Social Media and Building Sustainable Ideas: A complex puzzle

In this morning's news, an article ran called "'Kony 2012' grabs media attention, but it could be fleeting". The article is about social media and revolutions, summed up in a quote from the article: "When you use social media to bring down a dictator, it's simplistic and easy," says Christopher Tunnard, who studies the effect of social media on politics at Tufts University. "When you're trying to build things back up, it's much more complicated. It's very difficult to put together a story about how social media are being used to build up institutions."

Since this blog is not about global politics but communications issues, this morning's article highlights what I believe is perhaps the biggest issue in communications today: social media is very good for intermittent hits on single ideas. But how do you sustain and build an entire "ideology" with social media?

The first answer to this question is to keep your ideas simple. We have talked a lot in this blog about a "high concept".

But the second answer, about which we have also talked, harkens back to our view of creating a "communications architecture." That is, even when you have a single "high concept", building an entire infrastructure around it is critical to build sustained ideologies.

I believe we are all just in the early stages of understanding how to implement this second strategy with social media. There will be a lot of experimentation in the next few years; though it is likely that the right approach will revolve around creating social media campaigns that systematically build and weave ideas.

There's a lot more to think about re how these campaigns are created. Watch this space.

Flight of the Dove: The Story of a Great, Consistent Communications Program

For some reason, I have been thinking a lot recently about Dove . For those of you who might not know (might be nearly all of you), Dove launched a fascinating marketing campaign a few years ago: "the campaign for real beauty."

I have probably been thinking about Dove because over a period of several years, with many brand extensions and new communications tools, they have been able to build a tremendously consistent positioning, branding, marketing, and communications effort. That's really hard to do. They continue to introduce products that are focused on "real beauty"; they have launched multiple programs focused on self-esteem; and have all sorts of social media activities focused on real beauty/self esteem.

Dove shows us that as communications become both more universally accessible through social media, it has also become more complex. That is, having a very clear and consistent message is all the more important when there are so many ways that the customer and influencer are touched.

Of course, at Roeder-Johnson we work technology start ups, most of whom are business-to-business companies rather than being consumer-oriented. But the same perspective is important with these companies. And, in fact, it probably is more manageable. Though unfortunately in this era of constrained resources, companies often forget that they can get MORE leverage by being thoughtful and consistent about their marketing and communications.

But imagine if a company had a clear "high concept" (like "the campaign for real beauty"), was able to develop products that reinforced this, AND developed marketing programs and communications through traditional and new tools that reinforced and built understanding of that core high concept? One theme, lots of leverage, and ultimately a lot of efficiency in building a unified brand.

Social Media Might have Value, After all -- If you Understand How to Use it

As a skeptic about the value of social media for most entities, I am now prepared to disagree to some extent with the perspective expressed by many entrepreneurs in the today's article in the Wall Street Journal called "Entrepreneurs Question the Value of Social Media". In the article entrepreneurs have been disappointed in the cost/benefit of social media campaigns. They thought they could accomplish the same kind of impact an expensive ad campaign.

The misunderstanding about social media that leads to this disappointment is that many believe they can emulate the impact of a big, expensive ad campaign by using social media. There are always exceptions to every rule, but we at Roeder-Johnson believe this is the wrong way to look at social media. Once in awhile a company will be able to mount a relatively inexpensive social media campaign that gets them much more attention than they would get for the equal amount of ad spending. But most of the time, that kind of thing doesn't happen.

So what is the value of social media?

The Value of a Blog
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There are certainly some blogs that have become the "modern day press". That is, they include headlines and journalistic (or not) articles that a lot of people read and provide news that is broadly disseminated. Some examples of that in the technology world are TechCrunch, VentureBeat, GigaOm, and others. There are also some in the general press that serve that purpose.

That's not what we are talking about here. For most entities a blog can fall into one of two categories:

*For most organizations, a blog is what we call a "living brochure". It provides customers, audiences, influencers, etc. an ongoing perspective on the views, facts, experiences, questions, etc. of an entity. As such, reading the blog can give interested parties a much greater and more timely understanding than a document or two that are created once a year.

*Some of these blogs can also serve a slightly broader role of helping to educate key constituents about issues of broader interest. These are blogs that might influence a well-informed special interest group, but wouldn't necessarily get really broadbased attention.

The Value of Twitter (or microblogging) is as a replacement for the "Trade Press."
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A lot of people I know are VERY skeptical about Twitter. I am too, mostly. However, the real point about microblogging is that it is unrealistic to expect everyone to have the impact that Ashton Kutcher accomplished.

*But we believe that the real value of microblogging for small businesses and other emerging entities is as a replacement for what has been traditionally known as "trade press". Because of the fundamental breakdown of most media economics, it has become harder than ever to get to special interest groups. We believe this is where an important piece of microblogging is going. And when coupled with a helpful blog and/or an effective web site, it is likely that it can create a pretty effective way to influence key audiences. By the way, we don't suggest that Tweets should be meaningless blather. But rather should be 140 character calling cards to provoke new and interesting ideas and appeal to key targets. A well implemented Twitter strategy is just as strategic as any other kind of communications.

Admittedly, this is an education in progress. We will keep you posted as we think we learn more.