Picnic Interview: Gerd on Social Media Marketing

This is from the Picnic Conference blog, taken from a telephone interview with me, last week. Please note that I am firm believer that there is NO COOKBOOK for success in social media (whatever that means!), at least as far as I can tell. And there is no certainly not a definitive correlation between your mere numbers of followers or friends, and the quality or merit of your work. We are still very much in the very first, embryonic phase of social media marketing (and the related personal branding options), and it would be very premature to equal success in numbers with success in business or even any real degree of influence.  I am experimenting with this just as much as everyone else... so, read this below, in that spirit! 

Btw - the Picnic conference in Amsterdam (Sept 23-25, 2009) will be well worth attending (and not just because I'll be speaking ;). Last year's event was thoroughly entertaining as well as inspirational, if sometimes a bit overwhelming due to the sheer number of topics and attendees.  Check out my 2008 Picnic presentation on The New Music Ecosystem, here.

From the Picnic site (comments by me are in[...])

"Last Friday, the team at PICNIC had the opportunity to pick Gerd Leonhard’s brain about social media marketing and what has made him successful. Gerd is a well-known media futurist and a regular PICNIC participant. He travels the world speaking about the future of media, content, technology, communication, business and entertainment.

In less than six months Gerd accumulated over 5000 followers on Twitter and his website traffic [and RSS feed users] increased by 300% (60% of which comes from Twitter). As a result he decided to completely stop communicating with his 17,000-strong database by email and his business has continued to thrive. It was a pleasure to chat with Gerd on the subject of social media marketing and we are excited to share some of his top tips with you.

Pull, don’t push: Get people’s attention by providing value and earn their love by engaging with them. This will naturally lead to increased website traffic and increased sales.

Getting started

• Choose a plausible position and objectives you want to achieve
• Find out where your target audience is, i.e. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube…
• Listen to others and decide carefully who you want to follow and get feedback from
• Track replies and keywords to help you actively participate in the conversation
• Set up multiple accounts if necessary (by topic, employee, etc)

Building momentum

• Jump in: don’t be afraid to start, there is no right or wrong way to use social media for marketing
• Provide value: link to content on your website or blog like videos, slideshows, tips, interviews; provide useful resources from other sites; don’t be afraid to re-package existing content by putting a new spin on the story.
• Avoid sales pitches: but do offer special offers or rewards to members of your network
• Participate: develop conversations with members of your network; ask for feedback or advice
• Be transparent: people will feel more connected with your brand when they know what is going on behind the scenes
• Establish yourself as a thought leader or authority: dialogue with the right people

Measuring success

• Social media marketing is not a replacement for other marketing tactics. Success with social media tools requires time and effort, not money. Success has to be defined by the individual or company.
• The number of followers or members is important, but not the only measurement of success. You can also track traffic to your website generated by social media sites, number of RSS subscribers, and increase in comments or leads.

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Just blogged this at MidemNet Blog: 7 reasons why everyone in the music industry should try Twitter

Image by gleonhard via Flickr

Link: MidemNet Blog: 7 reasons why everyone in the music industry should try Twitter.  Will crosspost this here in a few weeks, too.

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The Future of Mobile: Search more, talk less?

Ever since I got more friendly with my numerous mobile gadgets (the iPhone and iPod touch, the Nokia E71, the Asus ee and various other gizmos) I have noticed a steady decline in how many actual calls I make; apart from friends & family my professional communications have switched almost entirely to SMS, social networks, eMail, IM, Twitter, Skype etc - at least for the initial level of communication.  Now, is this just me, or is this happening everywhere? Once smart phones are actually smart (and that means smart UI and UX), will we search and click a lot more than click + talk?

Some recent stats I have seen show that iPhone users already use Google 50 times as much as mobile internet users with different devices. Once again: if something really works well... we actually use it routinely (just like GPS / car navigation I guess), if not we just ignore it.

So will someone that can use Google Maps on their mobile phone still call your office for directions? If you can use a Starbucks 'coffee ordering' app will you still use the phone to pre-order a round of coffee for your office mates? If you can tweet your friends that tonight's concert is canceled will you still need to call everyone to make sure they know?  Will someone that looks for the next Chinese take-out place still ask a stranger on the street rather than search on his mobile? Will you buy 'Time-Out' magazine to find the best Sushi restaurant in London when you can search Twitter, or pull up Tridadvisor or the NYT reviews on your mobile? Probably not. It looks like there are many calls we can do without, and if our mobile device (via a browser or more likely via a specific application) can do the job quicker and more thoroughly I think we'll be switching sooner rather than later.

The opposite is true for personal calls, of course - they will become more meaningful (and appreciated) than ever before; but only if there is a real need for it. If I can see my friends' immediate location on my mobile (using something like Loopt ) would I still call them or would I just go there and meet them?

This trend is also why I think Social Search on the Mobile has a great future - rather than searching the entire world, I search in the subsections and realms of my friends (real and otherwise), friendfeeders or tweet streams.  I already use the Search functionality in Twitter (see the pic - via the cool Tweetdeck application - check it out; they rock) and in Friendfeed to do that.

This is also why I am excited about next-generation gizmos like 3's INQ1 Facebook 'phone' - clearly, this is showing us where things are headed. Soon, we may be doing more searching - and finding - than calling. 

Media Futurist Mobile version

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• Finding the Twitter elite in any city (via keithhopper.com)

Finding the Twitter elite in any city (via keithhopper.com)

Now this is a cool and very useful tool: Finding Twitterstars | keithhopper.com. So says Keith:

"Finding and connecting with local social media 'superstars' can be a valuable short-cut for anyone trying to ramp up quickly in online social environments. These enthusiasts are knowledgeable about social media tools, are highly-connected, and understand well how to succeed in the online social environment. But how do you find the local social media superstars? Today, many of these individuals use  Twitter. The "Local Twitterstars" mini-application below takes any US geographic search area that you provide and returns a feed of the top five most followed individuals on Twitter who have been recently active in the region..."

I tried it and it works great for non-U.S. too! Latest update from Keith is here  Original Yahoo Pipe here (thanks @bentrem)

Twitter has officially arrived at the Center of Pop Culture, Britney Spears now twittering and sharing content on new 'bloggy' site, and Ning Community, too!

Techcrunch reports on Britney's new site (which feels very 'bloggy' and seems to focus on getting the users involved rather than just displaying static information) and her new Twitter account, aptly titled TheRealBritney. Surely this is a sign that Twitter has now officially 'arrived' - and any artist and / or content creator will ignore micro-blogging at their own perril. Guess what: now you have to provide more and more free content to pull people in before you can ask for their money. But there is plenty of so-called 'monetization' at the other end!

To me, Twitter is another important manifestation of the rapid rise of the broadband + mobile - driven Sharing & Participation Culture (* see more of my writings on that subject, here) that is quickly taking over from the broadcast-to-you-the-passive-consumer culture that was largely dominated by traditional television. I am not a Britney fan (as you may have guessed) but I do like the way her team is clearly emphasizing interactivity, user engagement and free content throughout most of what I see here (e.g. the Friend Britney Button) - good stuff!

Her Circusvip page (linked via the same button) is even more interactive - nice one. This page is apparantly build on the Ning platform which I have been busy telling many artists, managers and bands about - the perfect white label offering for building your own social network, quickly. In fact, I kind of like the Ning / CircusVIP site better than Britney's main site - and the 15335 people that have already signed up there seem to agree I guess. Engage, participate, share, have conversations - that clearly is the Future of Marketing. Yes, soon... blogs will become record labels. And major labels will become....? (you tell me)

How Twitter Can Help (via NYTimes.com)

Good column here: How Twitter Can Help at Work - Shifting Careers Blog - NYTimes.com.

"Like blogging, Twitter lets you write messages that other people can read. Unlike blogging, Twitter limits your messages to 140 characters. (The previous two sentences absorbed exactly 140 characters.) Readers can choose to receive your Twitter updates (sometimes called “tweets”) on their phones, via IM, RSS or on the Web. The brevity, combined with the variety of delivery systems, make Twitter a powerful medium. Here are five ways to harness it..." 

If you have missed my previous posts about twitter... go here