Social Media and Direct Response - Mashing Up Old and New

Mashable recently posted an article about driving response through social media marketing initiatives. It took me back to my old-skool direct response print days and at the same time, brought in my years of experience developing and creating interactive direct response programs for clients.

With the advent of social media, the old-skool rules of DR still come into play. I think what happens is marketers continue to think that it's about getting the LIKE, or the SHARE. In the case of the mashable post, their goal was getting donations and that's where the focus needed to be from the get-go. All the Likes and Shares don't mean squat unless what's being shared is the call to action to donate and a direct link to a page where people can drop their credit card.

The mashing up of social media initiatives and a DR calls to action necessitates discipline. One needs to define ONE action at a time. If donating is the key action, then messaging in social media needs to center around that...not LIKES, not posting or anything else. For those who donate online it needs to be made easy for them to then post to their social graphs that they donated...and the resulting link back needs to go directly to the donation page and call to action. The more steps we expect consumers to take, the more likely they are to fall off our path.

Read the original article here:

http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=210062532&gid=3359796&type=member&item=30886010&articleURL=http%3A%2F%2Fmashable.com%2F2010%2F09%2F28%2Fsocial-media-conversion-science%2F&urlhash=nSRi&goback=.gde_3359796_member_30886010

Twittermoms - Focus Groups Go Social

Adweek reports that CPG heavyweight, P&G is working with blog network, Twittermoms and Quickie Manufacturing to get Twittermom recommendations onto product packaging. In a move that's seen as a way to provide unbiased and 'real' product reviews on-pack, P&G engaged the blog network of 30,000 'influential' moms, each of whom have an average of 1000 followers to test and rate new products.

A subset of Twittermoms are then selected to take part in the product trial. Twittermoms then works with the advertiser on a selected set of criteria to deem if the product is worthy to earn the “Moms Like This” seal of approval, which is then applied on-pack.

Pretty interesting example of crown-sourcing, if you want to call it that. I tend to think Twittermoms should have taken the same focus group approach to the naming of their company. Equating moms with twits just doesn't work for me.

Read the Adweek article here:

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i5726ebf2b05c55dfed9388083d4d4ced

What's Your Customer's DNA?

This may seem rudimentary, but too often marketers look at demographic targets without looking at the big picture. Along with this narrow focus comes an ask: Buy something from us, sign up, take action, do something - and this is done without an exchange value.

In today's economic climate, consumers are ever more fickle as to where they spend their hard-earned dollars. On top of this, they're bombarded with a flurry of marketing messages across the spectrum - in myriad ways across multiple daily experiences.

So, how do marketers break through the clutter? How do they grab that fleeting attention of an over-saturated media world that's evermore competitive with every passing hour?

It starts with knowing the customer's DNA. Going beyond demographics, psychographics, and even values and lifestyles, it's finding out both the pain points and sweet spots that brings your product or service into relevancy.

Connecting with audiences and customers is BEING one...it's an empathetic approach to knowing the very fabric of what makes the target tick and how your offer fits into their lives and makes it both relevant and utterly irresistible.

This messaging can't happen in a media vacuum either. It needs to transcend any one medium and be consistent throughout the customer experience and the world they live in. The media mix is a misnomer really - media shouldn't be mixed but carefully constructed, with common 'ingredients' and both an ask and a value proposition that is part of the very DNA of the customer you're trying to reach. A good example of a common error in the often misunderstood world of Facebook is the ever-present ask to LIKE us on Facebook. Rarely do I ever see a reason 'why'. What's in it for me? And how does this click fit with my life and the world I experience?

It's time for marketers to think beyond sales goals and market share. We need to dig deep about how our brand can become part of the consumer's DNA and concurrently devise a strategy to stay relevant, irresistible and valuable over time, across all consumer touch points and experiences.