Picture this: You're sitting at your desk at work with Facebook minimized on your screen. It's been a while, so you check it out. Dawn's daughter has a fever. It's Barbara's anniversary. George Lopez is stopping by The View and Stacy joined the group, 'I went to Wal-Mart for shampoo and I spent $150.'
Now something catches your eye. Your 'friend' just joined a group called 'Bike to Work Day,' that has a goal to get people to think about air pollution and think about how commuting in cars affects air pollution. It's sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, but there is a local chapter. You join and the notification that you've joined the group goes out to your network of 200 'friends.' When ODonnell Co. marketing agency started working with this government group four years ago, there were 1,500 people who went to the Washington, D.C., event. This year, over 8,000 attended and Dan O'Donnell, principal at the firm, credits social media for the attention the cause now receives.
It's not that ODonnell Co. has thousands of fans on Facebook. It only has 227, but those people have thousands of friends and every time a company such as ODonnell converses with their 'fans,' thousands of people are exposed to the company's messages. The goal, O'Donnell advises, is not to promote yourself or your organization, but to get people to promote you and talk about your objectives and how they helped them.
O'Donnell calls Facebook a critical element that brought an ongoing conversation to the cause he was trying to promote. However, it's a technique that can go wrong.
This is a case where Facebook worked, but that's not always the case, though. BNH talked with O'Donnell-picked his brain-about the role of social media in marketing.
Odonnell Company clients include Yale-New Haven Health System and the Housing Authority of New Haven - as well as global leaders such as Bic, General Electric and Assa Abloy and also government and non-profit organizations. Odonnell Company actively supports the art community in the New Haven area through sponsoring art events such as Made Space, Somewhat Off the Wall and Exact Change, in addition to participating in them as well.
The firm moved to the historic Monson Building at 760 Chapel Street in the Ninth Square area of the city in 2008.
What is the role of social media in marketing?
A lot of companies will say, 'Hey, there's this media out there. It's free. It's giant and everyone's using it. Therefore, I must use it.' And they just start using it. A lot of companies trip on themselves with that attitude.
The companies that use it effectively look at it a different way. They say, 'Here are our marketing objectives for the year. Now what are all of the tools I need to reach my objectives?' They'll eventually come to some objectives that traditional tools just don't help-they don't reach. Those are the companies using social media most effectively.
Can social media-Facebook and Twitter-stand alone as marketing tools, or do they work only as part of a package?
For most companies it's a part of the puzzle and it needs to be very well integrated with all of the other pieces. It needs to serve a purpose that benefits the consumer as well as the organization. If it doesn't benefit the organization, the organization is not going to fund it, whether that's through paid placement or by staffing people to respond on the social media tool. On the other end of it, if there's not a benefit to the consumer, then they're not going to use the social media. You want benefits delivered from both sides in order for it to work.
Is there a general rule to determine if social media is a good investment of time or money?
Are there areas of the business clients are looking for feedback in? There's a place where you can use the tool to bring immediate benefit to your organization without worrying about having no tool for feedback or you have one that's not giving you the interaction that something like Facebook can.
But be careful what you wish for, because feedback is not always good, right?
True, but it's a cycle. We're giving the consumer a channel to influence products and services. Then we have better products and services and then we get positive feedback from the consumer. Then we move a consumer from being a consumer to being an advocate.
So it gives a consumer a bit of ownership in a product. Facebook and Twitter can also be disastrous to a company or brand. How so?
If a company goes out with a marketing objective that includes using social media to sell products, the general public crushes them. It takes two years to turn around after that.
There are organizations that have used it very effectively. For example, something as simple as going on Twitter and monitoring every time your company is mentioned, you can offer some little benefit when there's a positive mention.
But every time you're mentioned in a negative way on Twitter, Tweet them back, saying, 'You said you had a problem. I'm with the customer service department and I'm here to fix your problem right now.' We're doing that already when we answer the phone in customer service. Why not put one of our customer service people on Twitter and proactively seek problems and resolve them. Now we're building a brand.
So when a company is deciding whether or not social media is a good move, what should they keep in mind?
It's not a traditional media. It's not a billboard on the side of the highway. It's an opportunity to interact. If you're not using it as an interaction, then you're using it as a billboard and you're likely to fail. If you're using it as an opportunity to interact, then you have an amazing opportunity to succeed.
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