The LeBron James situation seems to have more people asking whether it is society or the media who are at fault in following the exploits of a 25-year old basketball phenom. There are many people who are blaming the media for following James' every move.
The media are reflections of society. I know that there are those who believe that the media shape the discourse of society; that they have an "agenda setting" function. They may have had at one time. I think we are giving them far too much credit today. The media, particularly the mass media and cable outlets, are struggling to attract viewers. They are also struggling to keep costs down. As a result, we have had a seemingly endless steam of "reality TV" shows. These are cheeper to produce and seem to attract large numbers of viewers. How many more "Bachelors", "Bachelorets", "Last Comic Standing", "America's Got Talent", etc, etc, can we possibly watch. Yet every time we think we've saturated the concepts, along comes "Biggest Loser", "Iron Chef", and more and more. Every conceivable interest is pursued by the media. And, yes, we keep watching. More people vote for candidates on "American Idol" than vote for candidates in real elections. We seem to care more about who has the best voice or best dance steps than who runs the country.
So, is there any wonder that the media saw the opportunity to follow every step LeBron James made? He was the latest reality TV star of the week. His exploits were discussed everywhere. The night of James' announcement on ESPN, I was walking by a high-end restaurant when a man came out of the restaurant on his cell phone asking his friend to watch ESPN and text him LeBron James' decision as soon as it was known. I could tell by his face that he was probably dismayed that he had to have dinner with his wife on such an important night and during prime time.
LeBron has learned to be a master marketer--or he has hired people around him who are good at marketing him. He knows how to milk our interests. But, it doesn't take a great marketer to get the media interested. This week there has been more coverage of what Lindsay Lohan had printed on her nail during her trial than about the debates in Congress over a new financial bill. The media don't care if you have talent; you just have to be of interest to large numbers of people.
There are many excuses for how bad the media have become. They have to contend with 24-hour headline news, the Internet, blogs, etc. The normal media are competing for attention. So, most have become entertainment services rather than news services. Watch local TV in most markets in the US and one wonders where the news is.
So, who is at fault? The media or society? Both are at fault. American society (and I keep this to US society because there still are good news services in many other countries like Canada and the UK in which there are deep discussions of important issues on the normal, nightly news shows, both local and national). American society has become dumbed down to a point that it is all sound-bites and personality. Following LeBron becomes no different from following Sarah Palin or Lindsay Lohan or the President's latest run to get a hamburger, or Bill Clinton at the World Cup. We loose sight of whose personality is important to us and whose is really unimportant in the grant scheme of things.
To quote Pogo: "we have met the enemy and they are us"
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Navigating Social Media for Brand and Reputation
The Internet has transformed virtually every company, empowering consumers, increasing the threat of new entrants, and creating new competitive opportunities or risks. In his Nobel Prize winning paper, The Nature of the Firm (1937), Ronald Coase noted that the primary economic rationale for integrated corporations was the lowering of search and transaction costs. The Internet has stripped these advantages from many companies. As a result, a “Long Tail” has developed (Anderson, 2004), allowing many businesses to use the Internet to realize significant profit from selling to niche rather than mass markets.
The term social media relates to those web-based activities that allow individuals to publish, share or network with others. Social media are like a big cocktail party. Markets are the conversations taking place. How one handles these conversations becomes more critical. It also changes marketing since relationships are more difficult to monetize than transaction. As a result, we are seeing a convergence of marketing, advertising and public relations.
Research by Razorfish and eMarketer have found that a majority of customers are influenced in their perceptions of brands by social media. These findings support the Edelman Trust Barometer findings that “a person like me” has become the primary influencer of perceptions.
There are still many who are confused as to whether they should have a strategic plan, a social media plan or a “Twitter” or “Facebook” plan. I would offer the following recommendations:
Technology will continue to evolve and change. Focus on strategy & reputation objectives, not on the technology.
Understand that social media are not all the same. Some are good for listening; some for sharing; some for networking; and others for publishing. Engage in all appropriately.
Become a real member of the community—once you have built credibility as a legitimate member of the social community, you might be asked for some suggestions and information.
Focus on your organization’s values—they must be honest and transparent. Values are the foundation of reputation. Clarify your values and hold people responsible for upholding them—they are now on full display.
Engage your employees and help them to understand their role in living your strategy, brand attributes and reputation objectives. Make certain that you have clear guidelines for employee use of social media.
Build Relationships. As Jim Grunig has noted, this may be the core competency of public relations. Relationships build value and multiple stakeholder relationships may well build value exponentially.
Monitor, listen and remain calm. Not everything said will be positive. You do not have to defend every criticism. Stop thinking of yourself as a corporate messenger and focus on being a relationship manager.
The term social media relates to those web-based activities that allow individuals to publish, share or network with others. Social media are like a big cocktail party. Markets are the conversations taking place. How one handles these conversations becomes more critical. It also changes marketing since relationships are more difficult to monetize than transaction. As a result, we are seeing a convergence of marketing, advertising and public relations.
Research by Razorfish and eMarketer have found that a majority of customers are influenced in their perceptions of brands by social media. These findings support the Edelman Trust Barometer findings that “a person like me” has become the primary influencer of perceptions.
There are still many who are confused as to whether they should have a strategic plan, a social media plan or a “Twitter” or “Facebook” plan. I would offer the following recommendations:
Technology will continue to evolve and change. Focus on strategy & reputation objectives, not on the technology.
Understand that social media are not all the same. Some are good for listening; some for sharing; some for networking; and others for publishing. Engage in all appropriately.
Become a real member of the community—once you have built credibility as a legitimate member of the social community, you might be asked for some suggestions and information.
Focus on your organization’s values—they must be honest and transparent. Values are the foundation of reputation. Clarify your values and hold people responsible for upholding them—they are now on full display.
Engage your employees and help them to understand their role in living your strategy, brand attributes and reputation objectives. Make certain that you have clear guidelines for employee use of social media.
Build Relationships. As Jim Grunig has noted, this may be the core competency of public relations. Relationships build value and multiple stakeholder relationships may well build value exponentially.
Monitor, listen and remain calm. Not everything said will be positive. You do not have to defend every criticism. Stop thinking of yourself as a corporate messenger and focus on being a relationship manager.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
More Commonality and Less Functionality is Needed
As a result of the Internet and social media, marketing, branding and corporate communications are converging. All all looking at a multi-stakeholder world in which relationships become king. Each of these disciplines has begun arguing that they deserve to have prominence in the management of social media.
Social media are surrounding companies and pulling knowledge that was once held inside the company to the "edge of the network". Companies can no longer push information at a stakeholder. Conversations and relationships are what predominate in the social media world. Consumers and other stakeholders have gained power of information and the ability to create and destroy value. They expect to be dealt with in a respectful dialogue, not as passive consumers of old.
So, who should own social media? Marketing argues that social media is part of the marketing mix. Brand management argues that people are talking about brands in social media and they should be the owners. Corporate communications (public relations) argues that they have always been relationship-driven and so they are best prepared to own social media.
The correct answer, I believe, is that none of them should own social media. Social media are not new channels, but rather conversations happening in cyberspace that involve the organization in one way or another. The Internet is fundamentally changing society and all organizations. The best way to deal with social media is to organize horizontally, not delegate social media to a vertical function within the organization. The reputation of the company depends on the organization's ability to manage all "touch points", and since no one function owns all the touch points, they should be managed in a coordinated, integrated fashion. However, this is not happening in most organization.
The old way of thinking is that a function within the company was given prominence or ownership over an activity. They could decide whether or not to partner with anyone else. It made for a very ineffective way of dealing with various stakeholders. Investors heard one message; customers heard another; employees still another. Things have gotten better, but improvements are still needed to keep pace with changes in the market environment.
Social media is a disorganized set of relationships and conversations. The best way to deal with social media is through the integration of marketing, branding and communications, along with employee engagement and sales management. Companies should be trying to create networks within their own organizations that mirror the networks on the outside. It's the best way to enhance the effectiveness of all of these functions and the perceived value of the company.
Social media are surrounding companies and pulling knowledge that was once held inside the company to the "edge of the network". Companies can no longer push information at a stakeholder. Conversations and relationships are what predominate in the social media world. Consumers and other stakeholders have gained power of information and the ability to create and destroy value. They expect to be dealt with in a respectful dialogue, not as passive consumers of old.
So, who should own social media? Marketing argues that social media is part of the marketing mix. Brand management argues that people are talking about brands in social media and they should be the owners. Corporate communications (public relations) argues that they have always been relationship-driven and so they are best prepared to own social media.
The correct answer, I believe, is that none of them should own social media. Social media are not new channels, but rather conversations happening in cyberspace that involve the organization in one way or another. The Internet is fundamentally changing society and all organizations. The best way to deal with social media is to organize horizontally, not delegate social media to a vertical function within the organization. The reputation of the company depends on the organization's ability to manage all "touch points", and since no one function owns all the touch points, they should be managed in a coordinated, integrated fashion. However, this is not happening in most organization.
The old way of thinking is that a function within the company was given prominence or ownership over an activity. They could decide whether or not to partner with anyone else. It made for a very ineffective way of dealing with various stakeholders. Investors heard one message; customers heard another; employees still another. Things have gotten better, but improvements are still needed to keep pace with changes in the market environment.
Social media is a disorganized set of relationships and conversations. The best way to deal with social media is through the integration of marketing, branding and communications, along with employee engagement and sales management. Companies should be trying to create networks within their own organizations that mirror the networks on the outside. It's the best way to enhance the effectiveness of all of these functions and the perceived value of the company.
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Still a Disconnect Between Marketing and Social Media Branding and Reputation Management
e-Marketer has published a survey of how marketers are using social media for brand and reputation management. The results show that there still is a majority of marketers who see social media as another medium to sell a product or service. They don't understand or appreciate the relationship building aspects of social media, or they are so focused on transactional monetization that they cannot get beyond that.
More than 52% of those surveyed said that they either try to push the offensive comments appearing in social media down on the Google search pages or try to put out a positive press release or pay someone to say something positive about the product or service.
These actions are troublesome on so many fronts. There are still too many people who believe that social media is just another medium or that they can defy the changing nature of customer relationships--somehow feeling that they do not have to abide by the new rules of engagement. They do not seem to understand that social media is about relationships and community and conversation with the customer, not the company, at the center. It's a tough world for those who demand command and control. Intrusions into the community are not welcome and companies do this will lower their brand equity and reputation rather than raise it.
I am also troubled by the fact that 12% are trying to do a reverse SEO to squash negative information that appears about their companies. While nearly 40% said that they were working on improvements in product and service as a result of negative comments about their brands, there are still those who think that they can bury negative news. First, the importance of SEO has diminished as social media has risen. We used to only being able to determine the value of a brand by whether or not it came up on the first page of a Google or Yahoo search. With social media, there are conversations that are more important.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am not sure the analytics will work as intended to push the comments down, since so many people know how to manipulate searches these days. Also, it is a demonstration of the worst sort of management. Why not just hire the local "wise guy" to "wack" the offender? It's the same thing. We live in a transparent world. Embrace it or stay out, but don't think you can get rid of problems the way the Mafia gets rid of its problems.
More than 52% of those surveyed said that they either try to push the offensive comments appearing in social media down on the Google search pages or try to put out a positive press release or pay someone to say something positive about the product or service.
These actions are troublesome on so many fronts. There are still too many people who believe that social media is just another medium or that they can defy the changing nature of customer relationships--somehow feeling that they do not have to abide by the new rules of engagement. They do not seem to understand that social media is about relationships and community and conversation with the customer, not the company, at the center. It's a tough world for those who demand command and control. Intrusions into the community are not welcome and companies do this will lower their brand equity and reputation rather than raise it.
I am also troubled by the fact that 12% are trying to do a reverse SEO to squash negative information that appears about their companies. While nearly 40% said that they were working on improvements in product and service as a result of negative comments about their brands, there are still those who think that they can bury negative news. First, the importance of SEO has diminished as social media has risen. We used to only being able to determine the value of a brand by whether or not it came up on the first page of a Google or Yahoo search. With social media, there are conversations that are more important.
As I mentioned in a previous blog, I am not sure the analytics will work as intended to push the comments down, since so many people know how to manipulate searches these days. Also, it is a demonstration of the worst sort of management. Why not just hire the local "wise guy" to "wack" the offender? It's the same thing. We live in a transparent world. Embrace it or stay out, but don't think you can get rid of problems the way the Mafia gets rid of its problems.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Kudos to Comcast
I had a great luncheon discussion today with Frank Eliason, the head of social media for Comcast. I am a customer of Comcast in Philadelphia. I also am a customer of Mediacom at my beach house in southern Delaware. Comcast looks like the best customer service company in the world and the most advanced technology company in the world compared to Mediacom. The latter gives new meaning to thinking and acting like a public utility--you know the attitude: "if you don't like the electric company, live in the dark". That's a public utility mentality and it typically hits those companies that are monopolies or close to it.
Comcast has historically been a company customers have loved to hate. They had terrible customer service numbers. They were a company featured in a famous YouTube video of a service man falling asleep on a customer's couch.
The business model of Comcast has made for problems. They run cable to a home and bring the home TV. A few years ago they started bringing in computer network and now telephone. They realized that they had to change. Many companies in similar positions do not sense the market forces requiring change and stay the course--think GM, Westinghouse (remember them?), and many others.
Comcast, either due to more competition or just waking up and wanting to be better, has focused on customer service. A few years ago, they hired Frank Eliason to begin blogging, Twittering, etc. to connect with customers. He has helped Comcast listen and respond. With the technology, Comcast has responded so quickly that customers have started to notice. And, what they have started to notice is that Comcast cares more than they thought they did. This is changing opinions and helping Comcast keep its installed customer base and attract back lost customers.
It is interesting that Comcast chose to put is social media group in customer service. Typically, the group is attached to either marketing or corporate communications. All too often, marketing wants to use social media to sell and corporate communications wants to use social media to either listen or "spin" its take on an issue. By putting the social media group in customer service, Comcast put it where it could do the most good.
Social media is becoming an important part of Comcast and a key part of its ability to fulfill its brand promise. I give Comcast lots of credit for recognizing its own problems, dealing with them, and trying to become better. Its use of social media is exemplary.
Comcast has historically been a company customers have loved to hate. They had terrible customer service numbers. They were a company featured in a famous YouTube video of a service man falling asleep on a customer's couch.
The business model of Comcast has made for problems. They run cable to a home and bring the home TV. A few years ago they started bringing in computer network and now telephone. They realized that they had to change. Many companies in similar positions do not sense the market forces requiring change and stay the course--think GM, Westinghouse (remember them?), and many others.
Comcast, either due to more competition or just waking up and wanting to be better, has focused on customer service. A few years ago, they hired Frank Eliason to begin blogging, Twittering, etc. to connect with customers. He has helped Comcast listen and respond. With the technology, Comcast has responded so quickly that customers have started to notice. And, what they have started to notice is that Comcast cares more than they thought they did. This is changing opinions and helping Comcast keep its installed customer base and attract back lost customers.
It is interesting that Comcast chose to put is social media group in customer service. Typically, the group is attached to either marketing or corporate communications. All too often, marketing wants to use social media to sell and corporate communications wants to use social media to either listen or "spin" its take on an issue. By putting the social media group in customer service, Comcast put it where it could do the most good.
Social media is becoming an important part of Comcast and a key part of its ability to fulfill its brand promise. I give Comcast lots of credit for recognizing its own problems, dealing with them, and trying to become better. Its use of social media is exemplary.
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