I was lucky enough to attend the SES 2014 show in London last week and I learnt a lot about Social and Digital. There were so many excellent presenters, and some wonderful topics that were covered. Listening to the experts talking, it was clear that Digital and Social is going to become more and more a part of what we will be doing in busness and in our marketing.
Now.. I know, course they are gonna say it, it's what they do, and they want us to use their experitise to justify their roles in the company. Well, yes and no. You see, social and digital is no longer about rankings and metrics. It's more and more about being the right answer for your customers, when and where they need it.
Why use Social and digital tactis for your campaigns?
It's a lot of work and what do I really get from it?
Some of the questions that have been asked of me in my role here at SAP, and ones that I have heard more than once. And the answers are actually reasonably simple.
1. Measureable
With digital activities you can easily measure what you get, from views and visits, to downloads and leads. This can be easily tied up to the CRM codes and opportunities can be tracked through the journey. We can also build models of how this works and better optimise.
2. Paid
You can pay to have your messages in specific places, at specific times so as to maximise your budget. It's also easy to manage this. If its' not working, we stop it, tweak it, whether keywords or timings etc, and start again, building better optimised campaigns, providing you with better ROI.
3. Then we have the channels.
There are so many. We need to work on building these, to encourage our message more. Working with Influencers was a key theme within SES 2014. Building them into your campaigns, encouraging them to help you with "discussing" your message is a key component of how we build brand acceptance. And discussing is key to this. We don't and shouldn't be shouting our message, but encouraging people to discuss our offerings and solutions. This is going to take time, but is something we have to engage with more.
4. Videos
Videos are a key component of what we have in our online arsenal. But do we use them effectively. Building an emotional connection before we hit them with why they should buy. I don't think we do that at the moment, and we use the "we are an IT company, it's easy for Nike etc" as an excuse. Building an emotional connection with the customer before we can sell to them in a lot of cases will help us. We need to build short videos showing why SAP is a great company to choose.... the Desmond Tutu foundation is a wonderful example, showing a real reason why someone might want to use us.... then we can talk to them about how many bits and bobs our software crunches.
5. Co-Created Content
Also known as "Participation Marketing" is another big way to gain traction in the market place. Basically asking simple questions of your
following, adding their answers into your content and channels, recognising them and their knowledge to their peers. This method builds your network amongst them and their followers and allows for more dialogue and discussion, a great way to increase your base. And remember that great content shouldn't be left to fade. Revisit it and refresh it.
6. Blogging
Blogging is another medium that we don't exploit fully. No time, no inspiration is the usual excuse. But we all have time for this. Blogs don't have to be long, and the best ones are usually around things that we are passionate about short! This about this.... What is the shortest story you can write? The shortest in number of words?! Ernest Hemingway managed a story in 6 words.
"For Sale, baby shoes, never worn"
It doesn't have to take days to write, but can be quick and succinct and still carry your message powerfully. That said.. I realise my blog post here is LONG.. as was just pointed out to me.. but thats just me! 🙂
I hope this litte run through has given you some food for thought. There was loads more, around tracking and all that... but thats not for everyone. This social stuff is... it might not be your cup of tea at the moment... but before long it will be part of everything you order from the bar. So sit down, get your drink and start getting involved!
Good luck!