Digital Marketing Resources: The New Paradigm of Conversation
Digital Marketing Resources: The New Paradigm of Conversation
By Jennifer Churchill
In his best-selling book "The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How To Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing To Reach Buyers Directly," author David Meerman Scott details his initial surprise when shopping for a new vehicle and discovering that his first instinct - to check the major car corporations' web sites - was wrong. What he was looking for was found on blogs and other sites, far removed from the actual company web sites.
His book, which is a great resource itself and a fantastic starting point for discovering other digital marketing resources, often stresses the out-dated nature of one-way marketing communication. The new online world is all about authenticity and two-way conversations.
Talking about his vehicle-shopping experience, Scott stated about the car companies' one-way message web sites: "These sites were advertising to me, not building a relationship with me."
Regardingthe paradigm shift noted in the title of this article: Marketing isn't in the middle of a shift. The shift is almost wholly complete moving from one-way communication and traditional advertising outreach to two-way conversations and complex, interactive, online marketing. There is still a place for traditional advertising, marketing and public relations - but almost without exception, the logical focus is online. Just like the old 1960 movie "Where the Boys Are" (on the beach in Florida!), marketing has to go "where the consumers are" (online!).
So how do you make this happen for your business or organization? Start by educating yourself, reading blogs (on any topic that interests you), checking out social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pandora, etc.), and getting involved on social bookmarking sites (such as Delicious, StumbleUpon or DIGG). Play around and have fun first, exploring topics that interest you. It's the best way to familiarize yourself with these sites.
Then - if you want to harness the power of this new media to promote your business, become engaged with your consumers, or educate a target group if you're a nonprofit, for example - you need to get a little more serious.
While any Google search can turn up some resources regarding digital marketing, the purpose of this article is to offer you a short-cut - by providing the best of the best sites in one place.
One great collection of resources from a Michigan State University New Media course is a great short-cut. Peruse some of the resources posted by MSU students and professors for some great ideas.
Before you just jump head-first into starting a Facebook page or writing a daily or weekly blog for your company, you need to figure out what you want from this foray into the new media world. Just like any marketing effort, know where you're going. Know who you want to reach, who your audience is, and use traditional marketing S.W.O.T. planning to set measurable goals.
Once you've done that - if you're an organization of any size, even just two people - it's a good idea to set the parameters between your personal and professional worlds by establishing a social media policy. There are some great templates to steal from on Chris Boudreaux's site.
Southwest Airlines is one company that has mastered new media; check out the company's great at southwestblog.com. Linda Rutherford, Southwest's Vice President of Communications and Strategic Communication, shared some social media "how-to" tips during a www.vocus.com presentation. She suggests:
1. Get your hands dirty; experiment.
2. Think multi-channel (what works for your brand).
3. New communities are popping up all the time; be aware.
4. Determine strategy to use the channel; sales tool, customer relations, communication.
5. Resources on hand: what do you need to engage customers? (do you have a Rapid Response Team?)
6. Executive buy-in is necessary; as well as front-line employee education.
7. Don't rush to monetize social channels.
8. Engage before a crisis hits.
It's also important to understand SEO (search engine optimization) and how to use keywords and create what Scott calls "content-rich web sites." For a brief primer on the importance of SEO, watch this podcast. You'll learn all about how to maximize your ranking when someone does a Google search for your company, product, organization or area of expertise.
So, read Scott's book first and foremost, then review the many other resourceson the MSU site ...and remember that all of these online avenues for communicating with your customers are inter-linked, and if used intelligently and effectively can lead to true, interactive marketing like has never been available to businesses and organizations before.
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