SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY; USING MULTIPLE TOUCH POINTS TO CREATE WORLD CLASS BRANDS

• Social media has created a shift away from company driven marketing (old media) to consumer driven marketing (new media)
• Brand awareness is critical, as in old media, but this awareness is created by conversations with people you know on social media sights.  
• A buying decision, in social media,  is the culmination of a brand and a consumer interacting over a great many "touchpoints"   (texts, videos, podcasts, blogs, posts)---The campaign of Barack Obama 
• The more touchpoints, the greater the chance that a product is going to be sold and a brand created
• A touch point in old media was just simply advertising.  In new media a brand becomes like a human being.  In human relationships, the more experience we have with an individual in a wide variety of circumstances, the deeper the relationship.  A deep relationship creates trust and credibility.  If we trust someone we will believe what they have to say to us.  People no longer believe in advertising, but they do trust what their friends say.  If a brand is a "friend" we will believe what it says
• Examples are Barack Obama and the Ford Fiesta.  Social media created brands for these two situations overnight.  The Ford Fiesta had no paid advertising.  A six month social media campaign created 38% awareness in its target market, and 10,000 units were sold the first week it was on sale.

SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY: HOW BARACK OBAMA CREATED A BRAND IN THE 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN

 This is a  continuation from the previous post. Social Media can create a strong effective brand for a company, but to do this a strategy is needed. What is that strategy?  President Obama's campaign of 2008 is a great case study in what that strategy should be and how to put it together.  Social Media is not snake oil.  It is only a tool, but it is an incredible tool. Social Media brings together enormous amounts of people to one spot---the scale of social media is incredible.  For social media to work, it  must be integrated with traditional marketing strategy.  The first thing to do in a social media branding campaign is to have a legitimate product---something there has to be there. That is given.  How do you create a brand for an unknown product? This is why the Obama campaign is a great case study. He had no name recognition---the American public did not know him. Barack tapped social media to brand himself.  If we study how he did it, it will give us insights in how marketers should create brands with this new medium.

Since my last blog I found two new sources which may shed more light on just Barack created a brand in 2008. In a column on 11/ 10/08, New York Times columnist David Carr tells us that Barack Obama observed two things about social media that are needed in creating a brand.  Social Media allows a candidate and a marketer tremendous communication, and database capabilities. These things were present in old media, but not on the scale that new media affords a brand, and not at the speed. Barack understood that social media could create for him a brand----overnight.  To do this, Barack also realized that a strategy had to be created.

Barack realized that to create a brand, he must create a clear objective, he had to have a goal from that objective, and the objective should give his team a plan of action.  As General Marshall said before the D-Day Invasion, generals create objectives, lieutenants make plans. Barack realized that his social media strategy had to begin with the selection of an OBJECTIVE.  Barack realized that social media can take you in many directions, a lot directions at once.  This is why it must be managed.  For social media to work there must be adult supervision.  This is important for a marketer to realize when they create social media campaigns.  YOU HAVE TO START OUT WITH A CLEAR OBJECTIVE for your campaign.

My next source that explains how to create a brand using social media is Blogging (all -in-one) for Dummies by Susan Gunelius.  Barack decided that his objective in his social media would be to create a brand---he had to stick out from the other candidates, and he had to get people to know him and be comfortable with him in a short amount of time. The objective allowed he and his staff to define their goals. The goals that his team decided upon, would be the same that a marketers would have in introducing a new product through social media:

• To build brand awareness
• To network with supporters, and in the case of a product, to network with customers
• To build relationships with voters and customers
• To get votes (to get people to buy the product that we're marketing)
• To communicate messages to our supporters and customers
• To manage the reputation of the candidate (and product), by debunking rumors and nudging conversations in the desired direction of our product-candidate
• To humanize and personalize ourselves in consumer's eyes rather than as an untouchable entity---to become a "friend"  Barack realized that people believe thier friends and not advertising. People believed Barack  in his campaign because he was their "friend". 

What this strategy did for Barack is the goal of a modern marketer in creating a brand through social media. The power of a relationship brand comes from creating branded experiences that allow consumers to self-select how they want to connect with the brand.  Brands are created when friends have conversations. In the case of Barack, his "friendship" with the American electorate allowed the electorate to self-select how they wanted to connect with the Obama brand.  This is analogous to how a marketer should create a modern brand using social media

CREATING AN EFFECTIVE BRAND: HOW PRESIDENT OBAMA USED SOCIAL MEDIA TO CREATE A BRAND

I. An effective brand is created when "friends" have "conversations"
II. O.K. How is this done?
III. President Obama is a classic case study---in 2006 he had no money, no name recognition, and no chance to defeat Hilary Clinton. HIS SOLUTION:  Use Social Media to create branding and to create relationships with the American Public
IV. HIS STRATEGY

• HAVE A GOAL---His goal was to become well known and to create personal relationships with the American people. His goal was to create a BRAND.  The brand was TRUST. When you get to know someone, and become "friends" this is how TRUST IS ACHIEVED. To vote for him, people would have to trust---simply trust him. He knew that people would have to trust him more than Hilary Clinton. The only way that the American people would trust him would be if he could meet them and become thier "friend". People believe what thier friends them---this is why they are FRIENDS.
• He created the scale on his web site to be able to meet his goal
• He integrated his Web site with social media platforms so that his "friends" would tell thier "friends" about thier friend Barack.  People told thier friends about Barack through posts, videos, blogs, and pictures.  Trust was no built with the American public.
• His website and the integration with social media platforms was easy to find, fun to use and to navigate
• Barack had a "method to his madness".  He had specific tasks that he wanted his "friends" to for him.  He wanted his friends to be enthusiastic, but he controlled the enthusiasm and channeled it into deeper relationships. He wanted friends talking to oher friends about why Barack should be President.  "Friends now had "conversation" and a recommendation was made about President.  Barack created trust, through the recommendations of his "friends". This is how a brand is created. A key state was Iowa. There are few black people in that state.  Building trust through "friends" won this battleground state.
• MOBILITY;     

                            A. Barack created many "touch points" with voters.  The key to good marketing is place yourself in a postion to influence your customer just at the point that a purchase decision is made. Barack understood 90% of Americans are only 3 feet away from thier phones 24 hours a day.  He also understood that people allow thier email boxes to overflow, but that 90% of all texts are answered. He created a method by which he could keep in touch with targeted followers.  This targeted made his "get-out-the-vote" efficient and cost effective.  He had to pay only $1.56 for each vote in 2008.  Conventional "get-out-vote" cost $20-$30.
                               B. Social Media allowed him to understand the financial metrics of his campaign. He understood what people were thinking and why.  this allowed him to whether problems, such as "Jeremiah Wright".  His "friendship" with the American public allowed him to understand just where they were coming from and he was able to communicate with them on very controversial issues.
                                C. Social Media allowed Barak to explain his brand in ways that the American public could understand---because now they were "friends"

HOW DO CUSTOMERS MAKE BUYING DECISIONS

• The process of buying a product with old and new media is the same.  There are brands for a customer to choose from. In old media, the roster is cut down, and a decision is made on what to buy. The decision is heavily influenced by advertising.
• In New Media, a consumer begins with a few brands, but many new brands, through social media,come to the consumers attention.  His awareness is created, not by advertising, but on the recommendations of people that he knows.
• A large part of marketing is done, post purchase.  Under new media, the consumer and the brand are continuing to be engaged.  It is this engagement that creates the brand loyalty that is needed for future purchases  (Harvard Business Review----the New Way to Brand   December, 2010 

THE FIESTA MOVEMENT: A CASE STUDY IN HOW TO CREATE A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

• Ford Motor Company chose 100 millennials that were active on social media sights to use the car and create "friendships" on Ford's behalf.
• Through these agents, Ford was able to make "friends", create a "conversation", and create a brand for their new car, the FIESTA
• The agents used post, blogs, videos, pictures on social media sights that allowed people to see and experience the car
• 700 videos were produced, 6.5 views were place placed on YouTube, 3.4 million impression of the Fiesta appeared on Twitter
• When the car lauched it sold 12,000 units the first month, and it had a 38% awareness among millenials

BRANDING IN SOCIAL MEDIA: "FRIENDS" HAVING A "CONVERSATION"

• Effective branding is accomplished when a marketer engages a customer in "friendship".  Brands are created when "friends" have "conversations".
• Social media platforms create the place where "friends" meet to have "conversations" and create effective brands.
• examples are Rihanna, WEEI sports radio in Boston, Mass., P & G, and Ford Motor Company.
• Rihanna knows what songs to sing. WEEI knows what subjects to talk about and Ford knows how to adjust thier manufacturing lines to adjust to consumer taste, through the use of Social Media platforms.

HOW TO CREATE AN INSTANT BRAND: SOCIAL MEDIA CREATES A CONVERSATION

• People BELIEVE thier FRIENDS and DISBELIEVE large brands (The Economist)   
• Social media allows a brand to become "A Friend" to individual consumers. Friends create CREDIBILITY.
• An example is Rihanna, the singer. She is presently running a contest in which her fans will select the next song from her "LOUD" album for radio release.
• Rihanna has created a conversation with her friends. She has given them possession of her music selection. This ownership creates brand.  It distinguishes Rihanna from other artists. Rihanna's market has friended and she now has credibility and a brand for her music and album.

Social Media creates 'A PERFECT STORM' for a marketer

• Social media has created a common meeting place for 1/4 of the world's population. That number is increasing each day.
• Marketers, with permission, can now track each INDIVIDUAL. Social Media has the tools to know how each person feels abouth the marketers product.
• Marketers now have the ability to SEGMENT, TARGET, and have an INDIVIDUAL conversation with EACH MEMBER of the WORLD COMMUNITY!!!!!!!