Marketing Pilgrim Published: "If Social Media Goals Are To Drive Sales, Should Sales Budgets Pay For It?" plus 3 more |
| If Social Media Goals Are To Drive Sales, Should Sales Budgets Pay For It? Posted: 25 Oct 2011 06:45 AM PDT There are a lot of studies out there about social media. One that recently came out comes from Covario and it's about Facebook and how well brands are doing with regard to how people like them. I'll spoil that part for you by saying that Coca-Cola wins the great Facebook brand like shootout. While that's nice and makes for interesting fluff to pass around the Internet as if it's going to help people do business. What I saw ,however, was something a little more practical in the findings that seems to need more investigation. The chart below shows what the goals are of social media programs and leading the pack is increasing sales.
That makes sense. Everyone wants to increase sales. In fact, the people that are most interested in increasing sales are sales people. Why? One very powerful and important word in the economic engine that is capitalism: commission. Better defined that means cash, cha-ching, dinero, simoleans etc.If social media is being used to increase sales then the sales division of any company should be thrilled with its use. But there appears to be a bit of a disconnect and it speaks to the trouble that social media has in getting traction in organizations despite its increasingly obvious ability to help move the revenue needle. The very next chart in the report talked about which budgets the money for social media programs comes from. Take a look and see what isn't quite matching up with program goals.
If sales is the top goal of social media wouldn't it make sense that a sales budget should have the lion's share of the responsibility to pay for social media programs? Logically one would have to say yes but maybe it's not that simple. In most business environments if you are paying for something then you have some measure of control of it. If a particular business function is financed from a department's budget they are going to want to have the chance to ensure that the program works so their departments performance doesn't look bad based on someone else's efforts from out side of their domain. Here's one of the major hurdles with social media and the corporate infrastructure though. The messaging is critical in that it has to be crafted and often has to be done without having too much emphasis on what the end goal actually is. In other words, you can't be too salesy in social media because you risk alienating your prospect. People don't like to be sold to in social media, at least not directly. They apparently don't seem to mind being passively led toward a sales. It's the illusion of control that the consumer or purchaser actually craves because, in the end, the only reason for social media to ever be used for a business is to ultimately sell something. I'm sure many will disagree and talk about brand awareness blah, blah, blah but even that rather fuzzy and undefinable activity is ultimately about sales. So back to who pays for these programs. Why doesn't it appear that social media is a budget line item for the sales department: 1. Trust – No one in their right mind trusts sales departments with messaging. If you do your company will be viewed as a used car sales shop that is all about the ABC's (always be closing). That doesn't fly in today's world. 2. Trust – Hey didn't we already talk about this one? Well, not from the social media side of the coin. It is becoming more and more common to see that social media experts have a inferiority complex that gets manifested in a superiority complex. All that means is that social media folks don't feel like they get respect in the corporate hierarchy and in most cases they don't. If you can't measure it properly it is seen through the eyes of a skeptic. As a result, social media folks get insular and want to control more of social media than they really need to. Hey, everyone wants some power and this is one way to get it. 3. Training – Ever tried to train a sales person to do something other than sales? You are wasting your time. Sales people aren't the most flexible bunch. They can sit in a week long conference on the best way to do something, pass a test then go right back to to what they have always done it. Why? Because it is comfortable and they want sales not skills. I can say all of this because I have spent a fair amount in sales and I can be that way myself. 4. Control – All of this comes down to control. Who controls the message. Who controls the money. Who controls the direction. As a result, control is often given to social media managers who have very little overall business experience and/or acumen then are tasked with making social media work for the business. That is simply a recipe for disaster and one that companies will have to inflict on themselves repeatedly for a long time to come before they realize that social media isn't about tools but rather it is about business. As a result the smart ones will pay correctly for people who understand how social media is APPLIED in business and not just the tools and activities involved. 5. Comfort – Social media is so new and disruptive that it throws people off their usual game. As a result people rail against what is new to preserve what they are comfortable with whether it's best for the organization or not. After all , at the end of the day why would any employee who has no ownership in a company truly care about the results? Be honest, if they are just working a J-O-B rather than on a career or something bigger then their engagement will be limited. That's just human nature. So what are your thoughts on this? Should sales have to pitch in money to get social media programs running but then not allowed to be part of the process? If you handed over some measure of control or input for social media programs to sales what are you inviting? Is social media being held back by corporate structures that need definition to work but can't find the right place for social media to live or better yet, be funded? Let's hear it pilgrims. After all, you're the smart ones here.
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| Tablets and the Future of News Posted: 25 Oct 2011 05:28 AM PDT
It doesn't only have to be news around events that should be considered. If you think about it, all sharing in social media is about news. Whether you are telling relatives about what the kids did, you are announcing where you are, have been or will be or any other update, in essence you are reporting about things. It's all news. So we were happy to see the people at the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism put together an infographic based on a study that examines the impact of the tablet on the news space. Enjoy and let us know what your take is on their findings. (please excuse some of the picture distortion which was necessary to fit the infographic into the Marketing Pilgrim format).
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| Online Holiday Shopping Expected to Rise to 36 Percent Posted: 24 Oct 2011 01:59 PM PDT
On the consumer side, data from the National Retail Federation, shows that consumers plan to do 36% of their holiday shopping online. This is an increase from 32.7% in 2010. Fiona Swedlow of Shop.org says,
Timing is Everything If you think holiday promotions start earlier every year, it's not your imagination. 52.9% of retailers say they'll start their promotions by Halloween. This is up from 40% from last year. Nine out of ten retailers said they'd be offering free shipping this holiday season and one-third will be doing it sooner than later. The Social Mobile Mix This holiday season, mobile shopping will be hotter than ever, and 51% of retailers say they've "significantly invested" in mobile-optimized websites. Only 19.6% have invested in tablet apps, but 35.3% are using QR codes to bring in customers. Social is as hot as ever with 72.5% of retailers building up their Facebook presence and 41.2% going the Twitter route. This might be overkill, though, as only 29.2% of consumers said they would check a company's Facebook page for holiday shopping information. 65.1% said they read customer reviews on the company website, so that's an area that needs your attention. Why Online? Why do consumers want to shop online? 43.2% said it was 24-hour convenience. The added incentive of free shipping made 36.3% want to spend more online than they did last year. Consumers also said online was a great way to avoid the crowds and it was easy to compare prices, so they knew they were getting the best deal. Halloween is only a week away and then we're on the full-speed, downhill run to the biggest gift giving days of the year. Is your company ready?
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| What iOS 5 Means for Marketers Posted: 24 Oct 2011 01:12 PM PDT
iOS 5 is a huge update with more than 200 new features. After only a week, it was estimated that 1 in 3 eligible customers had the download and you can bet it will be 2 out of 3 very soon. This is good news for you, because iOS 5 has several features that are great for online marketers. Twitter Integration Twitter and the iPhone have always played well together, but now they're married and living in the same house. With iOS 5, you can Tweet directly from Safari, Photos, Camera, Maps and more. You simply sign-in to your account once, then the system takes care of the rest. It even adds Twitter profile names to your contacts so you can send replies and direct messages without going to the Twitter app. This ease of use means that more people than ever will be using Twitter to communicate and that includes sharing your marketing message. Newsstand Online magazine subscriptions are about to take off. iOS 5 now includes an app dedicated to organizing all of your magazine and newspaper subscriptions. The covers line up on a virtual bookshelf, the issues update automatically and you can buy new subscriptions right through the app. The New York Times is reporting 189,000 new user downloads since the upgrade was released, up seven times over the week prior. National Geographic is also reporting a sudden lift in virtual subscriptions. All because of ease of use? No. It's more likely a case of behavioral psychology. The Newsstand app presents itself as an empty bookshelf and as human beings, we feel the need to fill empty spaces with stuff. I don't buy online magazines because I get my fill of news surfing the web. But one hour after upgrading my iPhone, I was checking out the offerings because, they built it and you know the rest. . . More magazine sales, means more places for advertising and if you're in the content business, this is probably the best news you've heard all year. Reader The one marketing downside to iOS 5 is Reader. As a consumer, this toggle switch is just what I've always wanted. With a single button, Reader transforms a cluttered web page into a streamlined presentation of text and graphics. No sidebars. No ads. No chance of wooing the reader away from the content with a great offer. My marketing side says "boo, hiss." Cutting the Cord With iOS 5, Apple cut the cord needed for updates and file sharing. You no longer need to hook your iPhone to your computer in order to sync. It's now done automatically and wirelessly. Thanks to the iCloud, you can now share information between your devices instantly. Type a reminder on your iPad and it shows up on your iPhone, too. Take a photo with your iPhone, then pick it up on your iPad for editing and when you're done, Tweet it without switching apps. iCloud also makes it possible to access your entire collection of music, movies and documents anytime you have a WiFi connection. What this means for marketers, is that more people are going to be spending more time on their mobile devices and less time on their desktop computers. That means your website and marketing materials must be mobile ready. It's all about seamlessly moving from one device to another and people won't give you a second chance if a link doesn't work or a site shows up broken on their iPhone. Check your site with a variety of mobile devices today so you don't have any surprises in the middle of the holiday rush. If you haven't upgraded to iOS 5, take the plunge. Just be ready for problems and set aside a couple of hours to get it all right. Backup your devices before you throw the switch and if it doesn't get it right the first time, try the sync again. When I upgraded, I kept getting messages saying that the upgrade didn't work and my devices were being returned to the factory settings. Turns out that message was bogus. The upgrade worked fine. You will have to click through a group of prompt screens on your mobile device in order to complete the upgrade – I didn't notice that right away so it might have caused the reset confusion. Hassle aside, iOS 5 is an excellent update both for the consumer and the marketer. Have you upgraded yet?
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