The Marketer’s Missing Tools: Online Marketing & Social Media
Last night I had the opportunity to hear Bill McDermott SAP’s President of Global Field Operations (and member of the SAP AG Executive Board) speak at Villanova University’s 3rd Annual Marketing Professionals Showcase, a showcase for two student groups to present their marketing projects to local companies.
Bill kicked off the night talking about today’s economic crisis and how in his life he’s seen and worked through three others: the oil crisis (70s), the Wall Street crisis (80s) and the dot.com crisis (early 2000). During his keynote, Bill mentioned transparency as part of corporate culture (although in this sense he’s referring to Sarbanes-Oxley). During the Q&A portion his advice to the companies attending was that excellent customer service is what would help them to stand out and help them to survive…nothing new or earth shattering there, right? But then he said something that made me smile. He said that business is about people helping people.
I took that as an opportunity to ask Bill how he felt about social media and how it “pulls back the covers of a corporation so that ‘people’ were the face of the corporation, not the brand.” To which he replied (and not verbatim at all) that he embraced social media, social networks, etc. Of course, he also said that there are negatives. As an example, he went on to say that he’d rather have relationships with people online so that they got their information correct vs. someone writing something that wasn’t totally true (i.e. bloggers). He also mentioned online communities and how it’s important to be a part of them. And let’s be clear, SAP is walking the walk when it comes to implementing social media.
Next were two student teams that were presenting their findings after a semester long (I believe) project. One team presented a new product they developed for kids and the other a new marketing campaign for a company. The students did a great job and their marketing research, plan and presentation were really well done. However, when it came time for Q&A they really struggled with these questions:
Q: How would you use web 2.0 and Internet marketing in your promotions?
A: We have a website and a link to it so people can buy.
Q: How could you use social networking to spread the word of your new product?
A: We will have kiosks and the game at a camp and will use word of mouth.
Can you see the dichotomy at play here? SAP embraces online marketing and social media and I am sure if you were a new marketer looking to get on board, you would most likely be expected to understand it too. And yet, the kids who have lived in this “social” world all of their lives don’t understand what’s being asked from a business perspective.
It’s like convincing kids that a playground can be used for business and adults that business can be done on a playground.
I have blogged about this before…if marketers (apparently new & experienced) don’t take the time to learn how marketing is being changed forever by online marketing and social media in a few years they will be extinct.
So, how can that gap be bridged? Education, a renewed passion for marketing…and online marketing training.
And by “online” I don’t mean take an online class. By online I mean learn how online marketing is affecting how marketing and business is done today.
The Online Media Boot Camp
I hope you all know me well enough by now to know that I am passionate about marketing, communications, social media and education. The opportunity to combine it all to help fellow marketers (and companies) get a leg up in this horrible economy is important to me.
On April 9th Liana (Li) Evans and I will hosting and speaking at the Online Media Boot Camp in King of Prussia, PA (right outside Philadelphia and convenient to NJ, NY, DE, MD).
The Online Media Boot Camp is limited to 65 attendees and offers the following online marketing training sessions:
- Social Media Fundamentals – Li Evans
- Selling On-Line Media Internally – Shashi Bellamkonda
- Corporate Blogging – Valeria Maltoni
- Public Relations 2.0 – Beth Harte
- Social Networking & Community Building – Mack Collier
- Online Marketing Workshop (Just to make sure that attendees confidently hit the ground running at the end of the day!)
Why the limited number of seats? Because as speakers we all want to make sure that we can spend as much time as possible with attendees to help get their questions answered, to help them bridge that gap I spoke about above, and to make sure that they leave with a new competitive advantage.
Online marketing and social media isn’t just for large companies with budgets. In fact, that’s not true at all! If you are a company, non-profit, agency (creative or government), college/university, etc. who wants to engage customers, prospects, shareholders, students, constinuents, etc. online, the Online Media Boot Camp is for you! Let’s face it, the Internet isn’t going away and even if you aren’t there…everyone else just might be. Why miss out on that opportunity?
To learn more about the speakers and what they are engaged in, check out their blogs:
- Liana (Li) Evans, Key Relevance
- Shashi Bellamkonda (The Social Media “Swami”), Network Solutions
- Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent
- Mack Collier, The Viral Garden
Registration is open and the Online Media Boot Camp is $349 per person. After 3/16 the registration is $449.
If you are already embracing online marketing and social media, how about passing on this information to a marketer that might be looking for a leg up or who gets it, but wants to learn how to implement it? You have my appreciation and thanks in advance!
If you have questions, please e-mail me at beth [at] onlinemediabootcamp [dot] com. Looking forward to hearing from you!
Even More Goodness! Related Posts:
Tags: Liana Evans, Marketing, online marketing, Online Media Boot Camp, professional marketing development, Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media, Valeria Maltoni
6 Responses to “The Marketer’s Missing Tools: Online Marketing & Social Media”
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Beth,
Who knew that “the kids who have lived in this “social” world all of their lives don’t understand what’s being asked from a business perspective.”?
Wow. I guess we just take it for granted that they do. I know that the older crowd in my company makes that assumption.
It’s got me thinking about how I can take advantage of this opportunity as an internal communicator. And, it has me thinking that I need to revisit my new media section of my comms plan to ensure I’m not missing any educational opportunities as well. By making the assumption, I may not be leveraging my tools correctly.
Thanks!
Susan’s last blog post..So much fun
Beth and others:
Just because the students know how to use FB and iTunes on a personal level doesn’t mean they know how to translate that for a business.
It takes experienced marketers to show them how to leverage it. They may be more willing to jump in with the guidance.
In my classes I am teaching my students about social media. I’m impressing on PR students that they must be looking at how information is being passed around online. Marketing students are writing Internet Marketing Recommendations Plans that must include Anaytics, SEO, Cost-per Click, e-mail marketing, blogging, social networking, Twitter, Virtual Worlds, Advergaming and digital signage. We are also addresing Mobile.
The challenge in the classroom is to connect the importance of the traditional methods that work (like Target Market, SWOT, etc) and get students thinking about social media as a series of media channels that MUST be considered when looking at their overall communication strategy.
When I showed my seniors Twitter last week, only a few of them in the class jumped on. This week we talked about it more and more are getting on. And yet, I have several who resist and don’t see the value.
That’s my job — helping them to see the value in new tools and how to integrate them into marketing planning.
Dr. Elaine Young
Associate Professor, Marketing and e-Business Management
Champlain College
Elaine Young’s last blog post..Real School Choice
Thanks for this excellent post ! and for the great comment.
Agreed the missing piece is the strategy. It’s one thing to watch Youtube and build a Facebook group for friends. It’s another one to craft and execute a social media strategy that covers positioning, targeting/segmentation, SWOT …
I would argue that many agencies are still skipping this when selling social media plans/initiatives to their clients.
Most sell the media not the result of a social media marketing project/initiative.
In other words questions like the one below are not always answered:
- what community do you want to influence (if there is no community there is no social marketing),
-who in this community , top influencers, middle magic or using Forrester grid, spectators…
- where will you find them (Blogs, twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Video sites…)
- what it is that you have to contribute to this community (SWOT, Differentiators),
- what content do you plan to develop
- what is the expected effect you want to see (awareness, purchase, recommendation, clicks)
- how much do you plan to spend (and the most part is usually time)
– how are you going to measure.
Best
Beth,
Thanks for posting.
As a December Villanova grad (COM major with a Biz minor), I can support your statement that students (at least at Villanova) have no idea what social media is (other than Facebook, MySpace, and MAYBE LinkedIn) and how to use it for business.
Villanova students are some of the brightest out there, but in my 3.5 years of COM and BIZ classes, the only recommendation from a prof regarding social media was to join LinkedIn (from Prof. Bill Madway) and I didn’t find out about Twitter until my internship with @AnneBuchanan this past fall. Even Villanova friends that I have tried convincing to join Twitter and get a LinkedIn account have responded with apathy. This is where professors & managers must step in to encourage their students & interns to explore social media and networking online.
As an example, in my PR 101 class this fall semester, we had to interview a PR professional and present what we found to the class. I interviewed @CathyWebSavvyPR, whom I had connected with via Twitter. My professor, also a marketing/PR professional, had barely heard of Twitter.
I don’t think this problem is exclusive to Villanova. Many colleges and professors have yet to adopt social media instruction and students are behind once they graduate as a result. This is not a slight on professors as much as it is a call for professors to expand their own knowledge and begin teaching their students the different uses of social media.
Tom said it very well. I have had many of the same experiences in my school, SUNY Geneseo.
Students today have no idea how much social media can do for them or the amount of tools that are available to them, let alone how to show others in a business setting what it can do for them.
Many students are very savvy at using the few tools they know of to communicate with their friends and that is why they have a great deal of potential as future online marketing / PR professionals, but they they still need the experts like you, Beth, to show them how they can apply their skills to productive business applications.
Dave
David Spinks’s last blog post..When in Doubt, Ask Your Readers!
Beth
I am amazed how many businesses haven’t yet caught onto the need to implement social media and online marketing strategies.
We are starting to make a lot of headway as far as coverage goes http://tinyurl.com/dcdgrb but the traditional business owner or marketing manager is still resisting.
Keep fighting the good fight.
Craig Wilson’s last blog post..Perfect storm causing traditional media bloodbath