The Digital Handshake E-Book

Paul Chaney

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 350

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2009

Beschreibung

Practical applications for using social media to boost your business Even today's most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. It explains the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business. Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, author Paul Chaney shows you how companies both large and small that can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world. * Explains how you can use social media to grow your business and connect with consumers * Author Paul Chaney is a leading authority on blogging and social media * Covers practical, effective business applications for blogging, social networking, online video, microblogging and much more * Shows how to design a comprehensive marketing strategy using traditional and new media platforms Today's technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. The Digital Handshake helps you make sure the Internet grows your business for the long run.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Foreword

PREFACE THE INSURGENT CONSUMER

Acknowledgements

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Introduction

PURPOSE OF THE DIGITAL HANDSHAKE

WHAT IS A “DIGITAL HANDSHAKE?”

WHAT’S IN THE DIGITAL HANDSHAKE?

WHO THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN FOR

PART I - FIVE CONSUMER TRENDS TURNING THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN

CHAPTER ONE - Consumer Skepticism Is at an All-Time High

THE INSURGENT CONSUMER AND THE INFLUENCE OF WORD OF MOUTH

BOURNE, NOT BOND: CONSUMERS WANT REAL EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES, NOT ...

WHY THE SKEPTICISM?

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TWO - The Media Is Fragmented and So Is the Audience

MEDIA IN THE SIXTIES: WHEN I WAS MY FATHER’S REMOTE CONTROL

MEDIA FRAGMENTATION AND THE ATTENTION ECONOMY

AN AGE OF INFORMATION OVERLOAD

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER THREE - Who Is In Control of the Marketing Message?

FROM COMMAND-AND-CONTROL TO OUT OF CONTROL TO COMMUNITY CONTROL

THE EMPOWERED CONSUMER

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER FOUR - Businesses, Improve Your Aim

BUSINESSES ARE BEING FORCED TO IMPROVE TARGETING, INCREASE RELEVANCE, AND ...

THE FUTURE OF MARKETING IS IN THE NICHES

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER FIVE - Customers Are Mad as Hell, and They’re Not Going to Take It Anymore

KRYPTONITE: YOU CAN TUG ON SUPERMAN’S CAPE

BABYWEARING MOMS GIVE MOTRIN A HEADACHE

DELL HELL: FROM FIRESTORM TO IDEASTORM

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SIX - What’s a Marketer to Do?

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS AN ANTIDOTE TO THIS MARKETING MALADY

THE CONNECTED CONSUMER

ADVERTISING IN THE ERA OF THE WEB 2.0

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: MAKING A CASE FOR SMALL BUSINESS

USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO INFLUENCE THE MARKETPLACE

NEW TOOLS REQUIRE NEW RULES

PART II - SEVEN PROVEN STRATEGIES TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS

CHAPTER SEVEN - Business Blogging: Your Social Media Marketing Headquarters

BLOGS ARE PART OF OUR DAILY LIVES

TEN THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU BLOG

BLOGGING IS ALIVE AND WELL, IN SPITE OF PREDICTIONS TO THE CONTRARY

THE MODEL SMALL-BUSINESS BLOGGER: J.D. ILES AND SIGNS NEVER SLEEP

INTEL’S INSIDE SCOOP: HOW LARGE CORPORATIONS ARE USING BLOGS

HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS BLOG

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

CHAPTER EIGHT - Social Networks Strengthen Your Social Graph

-

SOCIAL NETWORKING BEST PRACTICES

THE THREE MOST POPULAR SOCIAL NETWORKS FOR BUSINESS, AND WHY YOU SHOULD USE ...

LINKEDIN IS YOUR BUSINESS SUIT

FACEBOOK IS BUSINESS CASUAL

TWITTER IS THE SOCIAL NETWORKING COCKTAIL PARTY

OTHER BUSINESS-ORIENTED SOCIAL NETWORKS

TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR EFFECTIVE ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKING

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER NINE - Niche Online Communities Can Benefit Your Business

THREE TYPES OF ONLINE COMMUNITIES: WHICH ONE IS RIGHT FOR YOU?

COMMON COMMUNITY-CREATION MISTAKES

KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL COMMUNITY CREATION AND MANAGEMENT—ONLINE COMMUNITIES NEED A ...

THE SOCIETY OF WORD OF MOUTH

TWITTERMOMS: KITCHEN EXPERIMENT TURNED FULL-TIME BUSINESS

INEXPENSIVE TOOLS TO USE IN CREATING YOUR OWN COMMUNITY

WHITE-LABEL COMMUNITY PLATFORMS

ONLINE COMMUNITIES FOR LEAD GENERATION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TEN - Microblogging: Social Media Marketing in 140 Characters or Less

TWITTER: A LITTLE BIRD THAT STARTED A REVOLUTION

WHAT IS TWITTER AND HOW DOES IT WORK?

TWITTER RULES OF THE ROAD

YOUR TWITTER BIO AND AVATAR

TIPS ON USING TWITTER

HOW TO GET STARTED USING TWITTER FOR BUSINESS

TWITTER CASE STUDIES

OTHER MICROBLOGGING PLATFORMS

WHEN DOES THE “MAGIC” HAPPEN?

CHAPTER ELEVEN - Lights! Camera! Action! Use Online Video to Market Your Business

THE SMALL-CAMERA REVOLUTION

BENEFITS TO USING ONLINE VIDEO

GOALS FOR BUSINESS USE OF ONLINE VIDEO

SIX WAYS BUSINESSES CAN USE ONLINE VIDEO

EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO CREATE VIDEO CONTENT

YOUTUBE AND OTHER VIDEO SHARING SITES

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER TWELVE - Podcasting

WHAT IS A PODCAST?

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PODCASTING

BENEFITS TO USING PODCASTS

PODCASTING RESOURCES

EASY WAYS TO CREATE A PODCAST

THREE EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS-ORIENTED PODCASTS

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER THIRTEEN - PR 2.0

-

PITCH ENGINE MAKES SMR CREATION SIMPLE

PRWEB COMBINES TRADITIONAL, SOCIAL, AND SEARCH

USE PITCH ENGINE AND PRWEB IN TANDEM

CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA NEWSROOM

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER FOURTEEN - Other Social Media Marketing Tools

SOCIAL MEDIA TAGGING AND BOOKMARKING

CUSTOMER REVIEWS AND RATINGS

CUSTOMER SERVICE APPLICATIONS

RSS: THE PLUMBING SYSTEM OF THE INTERNET

PHOTO-SHARING

A WORD ABOUT WIKIS

MOBILE MARKETING: THE AGE OF THE iPHONE HAS ARRIVED

CONCLUSION

PART III - PUTTING THE TOOLS TO GOOD USE

CHAPTER FIFTEEN - A Brief Word About Web Sites, E-mail Marketing, and Search Engines

CREATE AN ENGAGING WEB SITE

DON’T FORSAKE THE USE OF E-MAIL

MARKETING VIA SEARCH ENGINES

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SIXTEEN - Listening Is the New Marketing

MONITORING AND MANAGING YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION

BENEFITS TO MONITORING YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION

TWO WAYS TO MONITOR YOUR ONLINE REPUTATION

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - Now That You’ve Listened, It’s Time to Engage

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: GET A SEAT AT SOMEONE ELSE’S TABLE

START A CONVERSATION: SET A TABLE OF YOUR OWN

CONCLUSION

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN - Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Social Media Marketing Plan

HOW SOCIAL MARKETING MEASUREMENT DIFFERS FROM OTHER FORMS OF ONLINE MEASUREMENT

DON’T MEASURE EVERYTHING; DO MEASURE THE RIGHT THINGS

QUANTITATIVE VS. QUALITATIVE METRICS

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING MEASUREMENT TOOLS

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION

NOTES

INDEX

Copyright © 2009 by Paul Chaney. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Chaney, Paul, 1955-

The digital handshake : seven proven strategies to grow your business using social media / by Paul Chaney.

p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN : 978-0-470-53845-6

1. Internet marketing. 2. Online social networks-Economic aspects.

3. Internet advertising. I. Title.

HF5415.1265.C48 2009

658.8’72-dc22

2009015532

To all my friends in social media. You are the inspiration for this book and to you it is dedicated.

FOREWORD

Ann Handley, Chief Content Officer, MarketingProfs

I’m imagining that you have just picked this book off of the shelf in the bookstore, you noticed it in the library, or you are flipping through it on Amazon.com, and that, however you are accessing it, you are wondering, “Do I really need to read this book?”

Look, you’re busy. You have a business to run, payroll to make, decisions to weigh, widgets to create, things to manage and prioritize and direct . . . and a million other demands on your time: Can you really afford to read this book?

But here’s the reality in which you are doing business today: You are operating in a very different market these days. In other words, things have changed.

The notion of marketing your products or your services to your customers by interrupting them repeatedly through advertising isn’t enough anymore—not in the current business climate. Creating awareness about your company or your brand through mass media like newspaper advertising, magazine callouts, or any sort of broadcasting medium doesn’t go far enough. The same holds true for PR campaigns that beg reporters to pay attention to your products or to tell your company’s story. In the end, those strategies sell your brand short.

The advent of the Internet and, more specifically, the rise of Web-based tools and technologies, have given your customers a new voice. Suddenly—thanks to blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and other social and online networking technologies—your customers are empowered to demand more of the companies they do business with. They are using their newfound voices to talk to you as well as to converse with each other. They will howl when you screw up, they will praise you when you do well, and they will create their own version of the story of your business and what it sells.

That sounds a little scary, doesn’t it? Or at least daunting? And maybe it is. The customers are in control, and your customers can make a difference in ways that are unprecedented.

But the shift we are talking about also creates enormous opportunity for businesses. Rather than being afraid of the newly empowered consumer, or blocking your ears to their voices, consider the ways your business can harness this change.

How might you think of leveraging the newfound voice of the consumer to tap into new insights about your company or its market? How might you use blogs to foster new relationships with your customers? How might you draw on social networks to develop relationships with new prospects? How might you deepen your relationships with existing customers?

More questions: How might you rely on these tools and tactics to help you market more effectively, brand your products and services, develop products that really resonate, and enhance your PR strategies? All of that is, of course, the real opportunity that Paul Chaney talks about here. As Paul’s editor at MarketingProfs, which provides strategic and tactical marketing know-how for 320,000 marketing and business member-professionals through a full range of online media, I assure you . . . Paul knows his stuff.

Which brings me back to my original question: Can you really afford to read this book?

My response to you is this: “Can you really afford not to?”

PREFACE THE INSURGENT CONSUMER

The consumer today is in open rebellion.

He doesn’t pay attention to advertising anymore. He no longer trusts corporate spokespeople or their messages. In fact, according to the 9th Annual Edelman Trust Barometer1 people now say their most credible source of information about a company and its products is “a person like me”—a trust level in peers that, in the United States, has skyrocketed from only 22 percent a few years ago to 60 percent today.

This lack of trust has major bottom-line consequences. More than 80 percent of people surveyed say they would refuse to buy goods or services from a company they do not trust. And new research also shows that negative consumer comments on blogs have a direct impact on corporate brands, earnings, and share prices.

The fact is that consumers are no longer willing to put up with shoddy products, indifferent service, and lack of accountability and transparency. What’s more, they are demanding a decision-making voice in shaping the products, services, and media they consume. TiVo is one example of this new take-charge attitude on the part of consumers. Another is the fact that, according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey,2 half of all teens in this country—and 57 percent of those who use the Internet—have created a blog or Web page, posted original artwork, photography, stories or videos online, or re-mixed content into their own creations.

Indeed, the consumer now demands more of business—and thanks to blogs and other new consumer-empowering technology and media—he can now get it. Companies that meet these new expectations are rewarded. Those that don’t see their businesses punished as never before.

How should business leaders respond to this new insurgent marketplace? How can they use blogs, social networks, and other new “voice of the customer” media to develop a new and more democratic relationship with customers—one that leverages customer insight and initiative to create more effective marketing, branding, product development, and public relations strategies that materially enhance firm success? Those are questions this book hopes to examine and answer.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost I want to thank several colleagues in social media who have been both an inspiration and an influence for a number of years: Toby Bloomberg, Wayne Hurlbert, Yvonne DiVita, Denise Wakeman, Tris Hussey, Jane Genova, Anita Campbell, Zane Safrit, John Jantsch, Lee Odden, Des Walsh, Jim Turner, Kevin O’Keefe, Debbie Weil, Andy Wibbels, Steve Rubel, and BL Ochman. We started blogging about the business of blogging back at a time when most people didn’t know what a blog was. Thank you for the opportunity to be a member of your tribe. You’ve taught me so much.

Another group I must thank are those who opened doors of opportunity for me along the way. Susannah Gardner gave me my first taste of writing. Richard Nacht not only gave me a job working in his business blogging startup, Blogging Systems, but partnered with me in co-authoring my first book, Realty Blogging. Other “door openers” include Steve Broback, Jason Calacanis, Peter Levinson, Ann Handley, Rick Calvert, Terri Murphy, and Kerry Murdock. Thank you all for the opportunities you afforded.

A huge number of people in the real estate industry embraced me after Realty Blogging was written and continue to count me as a member of their tribe to this day. I would like to thank Matt Heaton, Jonathan Washburn, Brad Andersohn, Rich Jacobson, and all the folks at Active Rain, where I was warmly received, first as “The Blog Coach,” and now as the “Social Media Handyman”; Jeff Turner, Benn and Lani Rosales, Andy Kaufman, Todd Carpenter, Mariana Wagner, Mike Price, Morgan Brown, Derek Overbey, Stephanie Edwards-Musa, Dustin Luther, and, most especially, Ines Hegedus-Garcia round out the short list. More recent additions include Bill Lublin and Ginger Wilcox. There are many, many more who should be named. The manner in which I have been received almost makes me want to get my real estate license . . . almost!

John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka, took a chance in letting me use the company as a laboratory to experiment with social media marketing. Much of what you will read in this book has come out of my experience there. John and all the staff at Bizzuka deserve my utmost respect and appreciation, and they have it.

I want to thank my publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., for taking a chance on me as well. I could detail the course of events that led them to welcome me as a member of their family of authors. I am deeply appreciative of the opportunity to work with them, and especially with my editor Shannon Vargo and editorial assistant Beth Zipko. To say they have been patient, nurturing, and very supportive during the entire process would be an understatement.

Lastly, let me thank my wife, Amie. Her understanding, encouragement, and patience truly made the difference in this book being written. She spent many a night sitting alone while I was sequestered away in our home office laboring over the manuscript. It’s not the first time, either, and probably won’t be the last. She is an amazing woman, and I am blessed to have her as my partner in this journey through life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Chaney is internet marketing director for Bizzuka, a Web content management software company based in Lafayette, Louisiana. He also serves as President of the International Blogging and New Media Association (IBNMA), a non-profit trade association dedicated to advancing blogging, podcasting, and social media as an industry. In addition, he sits on advisory boards for the Social Media Marketing Institute, Womens Wisdom Network, and Smart-Brief on Social Media.

Paul was cofounder of Blogging Systems, a blog software company that significantly impacted the real estate industry by encouraging realtors to adopt blogging as a marketing strategy. In 2006, along with Blogging Systems CEO Richard Nacht, he co-authored Realty Blogging: Build your Brand and Outsmart Your Competition, which similarly impacted the industry and was the first blogging book to target a specific industry vertical.

He has been a feature writer for Practical Ecommerce magazine on the use of blogs and social media for marketing purposes. He has led numerous workshops and seminars on the topics of business blogging and social media, including the first seminar on business blogging ever to be held in Asia, in September 2005.

Paul has blogged professionally with Weblogs, Inc., as well as Allbusiness.com and currently blogs at marketing resource supersite MarketingProfs for their Daily Fix blog.

He has served as technical editor on a number of the “For Dummies” series books related to blogs and Internet marketing, and was contributing writer on Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies, published in 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

INTRODUCTION A NEW COMMUNICATIONS PARADIGM

Businesses large and small are being confronted with a new communications paradigm known most familiarly as Web 2.0. Individuals were once primarily consumers of information, but with the advent of new forms of media such as blogs, social networks, and Internet video, that is no longer the case.

A sea change has taken place, and now anyone with access to a computer or mobile device and the Internet can become a publisher, not just a consumer, of information. Everyone, both amateur and professional alike, has the ability to produce content and share information, opinion, and editorial commentary and make it available to the entire world with the click of a mouse. What used to be known as the information superhighway has become an interconnected maze of conversation, a global symphony of voices speaking at once. This has vast implications for business. New terminology has even evolved to describe this phenomenon—the “participatory Web,” “social media,” and, as previously mentioned, “Web 2.0.”

No longer can companies turn a deaf ear to the conversation that is taking place through these manifold channels. Businesses must develop engagement strategies to:

• Counter negative perceptions about their brands, people, products, and services

• Reward those who speak well of them

• Use the same media as consumers to generate brand awareness, create positive brand impressions, and incite customer evangelism and word of mouth.

Further, the way businesses market themselves has changed. No longer do companies merely target audiences and broadcast messages through unidirectional mass media. In this new paradigm, “markets are conversations” and “participation is marketing.” As such, businesses must learn how to operate through these new channels to engage their customers and prospects and penetrate newly developed niche markets. The tools of social media are the means by which this is done.

Not only that, but businesses are seeing less return on investment (ROI) from their advertising and marketing dollars. Marketing professionals and small businesspeople alike need to know why that is the case and what they can do to counter its effect. The Digital Handshake provides that information in a clearly laid-out, easy-to-understand, practical manner. It is replete with real-world examples of how companies as large as Dell and as small as a four person sign-making shop in Lincoln, New Hampshire are using the tools of social media to effectively address these changes.

PURPOSE OF THE DIGITAL HANDSHAKE

Where other books in this space are written from a largely strategic, conceptual standpoint, this one approaches the subject in a more tactical, hands-on, instructional manner. It is a complete handbook on social media marketing that fills the gap between a For Dummies style approach and books such as Groundswell or Marketing to the Social Web. It is written with the nontechnical person in mind and walks them through leveraging the tools of social media to positively affect their bottom line.

This book explains in great detail the intricacies of this new paradigm, demonstrates in a practical manner how these tools are being used successfully, and explains how you can use them as well. It provides numerous case studies to support the proposition, and lays out a simple strategy for social media engagement.

The Digital Handshake contains:

• Strategic thinking from someone with an extensive background and years of experience dealing with this topic in day-to-day, real-world environments—someone who has learned by doing and knows what works and what doesn’t.

• Practical, detailed, “how-to” application of the tools under consideration. Awareness about the use of social media for marketing is growing exponentially within the business community. Many are making attempts to use these tools, but more often than not their efforts meet with failure because they lack understanding of how to do so. Not only that, because the number and breadth of technology tools grows every day, new practitioners often do not even know where to begin. This book provides a clear path to understanding, accompanied by ample statistical and anecdotal evidence, illustrations, and case studies.

• Both a strategic and tactical focus. It serves the needs of those looking for a high-level (though non-academic) treatise on the subject, as well as those needing a practical “in the trenches” manual on how these tools can be applied.

• Provides answers to questions people are actually asking. Every day I field questions about how to put these tools to use, including everything from how to use blogs for lead generation to whether a microblogging tool like Twitter is worth the investment of time. This book provides precise and conclusive answers to these and other such questions.

Because the use of social media as a marketing approach is still very much in its nascent stage, the need for down-to-earth, understandable explanations accompanied by practicable examples and illustrations is obvious. That is the unique value proposition this book provides.

Based on my research of the current state of the market, my thorough understanding of how the Internet has evolved as a marketing channel, and the current rate of adoption of social media tools and tactics, I believe we are at a tipping point.

WHAT IS A “DIGITAL HANDSHAKE?”

In computer language, “digital handshake” is the term used to describe the connection between two modems. I’m talking about something similar, yet quite different.

Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farms, one of the first companies to hire a corporate blogger, is quoted in a May 2005 Wall Street Journal article as follows: “The blogs give us what we call a handshake with consumers, a bond of loyalty and mutual trust that’s different than the typical selling relationship, where it’s all about price.”1

The book builds on the idea that relationships tend to start with a handshake and grow from there. In the virtual world, social media is a way of extending a digital handshake. There are certain unwritten, yet accepted rules of engagement. Don’t push, but pull instead. Use the power of attraction. Take a Dale Carnegie “win friends and influence people” approach by expressing interest in others first. “Seek first to understand, then be understood,” as St. Francis of Assisi said.

Author and futurist John Naisbitt, in his 1982 bestselling classic Megatrends, referred to a time when computers would facilitate human interaction. High tech meets high touch, he called it.

I believe Naisbitt’s vision of the future is now being realized. Social computing has given us the ability to create digital relationships. While I am not suggesting that face-to-face interaction is no longer needed (as most certainly it is), social media has added a very human, relational dimension to our use of computing technology.

Rather than merely seeing a balance between the electronic and face-to-face interaction, as Naisbitt suggested, we are seeing a melding of the two. Often, what begins as online interactions lead to in-person meetings. Allow me to cite four such examples.

Toby Bloomberg

Early in my business blogging days, one of the bloggers I came into connection with was Toby Bloomberg, a marketing consultant based in Atlanta. (I was living in Mississippi at the time.) After a few months of interaction online we decided it was time to meet face to face. Toby invited me to attend a monthly meeting of the AiMA (Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association), and I took her up on the offer. Toby and I have been fast friends ever since.

Zane Safrit

Zane Safrit is a small business consultant and former CEO. As was the case with Toby, Zane and I met via the blogosphere. (He is an avid, prolific blogger.) Not long after, we met in-person at a blogging conference and experienced real camaraderie. So close was this relationship that Zane traveled all the way from Iowa to attend my wedding! (Keep in mind, we had only met in-person once previously.)

In fact, he showed up in jeans, running shoes and a plaid shirt! (Turns out, even though Zane arrived at the airport, his luggage didn’t.) Personally, he could have shown up in his bathrobe. His willingness to travel all that way never ceases to warm my heart.

Richard Nacht

This list would not be complete without including one of the best friends I have on this earth, my former business partner and co-author of my first book, Realty Blogging, Richard Nacht. As with Toby and Zane, our relationship began online and evolved into a business relationship, the start-up of a new company, and a book! Oh, and Richard came to my wedding as well. Fortunately, his luggage did arrive.

My wife, Amie

The best example of the “high tech, high touch” phenomena is being lived daily by my wife, Amie, and I. You see, we met online via eHarmony. (God bless Dr. Neil Clark Warren!) In fact, one out of every eight couples married today met online.

While I don’t pretend to be a social anthropologist or understand societal trends in the way that Naisbitt does, my own experience has proved that his prediction has value, if not exactly in the same way as he intended.

Through the use of social media tools like LinkedIn and Facebook and microblogging tools like Twitter, the gap between the digital world and the real one is being bridged. Certainly, this has benefit for personal relationships. This book will prove it has value in building business relationships as well.

WHAT’S IN THE DIGITAL HANDSHAKE?

Part One begins by outlining five consumer trends turning the business world upside down:

• Consumer skepticism and resistance to advertising

• Current state of media fragmentation

• Growing trend toward consumers being in control of marketing/advertising messages

• Pressure businesses face to improve targeting of their marketing and advertising to increase relevance and minimize waste

• Companies being held to a higher level of accountability than ever before

Once these trends are identified and explained, the focus turns toward the philosophy behind the use of social media and proposes it as the antidote to these marketing maladies. Part Two explains in chapter-by-chapter detail how to make use of seven proven strategic tools of social media:

• Business blogs

• Social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn

• Online communities

• Microblogs like Twitter

• Online video

• Podcasts

• Social media press releases

There is also a chapter on other ways to use social media for marketing: Social bookmarking, customer ratings and reviews, RSS, and more.

Part Three outlines a simple social media marketing plan of action, which can be summarized in three words: Listen, Engage and Measure.

Here I show you how to put the tools outlined in the previous section to good use and help you create a comprehensive yet cohesive marketing strategy uniquely tailored to your situation.The most important topics being covered in the book are:

• Five consumer trends. I illustrate these trends using a number of case studies from corporations as large as Dell and Intel and many small businesses as well. In fact, my emphasis on small business use of social media is one of the things that sets this book apart from the field.

• The fact that “markets are conversations” and “participation is marketing.” This is an explanation of the philosophy behind the use of social media as a marketing strategy. It is accompanied by quotes and case studies from leaders in the field.

• Practical explanations of how to use the tools of social media and the associative benefits that can be gleaned. Again, these are accompanied by real-world examples from both corporate and small business communities.

• Social media marketing strategy. You will take away from the book a cohesive, integrated strategy for social media marketing engagement.

WHO THIS BOOK WAS WRITTEN FOR

While anyone is welcome to read this book, it was written with two primary audiences in mind: Professional practitioners in the fields of marketing and public relations and small business owners. However, if you fall into one of the following categories, rest assured, this book is for you:

• Chief marketing officers

• Marketing directors

• C-level executives

• Public relations professionals

• Advertising agency executives

• Small business owners

• Company/corporate bloggers

• Social media strategists

• Social media managers

• Online community managers

• Solo entrepreneurs

• Consultants

• Investors and venture capitalists

The ideal reader is a:

• Marketing executive or small business owner who understands that his or her marketing and advertising efforts are not as effective as they used to be, but who lacks understanding of why that is the case.

• The reader who is gaining awareness of the impact the Internet, especially Web 2.0, is having on marketing, and who needs direction in planning future campaigns.

• Those who have a need or would like to learn how to use the tools of this new marketing paradigm to grow their business.

The book assumes that you have at least a basic understanding of marketing principles and tactics. What is not needed is an understanding of technology or of social media tools like blogs and wikis, as it is the task of this book to provide such knowledge.

Social media is more than a toolset; it is a mindset as well. Before we get into a discussion of how to use the tools of social media, we much first lay the groundwork for understanding why they need to be used. Chapter 1 introduces us to the first of five consumer trends that have immediate bearing on how marketing should be done in the Web 2.0 era.

PART I

FIVE CONSUMER TRENDS TURNING THE WORLD UPSIDE DOWN

CHAPTER ONE

Consumer Skepticism Is at an All-Time High

Trust is a commodity in short supply nowadays. We consumers are increasingly skeptical of advertising messages that promise to make our lives easier, our bodies healthier, or our wallets fatter. Ours is a cynical age tainted by war, economic downturn, political unrest, and an uncertain future. We are suspicious of hype, and we favor that which is real, even if it lacks the shiny exterior and pomp commonly associated with advertising.

This chapter seeks to lend insight into the reasons for this increasing skepticism and shed light on who consumers are turning to for advice on goods, products, and services.

THE INSURGENT CONSUMER AND THE INFLUENCE OF WORD OF MOUTH

In a February 2006 article from Advertising Age,1 Editor Jonah Bloom stated, “While too many advertisers are still focused on the business of shouting one message over and over, today the most important communication is not the marketing monologue, but the dialogue that takes place among customers.”

Consumers are becoming insurgent, rising in revolt against slick, overly produced ads in favor of recommendations by fellow consumers and user-generated content such as that found in YouTube videos or customer ratings and reviews such as those at Amazon, Judy’s Book, or Yelp.

For example, never do I go to the movie theater and spend $35 for tickets, soft drink and popcorn without first checking movie reviews on sites such as Yahoo! Movies or Rotten Tomatoes. I’m not interested in reading what the professional critics have to say but glean, instead, the opinions of average Joes who spent their hard-earned cash.

Of course, nothing trumps the influence of recommendations from trusted family members and friends. In their social media manifesto “Trust Economies,”2 authors Chris Brogan and Julien Smith assert, “We are suspicious of marketing. We don’t trust strangers as willingly. Buzz is suspect. It can be bought. Instead, consumers and business people alike are looking towards trust. We want our friends to tell us it’s good. We want someone we know to say we should look into it.”

“We may be seeing the golden age of word-of-mouth and social media in its use,” said small business marketing consultant Zane Safrit. “A perfect storm of early adopters, obvious metrics for its use, the over-saturation by advertising that leads to the demise of its dynamics could combine to create some sweeping changes for business and its methods.”3

Public relations firm Edelman in 2006 completed a survey 4, which concluded:

• By a 3-to-1 margin people are far more likely to trust “average people like me.”

• 67 percent of consumer goods sold are as a result of word of mouth.

• Consumers trust word-of-mouth recommendations far more than traditional marketing or advertising.

• People would rather hear about real experiences and perspectives than “marketing speak.”

“We have reached an important juncture, where the lack of trust in established institutions and figures of authority has motivated people to trust their peers as the best sources of information about a company,” said Richard Edelman, president and CEO. “Companies need to move away from sole reliance on top-down messages delivered to elites toward fostering peer-to-peer dialogue among consumers and employees, activating a company’s most credible advocates.”

BOURNE, NOT BOND: CONSUMERS WANT REAL EXPERIENCES AND PERSPECTIVES, NOT MARKETING SPEAK

You recall the days of classic Agent 007 James Bond (Sean Connery was my favorite, by the way). He was suave, debonair, and hardly ever got a scratch. Bond drove expensive cars, wore fabulous clothes, ate at the finest restaurants, and always, always got the girl.

There was a time when advertising was the same. Slick marketing messages conceived in Madison Avenue high-rises delivered mass-marketing style via broadcast and print were consumed and believed by the buying public, no questions asked. If manicurist Madge said a certain brand of dishwashing liquid softens hands while using it, who were we to disagree? Not so any longer. We now live in the age of Jason Bourne, not James Bond.

Unlike his counterpart, Bourne gets beaten up, shot at, and otherwise knocked around with great regularity. Rarely does he walk away from a fight unscathed. Neither does he get the girl. In fact, his girlfriend was killed. Bourne’s is a world of gritty, cold reality.

That’s the world advertisers find themselves in as well. Consumers have little trust in marketing messages, and, therefore, advertisers have to work much harder for their attention and, more importantly, their trust.

Another example of this real experience versus marketing-speak mentality can be seen in what arguably has become in recent years the most popular genre of television entertainment: Reality TV. Programs run the gamut from the sublime to the ridiculous and cover every topic imaginable, from drug and alcohol interventions, to bounty hunting to modeling, to cooking, real estate sales, and home decorating contests. Oh, yes, let us not forget musical entertainment à la American Idol.

What is the reason for such popularity? Within all of it there is an underlying theme, that what I’m watching has some degree of realism. I can identify with the participants, imagining myself in their place as their peer. These “ordinary” people, whether placed in similarly ordinary or exotic circumstances, carry with them a level of authenticity.

I believe this phenomena is a sign of our times that carries over into advertising. Advertisers and marketing professionals who understand this will do well in making the changes necessary to re-establish trust with the consumer.

To their credit, some are doing their best to bring some level of “reality” to the 30-second spot. It is becoming much more commonplace, for example, to see the CEO of a Fortune 1000 speaking on behalf of the company. Every once in a while they even apologize for wrongdoings, as was the case with JetBlue CEO David Neeleman.

In a now-famous YouTube video, Neeleman addressed operational problems faced by his airline in 2007.5 You recall the incident on February 14, 2007, where thousands of JetBlue’s customers were left stranded for hours in airports and on planes.

His apology was one of the first times that the CEO of a major company used social media in crisis management. The video has received more than 350,000 views. Most YouTube users who commented on the video expressed support for Neeleman, praising him for placing the apology on the site.

A little bit of honesty accompanied by a healthy dose of humility goes a long way toward restoring a company’s reputation among consumers, and Neeleman’s attempt was met with word-of-mouth enthusiasm.

WHY THE SKEPTICISM?

There are a number of reasons consumers are skeptical of advertising. First, advertising is interruptive. I don’t know anyone who welcomes a series of 30-second spots during a favorite TV show. This is one reason for the growing popularity of devices such as TiVo. No one picks up a magazine for the sole purpose of scanning the ads.

Seth Godin, in his 1999 book Permission Marketing,6 says, “For ninety years, marketers have relied on one form of advertising almost exclusively. I call it Interruption Marketing. Interruption, because the key to each and every ad is to interrupt what the viewers are doing in order to get them to think about something else.” Advertising is not why we watch television, listen to the radio or browse a Web page. Interruption gives way to aggravation, followed by a search for the remote.

A second reason for rising skepticism is deceptive advertising with its misleading claims, bait-and-switch techniques, false comparisons that suggest one brand is better than the others without stating that outright—we’ve all been there.

Often, it’s not that the advertiser intended to deceive us, but simply that the ads over promised while the product or service under-delivered. Once we have been fooled by claims that turn out to be exaggerated or even false, we tend to shy away the next time around.

Of course, part of this could be the consumer’s own fault. “The anticipation of a thing is always greater than the realization of it,” someone said when describing how our assumptions regarding a product’s performance can set up both it and us for failure.

Yet a third reason for this growing distrust is a company’s inability to connect with customers at a human level. Of all the reasons, that may be the most damning. The great promise offered by social media is that real, genuine, honest, human connections can be made between the company and consumer that will engender trust and build a foundation for long-term relationships.

CONCLUSION

In the end, it is not so much a matter of knowing why consumers are skeptical but simply accepting that they are. The antidote is not more mass-market messaging but radical transparency and a willingness to admit mistakes, much in the same way JetBlue’s Neeleman did. By re-instituting the conversation, social media can help companies reconnect with consumers, rebuild the bridge of trust, renew customer loyalty, re-energize brand evangelism, and re-humanize the company.

CHAPTER TWO

The Media Is Fragmented and So Is the Audience

MEDIA IN THE SIXTIES: WHEN I WAS MY FATHER’S REMOTE CONTROL

I recall it like it was yesterday. As a child I would sit on the floor of our family room in close proximity to the television, not because I had difficulty seeing the screen, but because, invariably, my father would want the channel changed and guess who would be the one to do it. This was in the 1960s mind you, long before the invention of the remote control. I guess you could say I was the remote.

My job was relatively easy as there weren’t many channels. Normally, depending on the weather, we averaged three and sometimes four—two stations in a nearby town and two a bit farther away. That was television in the sixties. Most of it was black and white, as was life back then.

What about radio? FM had not yet taken over. That left a few local AM stations that played mostly country music or a combination of formats: country in the mornings, rock and roll in the afternoons, and gospel on Sundays. They went off the air at dusk to make room for the 100,000-watt clear-channel stations broadcasting out of Nashville, Little Rock, and even Chicago.

As for print, there was a daily newspaper published in a nearby town and our local hometown weekly. My parents subscribed to Life, Time, and Readers Digest. Oh, and Progressive Farmer, too. (I guess you can tell I grew up in a rural community.)

Advertising in this “Mad Men” era was, by comparison, much simpler than it is today. It was much easier to reach a mass audience, and companies like Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola, and General Motors had mastered the art.