I read an interesting report in the Telegraph yesterday that says London is the “social media capital of the world”. This is not hard to believe – a city of 8 million people that the Telegraph claim would rather tweet than talk to each other on the tube.
But with such a focus on social media in London, and the accompanying concentration of “social media experts” popping up faster than a twitter trending topic, one is left to wonder why clients are still scratching their heads about social media, and what they should do.
The current thirst for information on this new topic seems to increase daily. Conference organisers are rubbing their hands together as they organise another “twitter conference” – and are guaranteed a sellout.
But there is a broader issue here. My concern (as happened in the mobile advertising space) is that for all this advice, not much seems to be translating into action.
Why is this? I believe it is because social media for a company probably represents a greater step change than the web and online ever did.
Let me explain why.
A step change is happening in the marketing, advertising, communication and PR space. Why? Because via social media (no matter what the website or service), consumers can now talk back to brands, and tell them what they really think.
The purist market researchers claim that this is “dirty” research, because it has not been “scientifically” conducted in a walled room behind a one way mirror after work for a £40 per diem.
Instead, social media gives brands an unfiltered view of what consumers really think.
As Dave Edwards said in a recent post “Social Business: The New Black”
“Marketing sets the expectation, marketing creates demand, marketing helps a consumer differentiate why one choice is better than another choice. Operations delivers. Any gap between the two drives a conversation on the social Web.”
This last line bears repeating because it is the most concise summary yet of why social media matters
Any gap between [marketing and operations] drives a conversation on the social Web.
Wow – we’ve cracked social media – now what?
What we will face is that very few (if any) of us have formal training in “social media”. We all have a degree in “real life” but this does not translate well to the traditional world of advertising, marketing and PR where everything must be measured and controlled.
With social media, as per the quote above, all the hard work by the marketing team can be undone by a poor customer experience and an angry tweet. Think “United Breaks Guitars”, which wiped $180 million of United’s stock price.
A more recent example is the attempt by Vegemite in Australia to brand a new variant of their product as iSnack 2.0. Overnight Kraft has agreed to scrap the new name due to consumer feedback.
Cartoon credit: Cathy Wilcox and Sydney Morning Herald.
I would argue that a few short years ago this would not have happened as fast. Back then it wasn’t easy to “tell a brand off” in public. You had to get a letter to the editor published that would not offend a one of the paper’s major advertisers, get through to a radio talk show or run the gauntlet of a company’s PR machine trying frantically to hose down bad news.
The game has changed.
Along with this change we need a new breed of social media leaders. Recently Revolution Magazine ran a story suggesting that the lack of social media talent will harm investment.
They have a valid point. In a follow up post, I will outline what I believe are the new skills that marketers and leaders will need to survive in this new world.
In speaking to my local friendly Starbucks Barista, Laura who is studying an MBA majoring in marketing, I asked her what social media subjects or themes were being taught.
Her response did not surprise me, but it did prompt me to write this post, because the rate that social media is starting to impact normal business practices, we need the next wave of graduates thinking NOW about the 4 rules for social media
Listen, Learn, Engage and Integrate.
It’s not too late to learn how to listen.
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to visit the Ogilvy headquarters in Canary Wharf where they were running a social media day. They had a brilliant line-up of speakers such as @jbell99, @PeterFriedman, and @rorysutherland.
You can search the tweets from the event using the hashtag #ogilvysocial (grab some gems before twitter archives them).
One of the posters around the room (left) summarised “CRM in the social age” (click for a larger view) in 4 key words:
Listening, Participating, Activating. Engaging.
When a major advertising agency (or at least their 360° Digital Influence team) starts using this sort of language in front of clients, you know the world is changing.
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RT @AndrewGrill: London Calling» Perhaps @ocadoUK customers should write their emails for them – [link to post] #ocado
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London Calling » Listen, Learn, Engage & Integrate – 4 rules for brands using social media Part 1 [link to post]
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RT @AndrewGrill: Listen, Learn, Engage & Integrate – 4 rules for brands using social media Part 1 [link to post]
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This is a good, well considered summary. It’s great to see theories and case studies pulled together in this way.
I’ve got a few thoughts on the topics you’ve covered, but I’ll hold off until I’ve read part two.
Looking forward to it :)
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@AndrewGrill 4 is too many – lets start with listen :) [link to post]
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Its PR stunt, of course, aimed at getting brand visiability for Northampton University aligned to social media. But that makes it no less a serious topic.
I’m always surprised by the number of people at galleries or gigs, who rather than looking at art or chilling out and listening to the music, click-away tweeting and texting on their mobiles. Great that we share, but surely that erodes the original authentic experience?
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In the past week or so I have been blogging about another Sigel Press Special Report on Techno Addicts (this time secondary school pupils) by the same authors.
http://wishfulthinkinginmedicaleducation.blogspot.com/2009/09/tech-addiction-harms-learning-really.html
The science in the report was woeful.
Have you actually read the report you quote here? I wonder if it is a similar standard to the other but I do not particularly want to have to spend $24.99 more to find out.
The press release from Cranfield University contains the gem that this study “reveals that one in three people in the world admit to being addicted to technology”. Wonderful! They interviewed everyone in the world.
I wondered why any academic would put their name to work so poor but I guess that Stephen Waddington is right and that it is just a PR stunt. Why do the press respond so naively then?
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London Calling» Mind the Social Media Gap [link to post]
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The answer has to be yes. But it destroys the notion that all addictions are harmful I used to read boring books, watch crap TV and now I’m an social info junkie and happy with it. I’m also addicted to air, freshly baked bread, cooked breakfasts with black pudding, sex and sleep but nobody ever has a problem with those.
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Andrew, a good post – and I posted similar thoughts and pointers over on my own site at http://bit.ly/7NR1Tc – but the one thing that’s fair to remember is that We Are Social weren’t hired by Eurostar for crisis comms (or even day to day social media integration with traditional PR), they seem to have been on board for promoting getaways, so it’s harsh to have a go at them for this.
Having said that, it may well be that the client just didn’t want to say anything or put anything out via these channels, which you can totally appreciate WAS not pointing out to people.
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Craig, I’m actually in support of We Are Social – they have rolled up their sleeves and jumped right in – without a brief or even a purchase order.
How many other “traditional agencies” would do the same over a weekend and go beyond the call of duty.
Hats off to them for showing how as an industry we can respond quickly and help get the message out to the people that need it.
As with anything, a crisis tests every procedure and helps make things better for next time.
The real failing here is the Eurostar/Eurotunnel (traditional) communication efforts.
This should be the focus of any enquiry. Robin and the team should come out of this looking good and with lots of new business in 2010 in my view.
If as you suggest Eurostar may have been withholding information (and we may never know), then we are back to the old ways of PR and it is hard for Social Media (and the We Are Social team) to fight against this somewhat traditional approach of PR which is to contain the message.
This was my real point – social media promotes transparency which goes against standard PR training.
The irony is not lost on the term “public relations” which is really another name for “media management”.
Social media does not afford this luxury so brands and companies need a different approach.
Integrate.
You have to start to listen and then engage to get anywhere and this is frankly painful for brands, so we should not beat them up, but instead help them make the transition.
Remember the web 10 years ago…. “do we really need a website?” was the standard response.
Now it’s “so do we need a social media strategy?”. People that ask this of me going forward will be given a 1 word response.
Eurostar.
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Eurostar will implement a real-time listening and respond plan to engage in conversations in social media [link to post]
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Hi Andrew. Great post and I agree generally. However, the point around the agency feeling the need to defend their actions publicly (and instead expose their client as the one making the error of judgement) doesn’t sit well with me. They should have sucked up the criticism, and responded to feedback from the public and other social media commentators.
The most important thing in all of this is the reputation of the client, Eurostar. That’s what WOM is all about isn’t it! :-)
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The Eurotrain services have had to be reduced again because of the snow. Not cancel, mind! We missed the latest problems, even though we went to Brussels for the weekend. All the main station websites have been excellent for info, like stpancras-international.co.uk and that.
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This would appear to a reworking of the original PR of the Tunnel. I was meant to speak with John Pike who did the communications on the Tunnel Project.
It has been poor since the inspeption. With large public projects some people get it right London Olypic bid and some get it wrong. Oh and do not mention the Dome. I think they will learn the hard way through the negative plublicity, which you refer to. Others seem to feel this on the comments, I mean how much does a Twitter cost, nil preux.
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Just received the following from Simon Redfern at Eurostar – hats off for the admission of errors and desire to fix.
Name: Simon Redfern
email: simon.redfern @eurostar.com
message: Hello
You posted on your blog about the Eurostar trains that broke down in December, and made the point about the need for better communication with our passengers.
I thought you might be interested to see a copy of the Independent Review into the events, and our response which has just been published.
You can find our response here http://bit.ly/9idW1l together with a visual representation of what happened on the day.
We are extremely sorry for what happened, and take the situation very seriously. We’ve already taken action to address many of the Review’s recommendations, and we are committed to implementing all of its recommendations as quickly as possible. Above all we are focused on:
Improving passenger care in disruption
Improving communications, and
Strengthening the resilience of our trains
The Eurostar communications team will be providing information and updates at @eurostarcomms where we’ll be working closely with @little_break and @creamoflondon. You’ll find us making corporate announcements there as well as reporting back should there be any key service updates.
I hope you have time to look at the review findings, particularly on the communications side of things. If you have any thoughts please don’t hesitate to let me know.
All the best
Simon Redfern
Eurostar
This comment was originally posted on London Calling » the mobile advertising blog
How is it no-one got the sack for this? (i.e. Richard Brown)
NOTE : This isn’t about the mechanical issues, its about a total lack of foresight and responsiveness to previous failures.
The 2008 chunnel fire was fair/ample warning that “no plan was in place”.
Its unrealistic to expect the same management, who created this failed system, to be skilled enough to fix it…. or for that matter to deserve a second chance.
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Social Media World Forum Europe March 15&16th at London Olympia – more details [link to post] and follow @SocialNetworkWF #smwf
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Hi Andrew,
I’ll be attending the Social Media World Forum on Monday. I’m so excited, went to the event last year (when it was called Social Networking World Forum) and really enjoyed it.
Perhaps, we can meet up?
Josh Chandler
Email – josh@joshchandlerblog.com
Twitter List for SMWF – http://twitter.com/joshchandler/social-media-world-forum
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Thanks to @TelcoGeek: Here’s a good one from @andrewgrill mate: [link to post] – & there’s a whole bunch of good stuff on there
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@singleredfish Here’s a good one from @andrewgrill mate: [link to post] – & there’s a whole bunch of good stuff on there
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@jangles @curns @PaulLomax @StephenBeynon @katebevan re Daily mail “story” totally agree – see [link to post]
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@LinusGreg @andrewpascoe @liquidindian @dom_asdaPR @darrenwaters re Daily mail “story” totally agree – see [link to post]
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London Calling » My take on the Daily Mail beat-up story “How ‘BT Sarah’ spies on your Facebook account” [link to post]
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I wondered how long it would take before a story like this went into the mainstream media.
It’s a bit similar to the Sunday Times story about 10 years ago, all about ‘invisible cameras in your computer tracking what you do’; they meant cookies.
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