Digital Marketing - How to use it to sell more

Click image for UStream recording of conference

Last week I moderated a panel titled “Social Selling: Using the Power of Friends to Boost the Bottom Line “ at MediaPost’s Social Media Insider Summit #MPSMIS. My panel was a very interesting mix of marketers, such as Michael Aki from Gap stores and Richard Armour from Gamestop, and representatives from companies that provide some of the underlying technologies, like Henry Wong from Adgregate, David Dowd from Buddy Media and Ben Straley from Meteor Solutions. @Adgregate @DGDowd @MeteorSolutions

I knew it would be a great panel when an earlier keynote, Lou Kerner, Social Media and Internet Analyst at equity research firm Wedbush Securities, described Buddy Media and Adgregate as, “It’s like 1996 all over again. Zynga is the new Eletronic Arts, Twitter is the new Hotmail, BuddyMedia is the new Doubleclick, and Adgregate Markets is the new GSI Commerce.”

Kerner also said, “We are still in incredibly early days, if social media was television, ‘I Love Lucy’ hasn’t even aired yet.” Panelist Henry Wong later echoed his comments, saying we’re in inning one or two of a long game, and there will be lots of lessons to be learned along the way.

Facebook seems to be the platform everyone is rallying around because of its broad reach and data-rich connection to the consumer. That acceptance is speeding adoption in the industry as few want to be on the bleeding edge.

One theme that came up when starting up a social selling program is to set the right expectations with management. To succeed, there need to be metrics and the right level of investment. However, those metrics need to be reasonable or there’s the risk that these early learning attempts could be labeled failures. As for the level of investment, Richard from Gamestop said, “Opening a store on Facebook isn’t just like a store…It’s a real store.” Henry observed that this implies that resources spent merchandising, promoting, etc. to a normal dotcom store will also be required for a Facebook store. The ‘build it and they will come’ mentality just won’t work. But we’d better keep in mind Lou Kerner’s advice – “Whatever it costs you to get a Facebook fan today will be much more in the future – so get ‘em NOW.”

I asked the panel what was the “worst thing” which could happen to Facebook commerce, and they responded that if in 1-2 years it’s only used as a channel for deals and promotions, it will create huge incentive problems for retailers and their prospective customers. They observed it would be better to have Facebook commerce develop so that customers think of shopping as natural to their overall social experience and not just a place to sign up to get deals.

Another challenge is that social media is crossing over all disciplines of an organization, and there’s a risk of not having a distinct brand voice. Public relations may run Twitter, the advertising department the website, Facebook fanpage, and customer service e-mail. Michael Aki believes a rebalancing is probably in order.

The biggest news in social media was happening during the conference, but thousands of miles away. The events in Egypt were unfolding rapidly, catalyzed by Twitter and Facebook, yet I didn’t hear any mention from the stage. I think this suggests a risk to our industry of being too focused driving consumers to Facebook to get more fans, rather than on how to become a part of consumers’ Facebook communities.

David Dowd emphasized that you can’t just go to your Facebook site and put up a commerce/selling message. You need content to engage. It was also noted that just because you have a tab storefront on Facebook, it doesn’t mean your fans are even aware of it.

In small towns, businesses know they need to contribute something to the community first, before trying to make the sale. Their contribution must go beyond what we’d normally consider “content.” Just like a car dealership might loan out one of its convertibles for the 4^th of July parade, marketers need to contribute something to their Facebook and Twitter communities beyond coupons and discounts. (More on the research we conducted over the summer at http://sellorelse.ogilvy.com/15-years-later-the-first-internet-wired-town-is-again-worth-watching )

I did relay two humorous tweets about events in Egypt that were related to he themes of the conference: “If Mubarak wanted the people to stay home and do nothing, why did he turn off the Internet?” @CarlHonore and “Egyptians camped out in Cairo. For Americans, think of it as like the release of new Apple product if Apple made freedom.” @pourmecoffee

I stayed for the first morning of the MediaPost Mobile Insiders Summit – MediaPost was nice enough to let attendees from the social media conference attend. A big theme was that mobile is dramatically changing how people are behaving at retail. Jason Spero, Google’s Director of Mobile, said 82% of people using Priceline to book a hotel room used it within 24 hours of their stay, and 35% did so within a mile of the hotel, suggesting that the hospitality business is in for another transformation as travelers use this new power. Spero also wondered why Pillsbury, with a very popular recipe site, has no mobile app you can use in a store when you’re ready to buy the ingredients. @speroman

Rachel Pasqua, VP of mobile from Kia’s agency partner, iCrossing, told of how Kia is building a mobile app that will let a shopper “build” their car, price it, and then share that information with their friends, as asking friends’ opinions when shopping for a car is already a widespread behavior. She was reluctant to say what they’re rolling out next, but hinted that geo-local will be a bit part of it. @rachelpasqua

I heard the latest on QR codes, and the day after I returned from my trip while was riding on the subway, I noticed a JetBlue ad featuring QR codes. I was about to launch a tag reader on my iPhone when I realized that there’s no cell signal on the subway. Definitely a disconnect between a good concept and a bad media execution.