting forward in your chair.
You’re seeking specific information (more reports on an interesting piece of news or gossip, related content from a publisher you just discovered, information about a product or service that you just discovered, etc.). You actively search, discover and consume this content.
And, thus, in Active Discovery mode, the VOC is product/service focused.
It’s important to note that Passive and Active Discovery are not mutually exclusive, but rather, when coordinated properly, they create a reciprocal ecosystem of content where each guides audiences into the other, as demonstrated in the below Discovery Map.
Now, different products/services follow different purchasing frequencies. For example, you may buy a box of cereal every week, but buy a new cell phone only once every year or two, and lease a car only every three to five years. How do you conquest audiences, so that when they arrive at the “Purchase Point” (the point at which they need to purchase a product/service in your vertical), they choose your product/service over your competitors’?
You must win “Share of Voice”, “Share of Conversation” and, ultimately, “Share of Mind”.
I’ll be covering this in my next post.
Social Media and the Reciprocity Theory
This post originally appeared here on Big Fuel’s blog Content to Commerce.
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rec.i.proc.i.ty / [res-uh-pros-i-tee] / n.
mutual dependence, action or influence
http://www.merriam-webster.com
Newton’s Third Law of Physics
I constantly contextualize and visualize information; it makes digesting that information easier. Thus, I often think of social media in the context of Newton’s Third Law of Physics (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction). And, I refer back to this image of two ice skaters pushing against each other.
So long as the force that each skater is acting upon the other is equal, they maintain a balanced relationship. But, as soon as the force of one exceeds the other, the relationship is thrown off balance. In other words, the skaters’ relationship is mutually dependent, or, reciprocal.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the core motivators that drive participation and action in social media. What is influence, really, and why the desire to become an influencer? What drives a piece of information or content (the two being synonymous on the social web) to go viral? And, how can a brand leverage social media to reach its audience and see a real ROI?
This notion of social reciprocity has struck a cord with me, leading to the development of what I call the Reciprocity Theory.
The Reciprocity Theory
At its core, the Reciprocity Theory believes that social motivation is based on each person’s desire to
- be recognized as an individual, and
- belong to a community
It’s the yin and yang of the social being. Why do we join a social network like Facebook or Foursquare? To be part of a community – even if that community is just connecting online with your offline friends. Why do we share content on Twitter and YouTube? To share in common interests and knowledge. Of course, as I was thinking about this, I had to visualize it, so I drew a venn diagram:
Taking a step back, I immediately thought: here’s the root of influence – at the intersection between the individual and the community. Influence is earned by being a valued member of the community. And, how does one become a valued member of the community? I backed into this answer…
The Valued Community Member
In their study “Content- What Drives Consumption?”, AOL concluded that audiences want valued original content. And, the equation for valued original content is:
Unique Content + Quality (trusted, fresh, relevant, authentic) Content = Valued Original Content
Thus, in order to be recognized as a valued community member, an individual must produce or curate valued original content. Provide value to the community, and your influence will grow. It’s reciprocal.
And, here lies the essence of the Reciprocity Theory. Whatever you give to a community, you earn in return. It’s reciprocal and, potentially, infinite – as long as you continue to provide value to the community. So, the reciprocity venn diagram became an infinity loop of sorts.
Simple enough, right?
But, what about brands?
Looking back at the reciprocity venn diagram, another thought occurred to me: where does a brand fit into this? How does a brand reach their target audience? If a brand interjects itself with traditional, antiquated messaging and advertising, then it will throw off the balance and the individual and community will retract. The individual and the community will continue their relationship, but the brand won’t be a part of it.
So, how can a brand earn a seat in the conversation in a world where the individual wields more power than the brand? The brand must do exactly that: earn it – by respecting the relationship and becoming a valued community member.
In my next post, I’ll be discussing how a brand can become a valued community member and start to see a real ROI for its participation. If you’re interested, please follow me on Twitter for updates.
Related articles
- Practice Social RECIPROCITY, not Social MEDIA (reciprocitytheory.com)
- Podcast – An Introduction To Social Media Marketing (simplybusiness.co.uk)
- The Myth Of Reciprocity And The Social Life Of Brands (twistimage.com)
- Exposure to Social Media Linked with Changes in Sales and Brand Perception (ogilvypr.com)
- 3 Layers of Social Media Connections (brasstackthinking.com)
