There is an abundance of information on the web about social media that could take a lifetime to read and be all consuming. For some of us it is! However, there is a scarcity at the moment to how to weave this into an integrated marketing campaign.

Some would have us believe that its the only way forward and its the only thing you need to reach new and existing customers. Thats far too one dimensional and we’ll all fall into the trap of traditional marketing if we take that road.

As Olivier Blanchard said at www.wearelikeminds.com in February “Your business doesn’t plug into social media, social media plugs into your business.” He is right. It’s not an attachment, neither is it the only solution. We must not miss the opportunity to really get to the route cause of why we embark on social media campaigns. We can’t also ignore that its just as important to be gregarious offline as well as online.

Before embarking on any social media activity, we all need to go back to the beginning and think about how it is going to fundamentally change, for the better, the relationships we have with customers and employees. The fact is that social media is creating new vulnerabilities and opportunities for business. That can’t be ignored. There are some big questions to ask before setting a blog up such as; how will social media define what is being delivered to the customer.

We have to remember that, even now, most of our customers and users of social media read content but don’t necessarily post it. What that means, for now, is that social media is in a state of mass consumption, not mass creation. We have a long way to go to create meaningful experiences and that, in essence, is our first task!

Disrupting the status quo is every leaders prime role. It’s a stark contrast to the ‘command and control’ days of previous business models. Companies need to think about disrupting their relationships with their customers. Yes I did say that! We are far too complacent about them. We need to change the game with openness, transparency and moving from a culture of ‘managing the customer database’ to sowing the seeds of creating a ‘community’ around our brand. Something that will be at the heart of every business in the future.

Look at this model I created. It’s by no means perfected….months of R & D will do that but it shows a shift from an inert account management regime to a community model that will be full of life and vibrant.

Database →                        Relationship →                 Community

You can look at www.club.lego.com/en-US/default and www.harley-davidson.com for great examples. But it won’t be easy, it means unlearning stuff that’s ingrained in our minds. After decades of disappointing relationships, we now have the ability to gain impressive inroads into true partnerships with customers that really do change the dynamics for the better.

Truth is, we are struggling to get off first base. For many it will be a leap of faith, for others a simple transition. But it does require a deliberate plan to achieve it. And. ironically it starts with the database. More on that tomorrow…..

Like sand in the Sahara, there is plenty of it around. Complacency seems to be the inevitability of lots of business, no matter what size. A visit to No.15 Cafe in Penrith, Cumbria at the weekend was a very visible and tangible example of complacency. The service was terrible, the care of customers of tertiary importance and the experience non existent. It left me feeling extremely irritated. They truly didn’t give a stuff.

It’s tragic because with the advent of abundance, there is too much scarce exceptional experience. The introduction of some ‘branded’ cafe’s shouldn’t make a jot of difference. Competition should not keep us on our toes, we should be there already. An old boss of mine used to say, the worst thing you can do is become complacent, he was more than right.

This experience is a jolt into reality. It got me thinking about my business and whether we are complacent. Every three months, all businesses need to be asking “where have we got complacent?” It’s our obligation to ensure we don’t let ourselves down nor our clients.

We all need to wake up to this blurring between producers and consumers, I include customers in this too. If we had woken up, we’d within our businesses be creating platforms to encourage participation and creation whether online, or call me old fashioned, face to face.

We are possibly witnessing the democratisation of creativity. Communities of people connected around your brands wanting to get involved in how you shape the future of your businesses. If you’re scared by that, you need to ask why?

There are some scathing examples of forerunner industries on how not to do it. Consider the music industry. Pioneers at one end of the scale, taking advantage of technology by creating and remixing existing music to equal quality in a back bedroom. At the other end, instead of trying to build new business models around the freedom of creativity and digital content, business is backlashing big time by suing its customers. A lost opportunity.

Prosumers are not going away. Their contribution to our business is becoming fundamental. Co-creating with customers is extremely powerful. The solutions are likely to be better, the end product more aligned with customer need, and to be honest, it will probably be more inspiring than we could have ever created on our own. It also brings us closer to our fans, followers and audience.

But, it will demand a different way of doing business, new rules and a new set of challenges. Prosumers aren’t just buying our products anymore, they are making them in a fertile ground of innovation. This is more significant than gaining customer feedback, listening to our consumers, pulling focus groups together, customised solutions or design competitions. Its about customers being genuinely involved in co-creating products, marketing, human resource activity at a peer to peer level. If we sincerely want to be around in 10 years time, we need to learn new ways of leading these kinds of communities. And, if we don’t create and engage with these communities of prosumers, they will invent around us.

A delegate on a seminar I recently delivered asked how ‘new marketing’ works on what traditional marketing was good at; reinforcing the fact that, we the customer, had made the right decision. He used Audi as an example. It was a thought provoking question and it really got me thinking.

After some deliberation, I think we are moving away from this approach. As customers we are so much more confident now borne out of how product/service savvy we have become. Those campaigns built around patronising communication, them versus us, broadcast, 1950’s methods are just too conventional. Devised to make the insecure buyer feel better about themselves.

Marketing between 1946 – 1999 didn’t change much. It predisposed that, we the customer, weren’t that intelligent and were quite hard of hearing too, that’s why they have been shouting so much! We weren’t hard of hearing, we just couldn’t hear anything above the all the other noise around. It was all based on the fact we didn’t know much and were ill informed.

Thrust yourself forward to the 21st century and its changed. Too well informed, secure buyers who know a thing or two about our product and our competitors. We know we are making the right decision now simply because we have asked our peers, looked at independent reviews and the world has become more transparent. That on top of moving from the mindless to the mindful consumer, is making purchasing decisions less based on what the company says and more centred on our peers feedback. That’s why sales in the traditional sense is broken.

If I buy an Audi its because its a bloomin’ good car not because I want to reinforce my status in society through material. Or, as Phil Rees of www.defacethis.co.uk said “Fewer & fewer insecure buyers in the world now, people to people recommendation is literally at everyone’s fingertips.” In the future, we won’t waste our company’s money on reinforcing our customers decisions after purchase, it will be focused on adding more value at the design stage.

Social media so called because of how it connects people and allows people to share information and ideas. But actually, social media is more fundamental than that. Its social because its helping shape the cultures of the future, its enabling engagement and its aiding collaboration on unprecedented levels.

It’s effect on the continuum of change ranges from the sublime to the ridiculous. In the future, it will assist in the overthrow of governments, research and development activity that creates amazing products and currently, its helping me meet someone in my home city I have never met before.

To critiscise it is natural, to ignore it is futile but it will, itself need to change too. There will come a point, perhaps a Malcolm Gladwell tipping point, where social media must turn into social business on a more larger scale. There are case studies. Dell reckons its generated $3 million just via Twitter. Gavin Sheppard at www.devonshiretea.com recently said to me that its the best marketing decision he ever made joining Twitter because its bringing results.

It’s truly fab connecting with people, its amazing sharing ideas but its hard work, even daunting sometimes. Social media maybe a more effective way of marketing and removed some cash spend but it adds huge pressure to your time. At some point, even us fans, followers and early adopters are going to have to turn those connections into some kind of business. And that’s where we have to claw back the control, take a hold of social media/business, grab it by the horns and decide how we are going to make it work. That’s our role social media/business can’t do it for us, its really a question of time management and influencing your followers.

At the moment it gives us connections, reach and spreadability, in the future we need to start turning that into long term relationships, robust communities and cash.

Had an amazing two hours with some incredible business people last night. Sometimes, my job really is the best in the world. I’ll be posting a series of blogs over the next few weeks to reinforce the discussions we had at Exeter Innovation Centre but its best described by Phil Rees in his lovely post:

http://deface.posterous.com/marketing-is-dead-0

The Dead Poet’s Society scene could not explain any better what has happened to marketing overnight!

This isn’t contradicting yesterday’s post, far from it. If you don’t like people, then the future is going to be hellish difficult for you. Even if you love being amongst people, you’re going to have to shift your thinking considerably. Being with people who inspire you and make you smile are critically important. How you converse with people will mean a change of position:

Involvement to participation

Communication to conversation

Customers to community

Ownership to sharing

Control to collaboration

The future will demand being intimate with people internally in your organisation as well as externally. A delegate on a workshop I delivered recently said “I’m not sure I want to get as close to my plumber as my wife.” Perhaps, but he has missed the point. If the plumber is building a community of followers who love what he does, he’s going to have to get close to you somehow!

Yes in a people to people environment you need to avoid people! Well, people who play it safe. Who don’t share ideas. Those that won’t collaborate and people who talk about customers as if they were just a transaction.

Avoid people who tell you to shout. Who talk about marketing! Run fast from anyone who thinks they own you. Become adept at picking out those that just detract rather than add value. Make a hasty escape from people who only see the money. Turn the other way if someone’s ego is the size of a small country and never engage with anyone who is talking at you.

It’s not about being rude and ignorant, manners cost nothing. Just learn to avoid and get rid of them fast and in a smart way. There are other people to converse with that are so much more inspiring!

Hmmm…. your customers are creating the market place now not you. Give us choice and we will take it! Look at us has been replaced with look at what we are doing. The big question; is your marketing designed for a static world or an ever changing one?

Markets will always outperform individual businesses, they also learn a lot faster and are better connected than  business too. If you’re marketing ain’t broken, its about time you asked yourself why? As Jeff Jarvis said “The mass market is dead. It committed suicide. Google just handed it the gun.”

Most companies, for the last 10 years, have taken the easy way out to market their brands, they have essentially bought customers. Sadly, its cost more and more and had less and less impact. In the past it was about driving traffic to your business, now its about loyalty.

Remember this equation; Feeling valued = loyalty + commitment

Most of us are still acting as if what we do is scarce. Shouting isn’t going to get you heard above the crowd, not when everyone else if shouting too. Now really is the time to tear up the marketing you have been doing in the past. Measure its return on investment and, then when you’ve picked yourself up off the floor, go and find some other way of connecting with your customers.