For example, some marketers simply blast out spammy messages through Twitter, Facebook groups and blog comments. I don’t know about you, but that pisses the heck out of me.

In my opinion, social media helps make your brand human and turns your marketing into relationships. Let me try to explain.

When early merchants started trading goods, they did so in public venues like souqs, bazaars and markets. They would have nurtured relationships and trust among their customers to ensure a good reputation and positive word of mouth, the main marketing vehicle way back when. They did this by listening to their customers, providing quality products and services, and actually caring – in short, they had to be human.

Fast forward to the industrial revolution and merchants, now known as businesses and brands, had a more effective way of reaching their customers: mass media. Through TV advertising, brands could reach millions and that was much more efficient than selling to a handful of people at a time in the market.

However, after decades of mass media advertising, businesses started to lose touch with their consumers. Businesses replaced building relationships with customers with branding – a poor substitute if you ask me. I have a feeling that many marketers today are more comfortable talking to an advertising agency or using automated spamming tools, rather than having a deep conversation with their customer.

In this case, the business is no longer human. It becomes a wall of light and sound, and consumers can’t form relationships with walls.

Social media offers brands a chance to be human again. It’s not practical to expect every company to have a personal relationship with each customer, but social media can help make that process more efficient. At the very least, social media allows businesses to listen to what their customers are saying, supporting customers and providing access to the people within the company.

Social media helps brands be human. We’re back to the merchant in the market again. One-on-one again, but amplified with social media tools.

Some brands recognise this and have begun to talk, joke, share stories with me in my favourite hang out spots like Facebook and Twitter. Some brands even have their employees dropping by blogs.

It’s not that difficult. If Tony Fernandes can do it, now everyone can use social media (geddit??).

Here are some action steps for you. What are some of the ways your company listens to your customers? (Hint: focus groups don’t count). When’s the last time you actually had a none sales-related conversation with your customers? How can you use social media to connect and increase your relationship-building effectiveness?

Please leave a comment below or share this post with your friends. This is just my own opinion, so I’d love to hear your thoughts, and am happy to share more if you’d like.

Photo credits

Huế market by Jaako
Wall of TVs by GabeB

While many Malaysian companies are just beginning to understand social media, Packet One Networks (P1), is a company that has been in the forefront of integrating social media into all levels of their organisation. P1 not only uses social media in their marketing efforts, but in their customer service operations too.

Many companies have grown used to speaking at their consumers through mass media advertising campaigns. However for P1, they recognise social media as a platform for them to engage with consumers directly in a public channel.

P1 Chief Operating Officer Idham Nawawi

Key to this is the whole-hearted support of social media by their senior management. COO Idham Nawawi told me in this interview how they deliberately fostered the adoption of social media within P1 by getting all the senior management to sign up for Twitter and learn how to communicate with consumers. By walking the talk, the senior management is able to lead the Packeteers to adopt the use of social media and promoting its effective and responsible use.

Another challenge for P1 was balancing the speed in which social media interactions happen with the necessary administration and control. Like many others they have an empoyee communications policy and ticketing support system in place, but I really loved their immunity cards.

P1 Immunity Cards

Employees are encouraged to take the initiative to solve problems and engage with consumers. Each employee is issued 3 immunity cards which they can use if they ever make a mistake to spare them from a ticking off. It’s a simple idea, but it helps their employees learn to be responsible and is great for morale.

Watch the interview to learn about how P1 cultivates a social media-friendly culture and how they engage their customers (I had to edit it down to <10 minutes for YouTube). Feel free to also share the interview with your friends.

My sincerest thanks to P1 for being open to this interview. A big shout out especially to Idham, Amin and Cynthia who made it possible. Follow the P1 senior management on Twitter – CEO Michael Lai (@MichaelLaiP1), COO Idham Nawawi (@IdhamNawawi) and CMO Kenny Wong (@KennyWong).

Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd (P1) is Malaysia’s first and leading WiMAX telecommunications company with the country’s widest WiMAX network. P1’s goal is to bridge the digital divide by making access to the internet universal, ubiquitous and affordable for every Malaysian. P1 hopes to play a major part in realizing the nation’s goal – to have 50% broadband penetration by 2010. Learn more at www.p1.com.my.

2009 was a watershed year for paradigm-changing online technologies. Technologies like Facebook and Twitter not only became household names last year, but are on track to change business and marketing as we charge on into 2010.

As a marketer and digital native who’s practically grown up on the web, here are some personal observations of mine about online trends that will take place in 2010 and change marketing in Malaysia, and what you can do to take advantage of them.

The Location Layer (Geolocation)

Perhaps the most exciting and anticipated trend for 2010 are location based services. Search giant Google has laid the groundwork by providing a rich platform of maps, business listings and GPS data with its Google Maps product, with many other competitors hot on its heels.

Marketers have already begun to take advantage of this platform by offering more relevant messages through location specific information. For example, Honda Malaysia gives you location and even directions to their dealers from their website. Retail businesses like restaurants and hotels are listing themselves in Google Maps through the Local Business Centre so that consumers can locate them easier.

If Google has provided the fuel for location based services, the deluge of GPS-enabled devices in the market today will be the spark that sets it skyrocketing in 2010. Every post you make to your social network, every photo you snap and practically every time you access the web from your mobile device will be geotagged (embedded with your GPS coordinates) to form a layer of location information on top of the maps platform.

Applications for your mobile device like Singapore-based BuUuk or rising stars Foursquare and Gowalla are then able to interact with this location layer to give you suggestions for restaurants and services based on your GPS coordinates. These applications also encourage you to mark new locations, rate them and leave tips for other users, adding on to the location layer to make it richer and more useful for consumers.

BuUuk makes finding the answer to "Where do you want to go for lunch?" a lot more interesting. (Click for a larger image)

As the location layer gets richer, we will start to see new devices and applications that create an ‘augmented reality’ view of the world. For example, the BuUuk iPhone application not only shows you nearby locations on a map, it can also label the shops and restaurants as you walk past them. Imagine simply pointing your phone at a building or landmark to find out more information, tips and even ratings from other users. Expect to see more of location based services and augmented reality in 2010.

Action steps for your business

Make sure that your business exists in the location layer of the web. The absolute minimum that you should do is to list your business in Google’s Local Business Centre and to local challenger 701panduan.com. If you have an iPhone or Android device, download BuUuk, Foursquare or Gowalla and add your business into their databases.

Real Time Stream

Remember the scene in The Matrix where an endless stream of green text scrolls past Neo’s multiple monitors? It’s going to start feeling like that in 2010.

Further down the rabbit hole.. (Copyright Warner Bros)

Research company IDC estimated that between 2006 and 2010, the information added annually to the digital universe will increase more than six fold from 161 exabytes to 988 exabytes (Source). This information is being created by consumers not only at their desks but on the go from their mobile devices, resulting in a never-ending stream of up to the minute information that floats by on the web.

In that stream of information includes geotagged Facebook or Twitter status updates, news, photos, ratings, reviews and more. Consumers will make sense of these streams of information with the help of their friends, who act as filters that highlight what’s good and what’s bad. And when they do find something bad, these trigger-happy consumers will not hesitate to shoot a complaint to the web, which then gets transmitted to their friends, and their friends’ friends, and so on.

What does this mean for businesses? It means that businesses must be ready to react at a moment’s notice, placate customers before they decide to complain louder and take genuine steps to fix problems. Covering up problems will no longer suffice – the real time stream flows too fast and wide for a single company (or even government) to stop the flow of information.

At the same time, it also represents opportunities because consumers are now being more open than ever. Savvy marketers will be able to glimpse into their target audience’s lives to create more relevant and tailored products and services.

Action steps for your business

Start paying attention to the stream so that you can be proactive rather than reactive. At the very least, create a Google Alert of your brand name plus the words ‘sucks’, ‘pissed off’ and other expletives. This will alert you when something bad is breaking so that you can attempt to defuse the situation quickly with a response. Better yet: sign up for Twitter and engage consumers in real time as they are talking.

Social Media Grows Up

The big buzzword for marketing in 2009 was social media. To date, marketers have mainly experimented with social media channels like Facebook and YouTube. For businesses who have yet to acknowledge social media, they will realise that their websites have become almost obsolete because consumers are talking about them elsewhere in their favourite social sites.

Have you heard of DiGi’s Pimp My Broadband campaign? You wouldn’t unless you were DiGi’s Facebook fan or following them on Twitter. This campaign takes place exclusively through social media channels to promote their new broadband product and is aimed at a niche audience of web savvy consumers. Instead of blasting advertising at a wide audience, DiGi uses the platform to get to know and engage with their audience on a more personal level. As a result, they’ve got tons of fans who generate positive word of mouth, like this video below that’s been watched almost 40,000 times. It’s a lot cheaper that TV and newspaper advertisements too.

[youtube width="480" height="385"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9BfWYbDksE[/youtube]

In 2010 we’ll begin to see more campaigns like Pimp My Broadband as marketers mature in their understanding of social media. Not only will more brands infiltrate our favourite social sites, but we will also witness the addition of social features to their websites like recommendations and perhaps even social commerce.

Action steps for your business

Make sure that your marketing department understands what social media is. Hint: it’s not just another channel to sell, sell, sell. Instead it’s a place where you get personal with your target audience. Choose 1-2 social sites to focus on and engage your audience through them but be aware that social technologies are not limited to social networking sites and can include tools for internal collaboration or customer research.

The Web Anywhere, Anytime

In 2009 the Malaysian broadband market heated up with new entrants “cutting” (potong) into the business of the incumbent TM. The ensuing competition wil drive prices down and cause an increase in the number of online consumers.

On top of that are a new generation of mobile devices geared towards entertainment rather than computing. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last month, dozens of companies unveiled e-readers and slate computers that makes it easier to consume entertainment services and media on the go.

With the groundwork now in place, a revolution in the way we communicate and connect with each other will take place this year. For businesses, it will mean that getting the attention of consumers will become even more difficult as they turn away from TV and newspapers to streaming YouTube, rich multimedia websites and games that are available over the internet and on demand.

The Anytime, Anywhere Web will also be a boon to businesses as high connectivity will allow employees to work from any location nationwide as productively as if they’re in the office. Workers will have the ability to service customers better and faster, and report customer feedback and first-hand experience of market dynamics more quickly.

Action steps for your business

Ubiquitous internet access will only serve to accelerate the previous three trends. The challenge for marketers therefore, is huge. And it’s only going to get bigger so the best thing to do is to start now! Invest in a comprehensive web strategy that links your traditional campaigns, website and social media channels. Start experimenting with new ways of delivering your content like web videos, screencasts or even mobile apps.

Here’s wishing you success in 2010!

Photo credit – Bus Fly By by dreamedia on Flickr

[slideshare id=2443864&doc=2443864]

If you are running a business, you know that a big portion of your time is spent marketing and promoting your business. The internet is changing all of that and that is what my talk will address today. Specifically I will cover the impact of online marketing–especially social media–on business.

What is Online Marketing?

Let’s begin by defining “online marketing”. To do this, we’ll break this phrase down. “Online” simply means on the internet.

“Marketing” is a little more difficult to define. Many gurus will say marketing is a social and managerial process or something about delivering value but I prefer to define marketing as a profitable relationship between the buyer and seller. For example, I may have something that you want and you are willing to pay for it.

The job of marketers is to form relationships like this where value can be exchanged between the buyer and the seller. Putting it all together, “Online Marketing” is simply the process of making profitable relationships happen on the internet. Today, online marketing spans a wide range of disciplines from banner advertising to search engine optimisation, affiliate marketing and the latest buzzword in marketing–social media marketing.

Social media marketing is currently the darling tactic for marketers. It is more affordable than traditional advertising, it is effective and allows marketers to have a wide reach.

Social media is also great at building relationships because it is social. And it can definitely be used to help create profitable relationships for your business with your customers, i.e. social media marketing.

Social media is particularly useful to small businesses (SMEs) because small businesses tend to nurture relationships with their customers better than big businesses. Just think about your favourite kedai runcit or mamak. Chances are that the employees will recognise you, compared to Tesco or McDonalds.

If you can connect with your customers on a personal level, they will look to you first for a product or solution. For example, if I have a friend who’s a travel agent and I want to go on a holiday, I will contact her first to find out what’s available… and to ask if she has a good deal for me. That is the power of relationships.

Social Media Impact: Social media helps you to build and maintain profitable relationships with your potential and existing customers easier, better and faster.

What is Social Media?

Before we continue our discussion on social media marketing, I think it’s also important to understand what social media is in the first place. (I promise there will be no more theory after this.)

There are two sides of the coin to social media. The first is technology that you may know in the form of blogs, Facebook and Wikipedia. These techologies allow individuals to publish their ideas to the world very quickly and cheaply.

The second part of social media is the social aspect. These technologies are social in the sense that they allow you to connect and have conversations with other people with similar ideas or interests, and form relationships with them over the internet.

And in case you don’t know what a blog or Facebook is, think of social media as a cocktail party on a global scale. At a cocktail party, you may know some of the guests but not all. You can overhear what other people are saying and it’s ok for you to say, “Hi I’d want to introduce myself because I absolutely agree with what you were saying.”

Some of you might be asking yourselves whether it’s worth your time to look for customers through blogs and Facebook. I say yes, and here are some reasons why.

Social Media is Mainstream

346,000,000 – this is the number of people around the world who read blogs

300,000,000 – this is the number of active users on Facebook. If Facebook was a country, it would be the 4th largest country in the world behind China, India & USA.

Twitter is the world’s fastest growing social media service. From Feb ’08 to Feb ’09, it grew 1,382%.

20 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube… each minute. Every day. There are millions of videos created by ordinary people on YouTube today.

13,000,000t – this is the number of articles on Wikipedia. Each of these articles are written and constantly updated by millions of Wikipedia users every day.

Social media is now mainstream. It beats email as the 4th most popular activity on the internet. The growth of social media is 2 to 3 times faster than other popular internet activities.

67% of the world’s internet population uses social media. Put another way, 2 out of 3 people use social media. This is why your business needs to get started with social media marketing.

Social Media Impact: Your customers are getting social, your business needs to get social too.

Social Media is Transforming Business

Social media is open, so businesses can jump right in without needing a third party. It’s not like TV advertising where you need to get an advertising agency to develop an idea, then a production company to film the advertisement and then go to the TV stations and buy a spot for you to show your advertisement. You do all this to communicate with your customer but the customer cannot respond, and many times they change the channel when your advertisement appears.

With social media marketing, you simply go to the customer’s blog or Facebook where they like to hang out and start talking. Consumers interact with your business directly–there is no third party. Through these interactions, you can perform marketing activities such as branding, awareness, lead generation, loyalty, website traffic and customer service.

Next are a few case studies that show how social media is transforming business and marketing.

Blendtec

Blendtec is a company that makes commercial kitchen blenders out of Utah, USA. Why do I know of a blender company? Because of this video:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI[/youtube]

Did you enjoy the video? I sure did. The guys at Blendtec only used a cheap video camera, a lab coat and their own blenders to produce these videos.

YouTube viewers then emailed their friends, embedded it in their blogs and talked and talked about it. This video alone got over 7 million views. Blendtec didn’t know it, but they were leveraging on the viewers network of friends. It was online word of mouth that generated those 7 million views. Can you imagine the cost if you were to broadcast an advertisement 7 million times?

As a result of these clever videos, Blendtec experienced a 700% increase in retail sales, over 65 million views for all their videos, lots and lots of website visitors and they’ve been featured in TV segments, news reports, blogs and case studies of social media presentations.

Big Apple Donuts

Big Apple Donuts is a local company with a great social media story. They’re very active on Facebook. They’ve got more than 21,000 fans. Compare that to Windows 7′s Facebook Page, which is a current campaign being run by Microsoft. Even Microsoft can’t beat this Malaysian SME!

So how does Big Apple Donuts do it? In my analysis, Big Apple Donuts is so successful because they’re very good at connecting with their fans. They effectively extend the brand experience beyond their retail outlets to Facebook, the favourite hang out of Generation Y.

The Facebook updates that Big Apple posts are very simple and conversational, designed to spark responses from their fans. And the fans really respond with comments and likes.

And just look at the results. Big Apple Donuts is growing extremely quickly and have won multiple awards.

Spicy Corner

The last case study is from a local restaurant called Spicy Corner. The restaurant owner is also very good at connecting with its customers and leveraging online relationships. Check out this video I recorded with Ija from Spicy Corner.

[youtube width="480" height="295"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwjfrA4G-V8[/youtube]

The point I want to highlight from the video is how Ija uses Facebook and Twitter to strengthen relationships and form new relationships–profitable relationships–with his customers.

Ija said that his business grew 10% from Twitter alone simply by making friends on Twitter and then converting those friends into customers. I’m an example of that. And because I like him and want to help him, I tell my friends about his restaurant.

I’m not the only one. Other customers help Ija out by recommending his restaurant and even defending him. How would you like your own customers to be so loyal?

As a result of their social media marketing, Spicy Corner has got loyal customers and incredible word of mouth, leading to even greater awareness and more customers. They’ve even been featured in the media–you may have seen them in the November 2009 issue of Personal Money.

It’s Too Risky To Ignore Social Media

I hope I’ve convinced you that you need to get started with social media. However if you need further convincing, or if you need to convince your boss, here’s one more point–it’s too risky to ignore it.

In 2005, H&I Niaga, a local construction company was featured in the news for all the wrong reasons. They had beat out larger competitors for a Bank Negara tender, prompting accusations of corruption. This piece of news was then reported and discussed in some blogs.

Today, if you do a Google search for “H&I Niaga” you get all these blog posts about the alleged corruption. Imagine if someone Googled your company and found blog posts accusing your company of negative things.

Unfortunately H&I Niaga is not paying attention or doesn’t care about this. Or maybe they just don’t know what to do about it so it looks like potential customers will find all the dirty laundry when they Google the company name.

Here’s an even worse example. There’s a brand in USA called Kryptonite that makes bicycle locks. When you Google for their brand name today you find these interesting results. Why? Check out this video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8XxcOj3Seo[/youtube]

In this case, Kryptonite reacted very slowly to the YouTube video, even after they were notified about it. At first they tried to hide it and that just made bloggers highlight the story further. They underestimated the impact of social media on their reputation.

Social Media Impact: Consumers are already talking about your business/industry. They are not going to wait for you.

Where Do I Start?

Now that you’ve decided that you need to get started with social media, where do you start? There’s too much to fit into a short presentation today, so these next slides are broad step recommendations and can be summarized into this:

1. Take it one step at a time – start small, and once you’re confident then expand to different social media channels

2. Just do it – don’t wait till your campaign plan is perfect. 85% is better than 0%.

3. Use common sense – You’re dealing with human interactions and relationships, which you already know. Think of the cocktail party again and use your common sense online.

Now, here are some specific steps for you to get started with your own social media marketing.

Step 1: Listen

Before jumping into a conversation, listen first and understand what people are talking about. This also helps you get a sense of the playing field. Tools like Google Alerts, Twitter Search and Technorati help you to scan the web in 15 minutes a day. If you like, you can also use a RSS reader to help with your social media monitoring.

Step 2: Define Goals

Generally there are 4 types of goals to any marketing programme–Branding, Awareness, Lead Generation and Loyalty. When using social media marketing, you should know why you are on Facebook or Twitter. If it’s your first time doing this however, I suggest that your first goal should be to get familiarized with the social media channel you have chosen to participate in.

Step 3: Participate

This is where you jump in and get your feet wet. I suggest that you start a blog because blogs are the natural ‘home base’ for your social media efforts. Next, make some friends on Twitter. And if you’re confident enough, try starting a Facebook Page. For B2B brands, you may prefer to create a LinkedIn profile instead.

Step 4: Keep Learning

I’m always trying to stay on top of the latest trends and tactics. I know it’s difficult for business owners like you but occasionally try to read these blogs or these books. Do come visit my site as well, I will be introducing a monthly marketing newsletter soon.

Social Media Impact: Social Media is just a tool. It does not replace business basics, so remember to continually improve your products.

Please, Please Remember…

Finally, I want to leave you with these 3 thoughts:

If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less

Social media is changing the way businesses communicate with their customers. You need to get on board right now or risk totally losing touch with consumers.

Small businesses have a big opportunity with social media

This is because small businesses are generally more personal and connect with their customers easier than large companies like Microsoft. And really, social media doesn’t take a genius, you just need to understand the tools.

Get out there and get social

Enough said. I hope you enjoyed my presentation.

If you like this presentation, please consider signing up for my Buzzmedia Bootcamp: Social Media Basics seminar to start using social media to grow your business.

Is Social Media a fad like Furby?

This post may seem a bit ironic coming from someone who provides social media seminars and training but there seems to be an almost unhealthy fascination with social media among marketers at the moment. In the end, we’ll all realise that “social media” will become just “regular ol’ media”.

Social Media is not new

Marketers have jumped on social media as a buzzword to justify their budgets. Agencies include whole sections on social media in their proposals to their clients. PR pros now invite bloggers and social media influencers to their press events.

Blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Oooh! How new and shiny they are.

I got news for you pal–social media is not new. Way before the invention of the printing press and broadcast television, traders gathered in a bazaar or market to sell their wares. They sold to each other directly in a social context i.e. based on their relationships and reputation.

With the invention of broadcast media and advertising, traders began selling their products on a larger scale and substituted their relationship and reputation for customer loyalty and their brand. David Meerman Scott, author of “The New Rules of Marketing & PR” admitted that the “new rules” aren’t new at all and has called the mass media phenomenon an “aberration”.

The tools of social media (blogs, the Facebook and the Twitter) simply facilitate one-to-one connections and relationships without the constraint of physical space and time. In other words, you don’t need to be in the bazaar to build your relationship with your customers anymore. Add that to the speed of conversation and the reach of the internet and boom–social media is now rivaling traditional media as an influence platform.

Bottom line: the tools of social media are new, and being social is about connecting, building relationships and facilitating interactions between seller and buyer once again.

Wake up call

Recently marketers have woken up with social media pounding at their door. Suddenly consumer opinions of their brand are plastered all over the internet. Google and gang are showing blog posts and tweets on the front page for searches about their brand.

“How should we respond?” asks the marketer or product manager.

“Respond? No way!” exclaims the legal department.

But CNN is featuring tweets in its coverage. Elections are swayed with blogs. Social media has arrived in the mainstream. As reluctant as some are, marketers and their agencies are all jumping on the bandwagon.

Social media ‘experts’–do you really need one?

Social Media Specialists

Many thought leaders have observed that there’s suddenly an over-abundance social media gurus and consultants. Brian Solis says that social media is rife with experts but starved of authorities. (Yes, that may include me but that’s why social media is only 1 of the doohickeys in my bag of tricks.)

The reason for this landrush is because marketers are scrambling to get up to speed with this social media “thing”. The opportunity of the moment is for experts to help organisations understand and take their first baby steps with social media.

Unfortunately this window of opportunity is going to close very soon for 2 main reasons:

1) Marketers will start to realise that social media interactions are simply social interactions which they’ve been trained with since kindergarten. Once the kids who grew up with social media today become the marketers of tomorrow, “social media” will simply become “regular ol’ media”.

2) In the social era of the web, your community of customers and evangelists will become your most important marketing asset. The relationships your community builds is with you, not your consultant. With that realisation I doubt that brands will want to outsource their social media or community management activities to third party consultants and experts.

Granted, in the interim some of us will still need consultants and agencies to show us the ropes in social media. If that’s the case I urge you to choose your agency wisely. Ensure that your social media partner is familiar with social technologies and not just how to launch blogs and tweet. Agencies specialising in social media should be familiar with technologies like Open Social, Facebook Connect, community platforms like KickApps or social widgets and be able to build engaging applications that fit into a brand’s overall marketing strategy.

In the meantime if you want to gain an edge over your competition you need to start building your social expertise internally. Start changing company culture to become more transparent. Engage directly in conversation with your customers and most of all learn how to build and grow your own customer community.

Bottom line / takeaway:

• Don’t do social media for social media’s sake. Understand what it really is and start developing real relationships with your customers.
• Social media is not a mysterious thing that can only be interpreted by gurus. Just use some common sense and whatever you’ve learnt since kindergarten.
• Beware of proposals filled with social media buzzwords. Your social media campaigns must relate back to your overall objective, e.g. increasing loyalty, drive product trial, etc.

Please take all of the above with a generous pinch of salt, because it is obvious that I am not a social media expert. I would however, like to know what you think so please do leave a comment below.

Image credits:

Was IST Das? – Furby

Hugh MacLeod – you’re a social media specialist?