Aaron Strout recently left Mzinga in an interesting way. He wrote this blog post that explained why he was leaving and reflected on his time with the company. It caught my attention, so I contacted Aaron to learn more about his background and business philosophy. The result was our robust conversation on social media marketing—how it works and why. Start by listening to minute 8:24 – 10 where Aaron discusses the criteria for social media marketing and suggests how to tie it into your business goals.

Check out this UK promotion aimed at bloggers. Berocca appeals to bloggers in three ways: their tone is perfect, they are offering exposure and a free blogger relief pack.

They feature bloggers’ blogs who register on its landing page, which is brilliant. Bloggers want to be recognized.
They also provide blogger relief packs, “containing a stress ball, usb ‘stress’ button, bubble wrap key ring, ‘Dead Fred’ pen holder and a pack of Berocca.”

Notice that the emphasis of the page is on relieving bloggers, not on selling product.

I like how they have subtly invited bloggers to learn more about Berocca by clicking to do so. However, when you click on “Click here for more information about Berocca,” you are dumped onto the homepage—it’s like a date abruptly ending without a goodnight kiss.
They missed an opportunity to customize the message to bloggers and to speak to them in a more personal tone about their product.

Nevertheless, great idea and execution.

(Open Goal by dogfrog on Flickr)

I often see companies deciding on what they are doing before articulating what results they want to achieve.
They would save much time and money by identifying their desired outcomes first.

Not: We want to blog. Rather: In order to get invited to speak at more conferences, we are our asking our executives to blog.
Not: We are building a custom widget. Rather: To drive organic search results, we are building a custom widget.
Not: We are opening a twitter account. Rather: In order to find a new channel for product feedback, we are opening a twitter account.

Naming why you are doing something changes your approach to it.

Take a company that is ready to open a Twitter account to accomplish one of the points below:

• Find a new sales channel
• Help customers with questions about their product
• Understand if Twitter is a viable place to advertise
• Recruit employees
• Create strategic partnerships

The strategy a company would use to achieve one of these points differs from the one you would use for the others.
Next time you are identifying a new strategy, articulate the result you would like to achieve.
Even the most cutting edge strategies tend to support clear business objectives.

I wrote this post before listening to a podcast interview of Barry Judge, the CMO of BestBuy.
Barry makes many excellent points which offer a different perspective on the above, suggesting that while clear goals are important they should not prevent companies from experimenting.

Here’s my favorite quote from that interview:

“I think when you make yourself vulnerable, which is what I think you have to do to be interesting in the social media space, you gotta be interesting you gotta be vulnerable, you gotta be human, you gotta say things that a person would say, and I think that’s a very different approach from what companies have traditionally taken for the last 100 years.”

Can you make yourself vulnerable in a results driven environment?
Does the relentless pursuit for results preclude the risks associated with vulnerability?
That’s my question to Barry.

Social media creates both collaboration and exclusivity.

Collaboration with tools like tags, wikis, forums and comments.

And exclusivity with limited invites to new services and the attention we pay to those with great stats, and friends & followers.

Does collaboration and exclusivity apply differently to businesses online than to people?

I recently came across OGILVY’s profile on Twitter which prompted this question.

Ogilvy is one of the world’s most influential advertising and communication agencies, positioning themselves as 360 degree brand stewards.
I am surprised that more than 500 people follow them on Twitter, and they are following no one in return.

I am sure there are pros and cons to this.

On the pro side, they have a good amount of followers and the fact that they follow none of them may make them come across as exclusive (a core brand characteristic?).
They also don’t need to concern themselves with offending someone they don’t follow since they follow no one.

On the con side, their exclusive positioning may prevent them from meaningful collaborative opportunities—and may make people on Twitter perceive them negatively.

So, Ogilvy UK—what was your thought behind not following anyone?

I would ask you directly, but since you’re not following me, I can’t DM you.

If the subject of online exclusivity interests you, check out: A Small World &  RUE LA LA.

Should a brand build a single twitter account or ask each of its employees to build their own affiliated twitter accounts? It depends on the brand and why they are on twitter.

I will follow an employee’s affiliated twitter account if they have personality, or if they offer unique insight or access. Their actions do reflect on their company and impact my perceptions of it. In some situations, I have no interest in following an individual’s account. Take the online deal site Woot for example. I don’t care what their product manager had for lunch, I just want a good deal now.

I like Perkett PR’s approach to twitter. Their brand’s account features the picture of everyone who contributes to it. Each one also has individual accounts.

There are other more complicated considerations involved in creating employee-affiliated twitter accounts. Who owns the account? What happens to the goodwill and equity the employee created for your brand when she leaves the company?

In an ideal world, a brand would carefully select, train and celebrate its twitter brand evangelists. While their training would cover a code of conduct and key speaking points, it would also empower twitter brand evangelists to express their unique personality and willingness to help.

Until a brand can be sure that every person tweeting on its behalf exemplifies these qualities, I would stick with a single brand account.