State of the Media

Telemarketing. Really?

Did a proposal a few weeks ago for a company looking to break into a new geographic market.  They asked for several ideas, wouldn't state what their budget is but they wanted a full, soup-to-nuts agenda.  So that's what we gave them.  Broke it out in nice digestible chunks, but all of it surrounding a social media core designed to build a community around their specific niche.

Today they let us know they decided to go with a telemarketing campaign only.  No web, no social media, no research, no collateral development.  Not even PR.  Telemarketing for lead generation.

Really?  In the 21st Century their are still companies out there -- companies with maybe 50 potential customers -- that think hiring a third party to do cold calls is still the best way of growing a business.  Boggles the mind.  And they think this is going to get them a 1-2 percent market share of a $6 billion industry in one year.

Every research report for the past 20 years states that basic PR beats the snot out of telemarketing; that trade shows beat the snot out of telemarketing; that online marketing beats the snot out of telemarketing; and that social media marketing beats the snot out of all of them combined.

But I will give them this: telemarketing is damn cheap now.  And you get what you pay for.

AT&T throws business away with bad social media outreach

Is anyone paying attention to how horribly AT&T is doing in it's pissing contest with Verizon?  Who the heck is in charge of their marketing?

In case you've been ignoring the commercials, Verizon has been dissing AT&T's 3G coverage with map comparisons showing the Verizon coverage beating the crap out of AT&T.  AT&T has come back with pitchman/actor Luke Wilson saying, "nuh uh, we're better."  All typical stuff.

But then AT&T is using Facebook pages to build good will by CUTTING OFF people who say their service sucks.  WTH!

That's a great example of how not to use social media.  You're supposed to listen to complaints and do something about it.

For the record, I don't use either AT&T or Verizon.  I'm a TMobile guy.  Yes, I know it's number 3 in the US and I don't get to have an iPhone.  But the reason I stay with TMobile is how they do customer service through social media, telephone, web presence, etc.  Every time I call up with an issue, and it isn't often, the person I'm talking with does a review to see if they can get me a lower rate.  

There was a time I could not get cell coverage in my home.  It took a while, but after a couple of call, TMobile sent out someone to adjust the tower in my neighborhood and, boom, coverage in the home.  When I go to Europe, while I'm waiting for my luggage I turn on my phone and, boom, coverage, all while I watch AT&T customers curse at their phones because they can't get a signal.  How do they do that, because they use social media program to get real customer feedback, not just try to seem responsive.

You can't control your messages anymore. Your market controls the message.  And if you don't listen to them, you won't be able to enter into the conversation.

Why you don't (or do) like social media, Part Three

When you boil down attitudes toward and execution of social media practices, it's all about leadership.  Real leadership, not the popular definition that rises from the horrific misinterpretation of Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm.  Let me explain that reference a bit more in depth first.

Moore stated fairly simply that for a technology company to be successful, it must attain the perception of leadership in a market niche.  The misinterpretation of that concept is what screws up the marketing for so many companies.  Moore's statement was an indicator of success and a strategy, not a tactic.  If you are the perceived market niche leader, Moore explains, THEN you know you successfully crossed the chasm.  Therefore your marketing strategy must revolve around developing the perception of leadership.  However, most companies believe that saying you are a leader in your marketing documents, even when you are clearly not the or even a leader, is a strategic leap forward.  And that is when the horror begins. Why is that? Well, as Margaret Thatcher said, being a leader is like being a lady.  If you have to tell someone you are, then you aren't.

Marketing is all about knowing where you stand in your market, but most start-up companies ... well, most companies ... don't really have a clue.  There entire focus is on their product or service and how they can get someone to buy it.  They started out solving a specific problem in a specific sub-niche arena and now they have to recoup that invested time.  So they start jamming their answer into customer engagements without even knowing the questions being asked.  That brings me next to a new axiom (new to me) that I heard a couple of weeks ago attributed to a social media guru names Clay Cotton.

Fall in love with your market, not your product

Are you old enough to remember when fax machines were technological marvels?  Are you old enough to still consider fax machines important pieces of office equipment?  There are companies out there still trying to make a living of of selling and servicing fax machines.  That's my definition of being in love with your product: They are willing to enable their dwindling customer base in ignoring the advance of technology, just so they don't have to really pay attention to what is going on in the world.

Those kind of companies don't like the social media paradigm.

To be successful in this world, you have to really understand that Geoffrey Moore wasn't saying you have to create the illusion of leadership, you have to demonstrate it in order to be perceived as a leader.  It's kind of the difference between being a cattleman and a sheepherder.  Cattle are driven to slaughter, never to be seen again.  Cattle don't trust cowboys, they fear them and cowboys curse their herds.  Sheep are lead to be sheared on a regular basis and they find comfort and protection in the shepherd.  They follow shepherds and shepherds care for the flock.

Social media is a shepherding process.  It provides valuable feed back from your customers that you can use to adjust not only your messages, but your technology and services.  It's interactive. It creates the perception of leadership, if done right.  And it changes your perception of your business as well.

Which is why you don't (or do) like it.

Brian Solis, Twitter and the social media bell curve

There's a couple of social media gurus I follow not only because I'm interested in the subject, but only a few seem to be able to extol the benefits while recognizing the weaknesses.  In that small group is Brian Solis, CEO of Futureworks PR (their site is on Facebook), and my apologies for saying the name wrong in the intro.  For some time, people who follow me and Brian have been telling me he and I need to hook up and talk concepts and issues and we've been trying to coordinate out calendars for some time.  Finally happened a couple of weeks ago over the phone.  We talked for almost an hour about a variety of things but the primary focus was on Twitter and how they are doing a great job at hampering their own growth.  And, as a side note, how the rest of the social media industry should pay attention and NOT do it the way they are.

Anyone out there in the Twitter family should pay attention.  Here's the discussion.

Brian._solis

Hearst going after Embedded Market... in Europe

Got a note from Bill Barron about a new venture between Electronikpraxis and Hearst Business Media.  The two publishing companies are joining forces on Embedded Designer, an online publication to be unveiled at Embedded World in Nuremberg, Germany in March.  This will be the German language equivalent of the US site.  

The embedded technology industry is one of the few that is drawing interest of B2B publications, United Business Media, included.  UBM's Embedded Systems Conference (driven to success by Paul Miller) has become a bicoastal phenomenon with continue year-to-year growth when other conferences are struggling to break even.  And Embedded World continues to draw a great deal of interest worldwide.

You can say the reason for this interest is because embedded is such a vibrant industry.  But publishing companies and conference organizers are not in it for altruistic reasons.  The industry is still investing marketing money in the effort, maybe even more than in recent years. So that's where the press is going.

Is this a turn around in the economy or the tech industry?  I don't really think so.  I've been watching the embedded industry for several years now and while it was affected by the downturn, it really never experienced the kind of disaster most tech industries suffered.  Part of it might be because it draws from several hundred niches, from software and semiconductors, all the way to services and connectors.  But it also might be because it has real marketers running marketing, leaving the engineers to do what they do best--build innovative technology.

All you need are press releases on the internet. Yeah, right.

Lot's of people like to say they can get all the information they need from press releases on the internet. So here's an interesting vignette that happened today (and has happened many times in the past couple of years:
I get an email from a design team manager asking for information about a particular product that no longer is available for a company that no longer exists. It was a former client, by the way.
The guy offered how he found the information. He used a search engine using terms describing his issue and the type of tool he was using. The news release popped up in the first seven results, so he figured it was a good choice. The release was well-written enough (thank you) to beat out tools from currently existing companies that did not know how to use search engine optimization.
Oh, yeah. And the release was 3 years old.

It's official: Products don't mean jack and you're not spending enough.

Paul Miller posted some stunning data this week in his blog.  I've reported for many years that companies in the semi industry (and yes, that include EDA) underspend in marketing, but I had no idea how low it had gotten.  

An Outsell report stated that most B2C companies are spending 4 percent of revenues on marketing while B2B companies spend 2.6 percent.  Semi's on the other hand spend less than one percent.  Since most surveys on the subject show that successful companies always spend between 5 and 10 percent, that explains our economy in a big way.  The report also said that companies are not doing enough to differentiate themselves (What? You mean calling yourself an industry leader isn't enough?)

Now, combine that with an EE Times survey Paul references that "technology leadership and great products" don't drive sales.  What does is service, support, cost and availability and that is something no one in the semi industry does well... if at all.

I talk to a lot of marketers and sales execs in semi and every one of them says the same thing: They know who the customer is and what they want, and what they want is cutting edge tech.  Most refuse to consider that they might not know their customer base well... if at all.  And all the companies are investing 20 to 30 percent of their revenues on R&D for products that their customers don't really want.

How do we fix this?  Maybe it's time to invest in a market conversation.

Why you don't (or do) like social media, part 2

As I said in part one a few weeks ago, Social media attacks the tradition mass communication paradigm with a natural flow of communication, which is why marketers and journalists often chafe at embracing the practice.  What I've seen happening through this paradigm shift (geez, I never thought I'd hear that phrase again) is the rise of the value of talented, trained and experienced communicators within corporations and organizations that are making an effort to figure this stuff out.  That probably doesn't include your company, though.

I was describing what is happening in social media to a friend who has no connection with high tech (they do exist, you know).  He thought a bit and then said, "Sounds like their going at it like they're killin' chickens."  It was a great analogy.  When you slaughter chickens (and yes, I have done this) it involves a lot of running about, noise, flyiing feathers and blood.  Total chaos.  And when you sit down to eat them, you wonder if it was worth the effort.

That well describes how most companies are going after social media.  Chaos. It looks like it might be important, but at the end of the day you have to wonder, was it worth the effort.The reason for the buyer's remorse is that most companies are still trying to apply to old paradigm's interpretation of media to the new paradigm's infrastructure.  And it doesn't work.

Most corporate communications involves a bunch of people sitting in a room with a white board and trying to figure out "messages" that will convince customers to buy their stuff.  David Scott Meerman calls it an MST (making stuff up) meeting.  That is translated into news releases, brochures, white papers, press pitches, trade show signage, etc.  Then when it doesn't work they call the customer stupid or fire the PR agency.

Social media steps into this mess and says, "Hey, why don't we ask the customer what he thinks."  This concept is completely foreign to most marketing people, and anathema to the sales people.  Remember, the customer is stupid.

But companies that adopt the attitude of listening to, rather than talking at the customer... they're the ones that go at social media the right way. The bottom line is that those customers understand that social media is more than another communication medium, it is a way of communicating.  Until you understand that, your social media effort will resemble an abattoir more than a virtual marketplace.

Happy Thanksgiving, BTW.

Media. It's back. And you aren't ready.

I was sitting at my desk this weekend sifting through a bunch of material on social media and it came to me like a flash.  Media isn't dying, disappearing or shrinking. It's fracturing.

Marketers are being besieged by new media concepts and offers that go against pretty much everything they are used to doing.  And they are coming so fast that no one know what to do with them all.  In the past week I reviewed presentations from the well known media houses (Techinsights, Reed, Hearst) media hybrids (Extension Media, Tech Focus Media, RTC Group), new media (Techbites, IBSystems) and a host of social media consultants offering to set up Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and blog sites.

 I've seen a lot of interesting concepts, most of them badly presented.  Out of all of it is only one sure thing.

There are more choices, good and bad, than ever before.  And very few people are equipped to know the good from the bad.

In the 1980s and 1990s print and online media exploded along with marketing budgets.  That was a good thing because you could spend a lot on a lot of things and it all seemed to work.  In 2000 media started to contract along with budgets, which was a good thing because when you have a limited budget and nothing is really working like it used to, you don't need all those choices.

But this year the debate whether social media is going to be a serious contender for budget is over and the answer is, yes it is.  It only leaves the question: how much will it cost and how will I know if it is working.

Communications is no longer a magic toy for marketers.  They days are gone when you could throw out a press release, set up a few meetings and BAM! instant market penetration.  And the days are also gone when you could sit a bunch of engineers down around a conference table, come up with a clever company name, a set of messages and a basic website that would drive business to you.  Now marketers are being told, they actually have to listen to what customers are really saying; they have to say something interesting that's not directly tied to their messages; they have to be concerned what one single engineer with a popular blog actually thinks about their company and technology.  And in the past 20 years, none of them have been trained, prepared or even understand how to do any of that.

But as I said, the media is fracturing into a galaxy of bits and there are people out there right now who do understand how to do it and have been training for two decades on how to do it.  You know who they are.  Go find them. There are no more guarantees only ideas.  It's time to go exploring.  You can ask for directions, but be prepared to pay for them.

Cadence's take on social media

I spent sometime chatting with Jim Price and Dan Holden who are managing the social media program at Cadence Design.  Cadence has  been involved in social media and networking longer than any other EDA company, starting with the online version of CDNLive, and one of the more experimental, including their relationship with Xuropa.  I have to give them kudos for their willingness to explore as well as make a place for traditional journalists in their efforts.  I'll let you listen to this edited version of the conversation (it was 30 minutes long) and will be making some comments in a few days.

Cadence social media