engagement, brands and where are the real marketeers

It is funny how nobody talks anymore about “engagement” of the audience, how that happens (through content) and then association of a brand with the content creates a “transfer of the good association or engagement” to the brand or product itself. In discussions with a very smart friend of mine, canadian, head of the largest TV shopping channel over there, I found several points of discussion.

The Retail Council of Canada, is conducting their annual symposium and going through all the key note conferences, the only I could find that is relevant was this one:

Why Local Matters
Peter Kvarnstrom, Vice President, Glacier Media Group
The presenter will review just how community newspaper publishers engage their readers by delivering highly relevant, compelling and unduplicated content. The resulting high level of reader engagement is leveraged on behalf of all advertisers by providing this highly conducive environment to deliver their message within.

That is the essence of “engagement”.

Last, I found it funny that no marketeers talk these days about the old concept of GRP’s or TGRP’s. Now that media convergence is a reality, shouldnt we go back to the concept that the media doesnt matter, it is how you “get” to a person with your brand and how many times, disregard of the what was the specific media?

Marketeers need to go back to the basics.

WE step away from the measurement and the concept that ONE person needs to hear a message through different channels, same message, different iterations according to each media, and for each product or service the number of times is what becomes very, very important. For marketing to convince me to modify my consumption pattern needs to be able to deliver me the same message for a number of times, during a limited period of time.

I found this in a french site, maybe have been already a translation but I like it

Myth # 1: The social marketing? easy to commit an intern to take care

Because social networks are primarily a history of conversations, the person responsible for your participation in Web 2.0 is seen as the face of your business. It is required to discuss with your community to share information with them, answer their questions, promote your company image, but also to extinguish any bad buzz … So this is a heavy responsibility for managing your image? Give your community management responsibility to a person who has the shoulders is crucial to ensure a good social media marketing strategy.

Myth # 2: Social media marketing requires enormous skill

There are actually networks of techniques that work better than others, a social media etiquette to follow and mistakes to avoid. However the skills required for success in your social media marketing strategy are essentially human and not so rare that in the sense that it is really a communication or BtoC BtoB, but rather interactions HtoH (Human to Human). A few words of command: listening, creativity, kindness, sharing …

Myth # 3: Social media marketing is not for the old

Not true! Demographic data on users of social networks most popular move at high speed. Today more than ever, older surfers flock to networking sites and join the conversation. More importantly, the growing use of social media has experienced its largest increase in the portion of users aged 50 and over, that growth is increasing the average age of socionautes. The use of social media is not only not a question of age, but more experience is an advantage for “sociomarketeurs” on channels where the sharing of KM is essential.

Myth # 4: Social media marketing is free

And no sorry! Although recent studies show that nearly half of firms in the social sphere said that social media has allowed them to reduce their marketing costs, the social media takes time and although most of the tools are free, remember sure the time is money.

Myth # 5: Social media marketing has rules too strict

You can not really talk about rules, but rather principles that are not complicated to understand. From the moment you understand that social networks, in essence, can serve as a one-way communication, you understand the basics. Yes there are rules, but most are still being written in a universe where there is plenty of room for your creativity.

Myth # 6: The social media marketing advertising will only serve my interests

Another misconception. Certainly we have seen that many rules are still being written, however there are certain principles that you can not ignore. It is quite normal that you want to reap the benefits of your social sphere, otherwise we will not talk about marketing. However to achieve this we must respect this sphere. How? By showing your community that you’re not here just to advertise your box, but to give him your value and your humanity. If you do not want to put a bullet in the foot, being overly self-promotional attitude is not recommended for your social media marketing strategy.

Myth # 7: The Social Media Marketing provide immediate results

Of course stories abound on the Web buzz, you may be quickly disappointed if you expect results too fast. A characteristic of social media is that you can establish interesting relationships while developing your power of influence. This takes time and method, and allows you to get lasting results. In trying to go too fast, you may not only be ineffective, but most likely you got the wrong strategy because of overly optimistic goals.

Myth # 8: Social media marketing is too risky

It is true that some industries are more at risk than others. Participation in social networks and sharing information in public requires great caution. It is therefore important to consider the specifics of your industry and keep control over the information you share. Does this mean as far as avoiding social marketing channels you turn away? No. In fact you should remember that customers, journalists and others talk about your business on social networks, the real risk to you is to ignore these conversations.

Myth # 9: The Social Media Marketing is a new phenomenon

The explosion of social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are a recent phenomenon, but it is only tools. Social media marketing is remember above all a history of discussions is to influence and this phenomenon has always existed in human interaction. Today this has changed fundamentally is the speed at which information circulates and magnitude can be taken through the many tools of social media marketing.

Myth # 10: The Social Media Marketing can not bring my business

Unless your company is active in a research program top secret, your customers, your employees, your employees engaged in social networks and have much to gain by joining discussions. The fundamental question is not “what is social marketing can bring something to my business? But “What can social media for my business? “The social media can also bring a lot to your business, all about targets and if you want more ideas on what you can actually bring the social media marketing we recommend reading social media marketing and indicators performance.

I promise if I found again the source, will send it later.. but it sounded very good advice..

Owning or not the content?

So in a discussion i had at the Borrell Local Conference in NY, the subject of shall we as media companies try to be aggregators of audience, no matter where it comes from, or shall we attract more audiences because we own and control the quality of all the content we display , is the way to go?
I believe that marketing is about engagement, advertisers pay to be associated with brands, with othher products rather than just place their ads in front of the consumer. Why if not they will pay for advertisement in the digital world? Instead they could just create their own content and buy traffic to tho sites, no more media to come to for advertisement.
W will have in such world a consumer package goods company also becoming a media company. RedBull is trying to get there, prints more than a million copies of their magazine in Europe! But they keep looking for brands to associate their product… Why?
Simple, i believe that media profesionals have the key to “engage” the consumer with good, curated media.
Other than doing that, there is no reason for us to exist and we become another ad network.