Social networking is a prolific tool.  Ya think? It continues to connect us to friends, products, services and information faster than anyone could have ever imagined. While social networking is now a fact of life, it has been been hailed as the holy grail of marketing, or at least one of them.  An interesting byproduct of social networking is the natural emergence of social search.  Yup, social search is just peeking its head, and the implications for businesses, products, and brands could not be more profound.

Your friends tweet, write and update their statuses on various topics. They also read tweets, status updates, blogs and retweets, or share links and other information with their network. And while Google is busy snapping up social search start-ups who include your friends’ content in their search from the broader web, for example if you search for “New York Restaurant” on Google, and your friend has a blog about “New York Restaurants” then your friend’s blog will show up in your search.  Not sure the relevancy or value of this type of search, but like a lion waiting in the bush, I have learned to carefully size up new technologies and their uses, so I am taking a wait and see approach before I go after the game.

Here is another way to look at social search.  Everyone is already doing it, although businesses may or may not be listening. “What’s a hot spot in Barcelona?” one of my facebook friends asked?  Another, “Who know a good Ridgewood area wedding dress tailor?” Yet another, “Can anyone recommend a good pediatric dentist?” And so on…so intra-personal network search is indeed taking something that is alive and well, and with the emergence of sites like FourSquare and facebook Places, social search happens as people eat, shop, and do, yes, as people do.  So how do businesses best leverage this fast moving consumer behavior?  Here are three sure fire ways to get your enterprise going:

1. Understand it’s about integration of your marketing – All of your marketing communications assets must work together, especially the web. Ensure that your web assets speak appropriately to the depth and breadth of your market as well as your products and services.  Note that today, you will need more than a website to compete, in fact if you have a website in the traditional sense, then you have a typewriter.  Your Mar/Com campaigns must engage the tools of the web, including apps, social networking, and location based web services.

2. Your Web Reputation is Your Reputation – So true, so dangerous, so full of opportunity. Understanding what people say about you online, and where they say it is crucial. This is a great opportunity to listen to your market, adjust, and engage.

3. Cultivate Web Brand Ambassadors – There are people who love your brand and who will gladly serve as brand evangelists.  Engage these folks, on and offline to help you grow your business’ influence.

My next post will be on social commerce…stay tuned.

Brands are on the decline in this economy. Even with the recent bounce in stock market, People are choosing value over brand loyalty and where they can get both, they will buy it.  According to the recent results of a comScore study on brand loyalty among consumer goods products, showing a significant decline in consumers’ allegiance to their favorite brands during the past two years, the percentage of shoppers who typically buy the brands they want most has steadily declined across the categories examined. In March 2010, less than 50% of shoppers reported purchasing the brand they want most.

Value is the name of the game in this “New Normal.” “The New Normal” was coined by legendary bond investor Bill Gross, in his June, 2009 outlook, referring to the new economic order in the aftermath of the most recent global economic collapse.

According to McKinsey Quarterly, “We are experiencing not merely another turn of the business cycle, but a restructuring of the economic order.” If you believe that, if indeed there’s a fundamental change in the people shop, then it would prudent for business to at least reflect on the new realities and at best, adjust their marketing plans accordingly.  For the record, I’m in the New Normal camp.

From web 2.0 and Social media, to advertising, public relations…but, let’s snap on the breaks here because I don’t want to drag myself on this post into promotional tools, but stay focused on on the what businesses are facing…

Everyone is doing it…

From Wallmart to Home Depot, retailers are slashing prices. They are doing it and saying in their marcom campaigns. Wachovia, Bank of America have changed their fee structures. Applebees, Red Lobster are pushing value dining options. Wall Street money managers like Edward Jones are working against the grain as well by touting long term approach to the market. So business is getting it right? Right?

Not sure about that, but based on my observations larger enterprises seem to understand the market, and more importantly the culture and psychology of the post crash market.  Yes, there is a post market consumer psychology, and it’s manifested by how they behave.  I am not sure that middle market business got the memo. Far too many businesses are still operating as if it was 2007.  Their prices and service have remained at 2007, but more importantly their expectations are unreasonably set for pre-crash markets. At the same time, their marketing strategies have somehow adjusted themselves to post market crash expectations. The scenario is we’re not going to adjust to market expectations, at the same time we expect spend less to grow our business…catch 22, ain’t it?

This past Monday I interviewed veteran Journalist, author, and cultural commentator TaRessa Stoval, managing editor of The Defenders Online. We talked about the changing face of the media and the medium and what that means to how we consumer, use, and interact with media.

You can listen to show by clicking here.

Many thanks to TaRessa for being on the show!

Writing a new post on “The New Normal.” Coming at you soon…

As technology continues to grow and the internet becomes a more common platform for business (believe it or not, many businesses still haven’t harnessed the internet), the amount of money spent on online ads has become, as you can imagine, fairly substantial. Although online advertising can be a more efficient way to target certain demographics than traditional media outlets, this does not always lead to greater results. According to a new study from MIT Sloan School of Management, the same search, and other technology, that has enabled advertisers to target particular audiences, such as men between 25 and 35 who work on Mac computers, is also creating greater online competition for the same audience, thus reducing profitability of advertising on any targeted web site.

If you think about it, this all makes all the sense in the world. And it isn’t enough that many online advertisers have only themselves to blame for fragmenting their own markets by hopping from one sexy technology or site to another, but now there is evidence that there is a finite amount of scree-estate available to compete for the attention of the viewer.

MarketingVox data suggest that the study’s findings take on greater relevance as vertical and hyper vertical ad networks continue to grow. Adify’s Vertical Gauge for Q3, brand advertising CPMs for various verticals continue to rebound from early 2009. Also, food CPMs are up 91% from last quarter and Real Estate CPMs are up 17%. As far as vertical brand advertising, both automotive and healthy living and lifestyle verticals contracted substantially.

Clearly this article suggests to advertisers and consumers alike that targeted ad dollars don’t necessarily create more efficacy or revenue, in fact, evidence, in this case, shows more targeted ad dollars are less profitable. It is critical that advertisers note the importance of integrated marketing strategies in their marketing communications campaigns…more to come.

Now you can listen to us on our new web radio show “Hey Marketing Genius!” You can listen by clicking here http://www.blogtalkradio.com/heymarketinggenius

Today’s show discusses branding. Our guest is Erik Kent, President of NJWedding.com.

I find myself broaching this important subject again. Where ever I speak, during client presentations, in the coffee shop, online forums, list-serves, etc., the hype about social networking continues.  Sure, in many important ways, social networking lives up to the hype, given the sheer numbers (people participating and their activity of course). Sadly, living the hype is not like hyping the hype, living the hype is less glamorous, I can assure you.

Here’s Why. It makes all the sense in the world to play in this space, but what good is it if you are not growing your network. Yes, there is value in being in touch with your customers, and social networking, gives you the opportunity to be exposed to your clients’ network. But isn’t the idea to grow your potential network so the influence of your brand, ideas, products, and organization grows?

My next post will be on the idea of dependence on social networking and the implications / complications that may arise…I’m also working on 10 ways to grow your network.

More to come…

I am copying and pasting from this morning’s MediaPost because, well, this is well done…Enjoy!

Email Has Leading Role In Multichannel Engagement
by Chad White , Monday, October 26, 2009

Marketers are slowly catching up to their multichannel customers by ramping up usage of multichannel marketing tactics — and email is at the core of many of those efforts.  That’s the key finding of the “Retail Email Guide to Multichannel Engagement,” which Smith-Harmon created in partnership with ExactTarget. We’ll be releasing the guide next week, but here are some of the key points.

According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting for ExactTarget, 84% of respondents agree that multichannel marketing is more successful than single-channel efforts. Email’s ability to play well with other channels is one of the key reasons that 81% of respondents said email would be as effective or more effective two years from now. Among those respondents believing that email will retain or increase its effectiveness, 58% say email is a key part of their multichannel initiatives, and 37% say that email boosts the ROI of other channels.

But in addition to supporting marketing messages in other channels, email benefits from pulling in content from other channels to boost relevance and subscriber engagement. Seventy-four percent of those respondents believing that email will retain or increase its effectiveness say that the relevance of their emails is increasing; 36% say that including more social features in their emails will make them more effective.

In the retail industry, there are great examples of email being used to drive traffic to and interest in…

Stores, as in this Mar. 11, 2008 Urban Outfitters email, which announces a new store opening.

Social networks, as in this Sept. 23 Dick’s Sporting Goods email, which asks subscribers to follow the company on Twitter.

Mobile sites and apps, as in this Oct. 3 Ralph Lauren email, which includes a promotion for an iPhone app for the company’s latest collection.

Direct mail, as in this June 27, 2008 Norm Thompson email, which asks subscribers to vote for their favorite catalog cover.

Online, as in this Sept. 27 HSN email, which promotes the top-searched items and departments from the company’s Web site.

TV, as in this Dec. 3 Victoria’s Secret email, which tells subscribers when the company’s fashion show is being televised.

As promising as these multichannel efforts are, the survey also revealed several barriers to taking a more multichannel approach to marketing. For instance, 62% of respondents couldn’t measure customer engagement. Also, only 37% of respondents knew which channel their customers prefer to use, and only 27% of respondents could measure whether efforts in one channel boost results in another.

These findings speak volumes about the need for better customer engagement visibility tools and more time spent unlocking channel synergies. What’s clear is that marketers who can best coordinate their channels and play to channel strengths will have a significant advantage over competitors who can’t. We hope the statistics and examples in the “Retail Email Guide to Multichannel Engagement” inspire you to take a leading position.

So it’s been about fouryears since facebook redefined networking (MySpace fans, I do recognize that your site came first, but I’m on a roll here) and since, the world has come to see things just a bit differently. So here are some thoughts on what we have and have not learned about the new world.

1. Rush to fools gold – believe it or not, people still believe that you can get rich through social networking. This is Fools Gold 2.0. Yup, this is reminiscent of what happened with “the internet” about 15 years ago. The fact is, social networking takes time and work…one other thing, it’s not free. The medium may be free, but the work is not.
2. Who you tweeting to? – “I can get someone right out of college to do this stuff,” one of my current clients said to me when I was pitching his firm. “Certainly, you can.” I replied, “But will this person have the strategic background to build your network because if your network is not relevant, then there’s no reason to do this. Oh, and how are you going to keep your network interested in your firm.” Guess what? We got the account and the client is happy
3. Protect Your Brand – We now know that we need to protect our brands, products, and services on social networking sites. So it’s important that we secure these accounts even if we don’t intend to use them.
4. Your Network is Key – Building your relevant network takes time, but once it’s build it will serve you well, but only if you keep your network engaged. Are you measuring network growth? Are you measuring engagement? What are you doing for your network?
5. Social networking is the tip of the iceberg – It’s about integrating all the tools that the web offers and doing it well. Social networking is not a silo, it’s not an activity, and it must be a key part of your overall marketing communications strategy. And if it’s not, you’re probably dropping marketing bombs.

More to come.

1. Engage – People who join your group or fan page want something. Find out what it is and give it to them. Give them coupons, suggestion, offers, new, meetings, rallies, contests…what ever it is, you must keep your network engage or else you risk loosing it…or worse, having a stale network.

2. Aggregate – Social networks allow you to bring people together around your issues, products and services. Once you build your relevant network, you can engage by polling, conducting market research, delivering offers, and so on.

3. Measure Online – Measuring your activities on your social networks. For example, how many people joined your group. How many people are attending your events, how many people saw your event, and how many comments are made.

4. Measure Offline – Use every opportunity to drive your “offline” audience to your online social networks. So if have a quarterly magazine, or conduct monthly direct mail, or advertise in print or television, invite people to join your online network. Now you can measure what’s happening offline and at the same time grow your influence in your social network.

Social networking is no panacea.  But, done right, it can be a slice of heaven, even though it takes hard/smart/inspired work.