Reputation to Revenue

Oh, the pain of it all

Watch and whine (at least if you're a consultant, at an agency, or otherwise actually trying to wrangle real money from clients these days).

Thanks to Todd Defren for the link.

The new, new marketing: Health tech coalition may point the way

The buzz in marketing is all about social media, with Twitter as the flavor of the month and maybe even a tipping point in getting laggard companies to finally take the promise of social media seriously. 

I'm all for it, of course. Certainly the hype can get tiresome, and there are huge strategy and organizational questions that companies have to face with social media, but I think we're well past the stage of wondering whether there's real gold in those hills.

But social media was "new" in marketing five years ago. Back then, when I talked with clients about the promise of blogs and communities and the like for "serious" B2B marketing, I got a lot of blank stares and "really?" responses. Those days are long gone, even if many companies are just now dipping their toes into the water.

The new, new marketing incorporates social media values and tactics, but it's much more than that. It's mission-oriented, educational, and problem-solving, while also being conversational and transparent. 

In fact, I've been thinking about yet another acronym to capture the idea: Marketing that MATTERS. it's definitely on the long side, and maybe too cute, but I think the direction is right.

M - Mission-oriented, focused on a larger purpose than just selling stuff
A - Authentic, with personal and organizational integrity, and real people speaking like real people
T - Thought-provoking, with a serious purpose and making people think
T - Transparent (of course), opening the curtain and letting people see inside
E - Educational, helping people learn and solve problems vs. distracting or "just" entertaining them
R - Relationship-oriented, looking for long-term partnership, not just the the one-time sale
S - Story-driven, since that's what we remember and what makes it real

IBM's Smarter Planet campaign (which is becoming more a way of doing business than just a campaign) is a great example of this approach, and the kudos IBM is receiving are well-deserved.

GE's new Healthymagination is another move in the same direction, as was GE's earlier start with its Ecomagination initiative.

Yes these are self-serving marketing programs. Hey, it's capitalism and these are mega-corporations trying to make a buck. But there is a strong element of enlightened self-interest here. They're tackling real social issues; they're raising awareness; they're thought-provoking; they're providing at least some education, and so on. I'm not sure they''d get all A's on a Marketing that MATTERS report card, but I'm choosing to look on the bright side.

Meanwhile, we don't all have the deep pockets of IBM and GE, and have to think a bit smaller in scale.  

A new health tech coalition, the EHR Stimulus Tour, captured my eye in this regard. Motivated by the chance to capture government funding for helping doctors convert to electronic health records (EHR), an alliance of large and smaller tech firms, including Cisco, Dell, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, Nuance, Allscripts, and Citrix is organizing an educational campaign for doctors on the Stimulus legislation and the opportunities and benefits of EHR.

It's not a huge effort, and probably not one that will last for years. Tactically, though, the campaign covers a lot of useful ground in a well-designed and integrated way: a focused audience, an educational approach, a combination of live road show events and a resource microsite, a presence n Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, a set of webcasts, etc. And the alliance approach itself is a nice change from the normal solo or traditional channel approach; it adds to the "we're all pitching in to solve the problem" idea.

The program and the EHR push in general are not without controversy (see, for example, here). In looking at the bright side, though, I see enormous potential for business-society win-win with this kind of marketing approach. I wouldn't give these guys all A's either, but the Mission-orientation is a good start and the campaign provides a useful model to consider.

What do you think? And what about "Marketing that MATTERS" idea? Does that make sense, or is it just another dumb acronym?

Permission marketing turns ten

Seth Godin today marked the tenth anniversary of his hugely influential book, Permission Marketing. Along with Cluetrain Manifesto, Godin's first book captured perfectly the seismic shift in marketing that was just then (1999) beginning to be understood: markets are conversations, interruption marketing is dying, buyers are in control, marketers abuse customer trust at their own peril, the Web opens up everything. And this was all years before anyone ever heard of blogging, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter.

Thanks Seth!

P.S. You can still get the first four chapters free at permission.com.

Put everyone in marketing? Yes, and with a social spin

Harvard management guru Rosabeth Moss Kanter last week suggested: "In a Recession, Put Everyone in Marketing." The idea, of course, is that you can't just keep cutting costs endlessly, and your employees are your most important asset. When times are tough, everyone needs to contribute to growth.

It's a perfectly fine idea, although often stated as one of those age-old cliches that you don't actually take seriously: "Sure, we're all marketers. Great. Can we get back to work now?"

In fact, the recession is the perfect time to merge the basic idea of everyone supporting marketing with the mega-trend of social media.

Kanter's five suggestions for how to put everyone in marketing are all good ones, but surprisingly pre-Web 2.0. If we give them a social spin, the possibilities become a lot more interesting.

• Increase customer contact and communication. Not only should senior executives reach out more, so should employees throughout the organization. "Perhaps a personal note or a phone call to provide news or ask questions." Isn't it time to accelerate efforts to connect with customers through social networks and communities, and tap employees around the organization who are already active to lead the charge?
• Start looking for new markets now. All employees should be looking for new uses of existing products and new areas for potential customers. "This might involve sales calls, tests of a new channel, postings on Web sites targeting new areas or industry segments, sending more people to speak at industry conferences and cultivate relationship." What about tapping the social web both internally and externally to rapidly crowdsource new market ideas and opportunities, as  companies like IBM, Dell, Cisco, and others are doing with innovation jams and webstorms?
• Invest in employee morale. When morale is down, productivity suffers. Managers should do more to show employees how much they are valued. "Small tokens of appreciation and enjoyment, such as a weekend outing with families or a food festival with employee contributions... go a long way to keep people motivated." Why not really open up the organization internally with a new transparency using honest executive blogs, wide-ranging online discussion of business challenges and opportunities, and an authentic commitment from the top to respond to employee questions and concerns? If the new external marketing is all about open conversation and community, the new internal marketing should be, too.  
• Emphasize and reward small wins. Tough times make it that much more important to get new ideas from anyone and everyone in the organization, but companies too often neglect to ask or provide incentives to help the process along. "A program that actively seeks these ideas and rewards them... can strengthen the company immediately." Why not use the crowdsourcing approach noted above for an even broader effort to generate and recognize new business improvement ideas. 
• Stick with your values. Managers are often tempted to cut ethical corners in a down economy, but desperate measures often come back to haunt the company soon thereafter -- "Reminders about company values can reinforce solidarity and increase the confidence that customers have in the company." What about using the recession as the perfect opportunity to increase public commitment to management transparency and corporate social responsibility, and create new online resources such as interactive sustainability reports to demonstrate the commitment?

Kanter is right on when she suggests that getting all employees involved in knowing and caring about customers is a key to success when times are tough. This is not exactly easy when many of those employees are understandably worried most of all about their own job security and families. Fortunately, our growing experience with new social tools and programs is making it a bit easier just when we need it most. 

What do you think?

Photo credit: aleske

Acid test for social media: The lunch lady blog

Tac Anderson at NewCommBiz just posted the true test for companies working in social media: Will they let the lunch lady blog?

Tac says he often poses a question to audiences when he talks about social media: You talk to a CEO on a flight and ask him about his company's recent poor results, and get one answer. Then you run into the CEO's lunch lady at a kid's soccer game and ask her the same question. Whose answer do you believe?

One thing that we've learned about social media is that we all trust 'people like me." Whenever I give this scenario and ask the question I have NEVER had anyone pick the CEO and I've even posed this question to a room full of CEO's.

There are so many companies that are doing great things with social media right now but we haven't taken it far enough. We've enabled our marketing teams, key communication groups and our engineers and product developers but we have not yet pushed social media all the way through the company. 

We will have finally reached truly social businesses when we let the lunch lady blog.

Amen to that, but two quick comments:

First, although a number of companies are indeed doing great things with social media, we're still very early on the learning curve and even more companies are just barely getting started.

Second, the lunch lady may well already be blogging!

Photo credit: specialkrb