Breaking Down the Tao of Social Media Marketing with Mark Schaefer

Two years ago, I was a first year graduate student looking to find a sense of professional purpose. With four classes completed, I decided to make the journey to Morgantown, WV to attend the annual INTEGRATE conference. Any obstacles that stood out in my mind to get there were outweighed by the knowledge I gained when I departed. One presentation, in particular, still stands out in my mind as being a pivotal moment in my journey to finding my professional return on influence.

WVU Alum, Mark Schaefer took to the stage at INTEGRATE on June 2, 2012  to present key points from his book Return On Influence. With a Klout score of 75, Mark knows more than a thing or two about social media, blogging, and marketing. In addition to his successful Businesses Grow blog, Mark is an accomplished author. His widely popular book The Tao of Twitter has received high praise as being a  #1 Best Selling Book On Twitter.  In the past two years since the book was first released Twitter has drastically changed so much so that Mark revised and expanded The Tao of Twitter. 

If you have not seen Mark’s presentation, I highly suggest watching it before reading the questions and answers presented below.

Mark was gracious enough to answer a few questions I had in regards to what has changed in the Twitterverse, best practices for live tweeting along with the realities of social media marketing.

Return On Influence: The New Realities of Power and Marketing on the Internet

Long: At the WVU INTEGRATE 2012 conference, you highlighted key points from your book Return On Influence. Two years later, have the realities of power and marketing on the internet changed, or have they stayed the same?

Schaefer: I would say that everything I talked about indeed has come true, perhaps even more rapidly than I could have imagined. Big agencies and small are creating influence marketing departments. Being an influencer is becoming increasingly lucrative (even I am starting to make some money in this area!). And new measurement platforms are emerging.

I think the dynamics of acquiring power that I talked about in my book and my speech are the same. Yes. I called that one correctly! : )

Long: For graduate students starting to provide social media consultation services, what advice can you offer?

Schaefer: The biggest mistake I see is the people enter this space without any real marketing experience. Before you go out on your own, get a marketing job and learn about the broad spectrum of activities before focusing on social media. If you are a social media “hammer” and everything is a nail, you would be doing a disservice to both youself and your customers.

I also think an exposure to statistics is a must. You don’t have to be an expert, but increasingly, marketing insight is coming from big data and math. You need to know enough about it to ask the right questions.

If you are going to go out on your own, be prepared to be broke for two years. Build your personal brand through blogging, videos and public speaking.

Long: With the rise of live event tweeting, what best practices should both presenters and attendees be putting into practice?
Schaefer: For presenters, be sure to include your Twitter handle and the event hashtag on all your slides. Embed tweetable moments [– short key points — on slides to make it easy for the reporters. Don’t go too fast and make your slides available after the event.

For reporters, don’t get so involved in the tweeting that you miss the presentation. Proof read everything before you tweet. Remember that a tweet has the same legal weight as a blog post or other online article so you need to be fair and accurate. If the speaker says something controversial or inflammatory, remember that you might be held legally accountable as the person sending out the tweet.

Long: If you could only follow ten people on Twitter who would make it onto your feed?

Schaefer: If I could only follow 10 people, they would all be my customers. Twitter is an amazing opportunity for marketing insight, and I would not want to miss a thing!

Long: You recently revised your widely popular book The Tao of Twitter. How has Twitter changed in the 2 years since the book was first released? 

Schaefer: So much has changed in the Twitterverse since I wrote the first edition. In fact, I really had to consider whether Twitter is still the hub of human connection it was when I fell in love with it many years ago. Does Twitter still have a heart or is it just another broadcast channel?

Specifically, there have been four powerful new developments driving Twitter:

• Twitter has experienced explosive growth, finding new audiences among younger and older users as well as new fans globally and corporations. Twitter is being used in so many creative new ways we could not have imagined just a few years ago.

• It has matured into a public company with a responsibility to shareholders. This has altered its strategy and how it relates to its customers and fans.

• Twitter has developed innovative advertising programs that are accessible to businesses with nearly any budget. But many businesses don’t understand the unique features of these programs.

• Twitter has become the de facto “second screen” for television, providing the channel of interactivity for live programming. This is a role that is now driving many of its strategies. It has also driven the hashtag (#) into our everyday culture!

Make sure to follow Mark to keep up with his latest endeavors in the social media field.

Blog
Linked In
Twitter

If you have read one of his books, let me know what was the biggest lesson that you were able to realize out in the social media field?

 

Adding a Little Something Extra to the IMC Plan

Shortly after I finished the intro. class I began putting together a plan so that departments at work could create marketing plans and start measuring results. I thought it would be a great way to help justify departmental money spent on marketing, help jusitfy the overall budget for the Graphics & Marketing office, and be a great learning experience for the students. It all sounds great, right?

The back-story

I should clarify that the department I’m in works with 10 marketing plans on a yearly basis and that marketing plans stemmed from the branding project, which was a very challenging experience for our staff. I wanted to use the marketing plans as a way to get buy-in and have departments feel like they owned their marketing efforts. The office I’m in did a lot of marketing “on behalf of departments” but not a lot was being done to measure those efforts.

The process was a year in the making. The staff and I spent countless hours teaching and working with departments so they would understand marketing and how to measure it. The roadblock that I ran into (and is one of the most challenging areas for many marketing professionals) was how to get people invested. As I said, countless hours went into education and preparation so the staff felt like these were goals they wanted to achieve, but we were still having trouble with buy-in.

An attempt at buy-in

What I failed to realize is that I continually called the goals “marketing goals.” I had spent years getting departments to use the graphics & marketing office, so “marketing goals” meant “the marketing department.” It was challenging to get ownership and help departments keep track of their goals. I often heard, “Just tell me what you want me to write so we can finish this.”

As a result, we’ve made many changes to the marketing plans.

1. We don’t call them “marketing goals.” We talk to departments and say that we want to work with them on their departmental goals that marketing helps them achieve. It’s a small change, but it helps them feel ownership of the goals they select. They’re not just thinking about Web site traffic, but sales and attendance numbers.
2. We’ve added a small chart to the marketing plans that allows departments to keep track of their progress throughout the semester. This way, departments know where they stand and how close they are to achieving their goals. There are four check-in meetings a year and departments will bring their numbers to the meetings with them. Again, a small change, but putting their progress into the plan helped them keep track of everything.   We noticed that spreadsheets were created to monitor the goals, but after the first check in or two they were missing in action. Additionally, they didn’t have to contact us to get progress updates.
3. This year we’re only updating the plans once. In the first year of implementation there were a lot of changes to the marketing plans (and because I want to make sure they’re pretty, we create them in InDesign, which means only the marketing department can update them). However, with a full year of putting the plans together and a full year of implementation, the plans are designed as fillable .pdf documents that departments will have and be able to update four times a year.

 

These three tips are small, but have made a difference in our organization. What we are doing is always a work in progress, but each year we make changes and get closer to finding what will work for our organization. In a few weeks we will have an infograph of the goals we’ve achieved and I will share it when it’s ready. If you’re interested in seeing how this was developed for a student union on a college campus, check out the materials on my Web site.

Have you added anything to your marketing plans to keep you on track? What has worked well?

Realize Your Dream Year by Turning Your Passion into Profit

You should focus at least an hour a day on the gift that you were put on this earth to fulfill.

Stop waiting for the moment.

Nobody is going to care about your dream unless you care more.

Establish you voice.

Partner with key influencers.

Ask for help.

Hire a professional designer.

Start marketing your dream.

Grow your business.

Turn your passion into profit.

Repeat steps if necessary. 

_______________________________________________________________________________

 

After reading Ben Arment’s book Dream Year, I have concluded that only ten steps are separating you from realizing your dream.

What is separating you from your dream is your excuse list.

Do not let fear take up precious space in your mind.

Put down the remote.

Trim down your social calendar.

Take the shot that will transform your life.

Wayne Gretzky famously stated, “You Miss 100% of The Shots You Don’t Take.”

To kickstart your dream year, I am going to be moderating a Tweet chat on August 5th at 1PM EST. Please use the hashtag #dreamyear to join the conversation.

If you are looking for a tangible resource that will help you take the first step forward, I highly recommend picking up a copy of Ben Arment’s Dream Year. To learn more, visit http://dreamyear.net.

Origami Storks.

Johnson & Johnson wants millennial moms- and all parents- to know the company promises to remove controversial ingredients from its products.

To be shared primarily through social media, the message first took flight in Johnson & Johnson’s “Our Promise” video. In the video, the company responds to consumer concern by showing company employees writing their promises on small pieces of paper to be folded into origami storks. A Japanese legend holding that origami birds signify “a hope granted and a promise fulfilled” is what inspired the approach.

Johnson & Johnson’s origami birds represent the company’s new promise to consumers.

As part of the campaign, expect the release of more than 40 videos featuring educational messaging as well as humorous content.

Johnson & Johnson’s storks carry a message. The question is, will the target market receive it?

-R