Elastic Thought

There are Robots Amongst Us

Recently, there was some debate that was generated about an earlier post regarding authenticity and how marketers can "use" this expected standard in the online/social world.  The two sides of the coin were:

1. Social media IS authenticity.  It is not a tactic, nor a tool to be used by some marketer in a non-authentic fake stab at trying to be authentic.  Regardless of the language used, the ideals of the social media channels should not be compromised in marketing language to get the point across.  Faking it is faking it.

2. It is understood that social media is authentic.  But rather, in discussions with CMOs and communications professionals, the topic of authenticity needs to come up.  And in speaking with them, to convince them of the benefits of breaking from corporate speak, point out that authenticity is a way of doing business, a way of communicating that will actually drive adoption and loyalty to their brand/message/cause.  However, make sure that you don't fake it.

Which brings me back to robots.  I was on Twitter debating one of the perspectives with @amoyal when he replied:

"amoyal @vanceOpel your customers are humans though not robots Authenticity shouldn't have to be explained in these terms"

Well, that's just it.  That's the point of the robots on my Twitter page, and the soon-to-be-launched Elasticity Web site.  We're not quite sure who are humans and who are robots in our daily lives (business or otherwise).

How many people do you know that simply "follow protocol?"  That find it difficult to break out of the rules or "think on their feet?"  How many agencies put together the same formula for each of their new business presentations?  How many corporate marketers say "think outside the box," and then stick to what has always been done in the past?  How many customer service reps have you dealt with that simply follow their script and never actually help you?   I could go on and on...

The Cluetrain Manifesto puts it this way:

"Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.  Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies."

There has been slow change since that book came out years ago.  We know that we're in a revolution that is changing all of that, and that is the mission of our new agency: Elasticity.  That is the point of the robots.  We are on a mission to humanize the robots hidden amongst us.  Or at the very least, to reveal those robots so that we can avoid them and simplify our lives wherever we can.

Sterile happytalk insults the intelligence of markets too smart to buy it.  "Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out."  This year is going to be the tipping point for social media.  Look to see the hulking masses of these tiresome robot skins piling up in the streets as the humans inside these companies and agencies shed them in huge numbers.  We hope to be a big catalyst in that effort.

Photo credit: Flickr- Neato Coolville

What happened to the Big Picture?

Say what you want about "Joe the Plumber" but the question that he first asked Senator Obama showed that he was looking at the long term.  He wasn't anywhere near buying the Plumbing business he worked for, but he was looking long term at the possibility of purchasing it, and weighing the tax repercussions of it.  Or maybe it was a way to get on TV.  But it was a good segue to talk about the short-term perspective that a lot of people in business are working from.

This perspective reaches all levels.  I can't tell you how many project teams I've worked on where the project directors lost sight of the big picture and began making decisions based on the immediate needs and very quickly got caught up in a reactionary mode that veered the project dramatically off course.  And the same can be said of some small businesses I've consulted with.  The owners were in "fire-fighting" mode, and ran from the first fire to the next, only to look back at their strategic goals and find that they were far from achieving them.  This type of behavior frustrates teams and often feels like you are "spinning your wheels" and getting no where.

I keep hearing the financial advisors urging us to invest for the long term.  Why can't we work in business this way?  Instead, we have ROIs to calculate in mere months. We need to show value in the first weeks or fear losing the account.  We put band-aids on issues so that we can temporarily forget them to move on to the next problem only to have it rear back, worse than ever.  But we need to look for the the root causes, not the symptoms.  And sometimes that takes time and perseverance.  But who has the stomach for that?  Unfortunately, fewer and fewer or our leaders.

I focus on this because it has direct impact on social media marketing campaigns.  These campaigns focus on relationships between the companies and their target audiences.  They focus on conversations.  They focus on bringing value to your partners and customers.  They involve networking.

And they take time.

Social media is about humanizing communications by company, right?  (well, sort of).  So we can think about these types of marketing campaigns more like self-improvement programs.  These tactics aren't like an ad campaign that is over when the next month's magazine comes out, or you pull the TV spots from rotation.  They are fundamental ways of connecting with your audiences.  For instance, I've seen the recommendation of using Twitter in many a social media campaign.  It's becoming a staple in the diet of "pitched" social media.  But is it really a tactic?  Probably not.  Social media is more like hand-writing thank you notes  as a way of communicating with family and friends.  It's like joining the clubs at school to get more involved and meet more people.  It's "social."

Sure, there are ways to speed up the process.  Remember  "Can't Buy Me Love" back in 1987?  Ronald paid $1000 to date the popular cheerleader and gain exposure and friends in a shortened one-month engagement.  And there are plenty of "pay for play" tactics that we can use in social media that mimic this approach.  But unless you can sustain that type of budget, you may want to look at investing in the long-term.  You may just want to start looking at the bigger picture and working towards that goal.

It takes time to build a solid relationship.

One way that I recommend with clients is to build a map of where you are headed.  Map out the targets, map out the channels, and map out the ways to use those channels to reach the audience.  And then, map out a way to continuously engage in these channels over time.  Have a picture of where you are going.  And then, give that picture to everyone involved.  We've even put together process charts for help-line counselors to go to specific sites every day (in-between calls) and make sure they are just as engaged there as they are on the phones.

But remember, these things pay off down the road.  Answering questions in LinkedIn or Yahoo! Answers for one month is a waste of time.  Being seen as a consistent resource for good answers over time pays huge dividends.  Being seen as an uncaring, out of touch company can be bad.  But doing a reputation management program that only looks at "tactics" over the next few months is worse.  However, engaging with your customers in new ways and actually caring -- and caring over the long term -- will again, pay huge dividends.

So please, take the time to invest in these programs.  Have the stomach to ride out the bumps in the road of reworking your reputation online.  Have the long term perspective on how this will change your business.  Look beyond this month's P&L chart.  Envision the Big Picture and work towards that.  Don't let this afternoon's mini-crisis distract you.