I had the pleasure of attending the Social Media Business Forum (#smbf) that took place October 23rd in Durham, NC. It’s the first event that was put on by Jeff Cohen, Wayne Sutton, and Ryan Boyles of OurHashtag, and Kipp Bodnar of Howard Merrell & Partners.
They are passionate about teaching business people how to benefit from using social media and are responsible for many of the social media events and tweet-ups in the “Triangle” (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill) North Carolina area. Jeff Cohen told me that they recognized a real need for business people to be educated on social media and tried to incorporate some educational programs at their other activities before deciding to put together this event. And clearly there is a need to educate business marketers on how social media can enhance both their marketing and business communication in general.
There were 160 people who attended the Forum. From speaking to some of the other attendees, I found that many of the people attending were the marketers who already believed in the power of marketing through social media and were looking for information on how to improve their efforts. I heard several people say that they really had to convince their bosses of the value of attending this event and are still trying to convince them of the value in social media marketing in general. That’s a theme that I not only heard at this event but from our own MarketingProfs events as well. And I’ve been hearing it for a while now. Honestly, I would have thought that issue would have died down by now. With all the ways you can now monitor and measure social media marketing, it’s hard to believe, that many presidents and CEOs are still not convinced of the value of using social media.
During the keynote panel at the Social Media Business Forum, speaker Jason Falls reminded everyone that customers are seeking information online and in these social media forums. It was a good reminder that we need to be where our customers are, isn’t there marketing value in that alone? So I fail to understand why the question of the value of social media keeps coming up.
But it does, and as long as it does, I’ll keep planning sessions for the MarketingProfs events that address this issue as well as social media measurement, monitoring and other topics that address value. And I hope other social media events such as the Social Media Business Forum will as well.
All in all, I thought the Social Media Business Forum was a great event. Kudos to Jeff Cohen, Wayne Sutton, Ryan Boyles and Kipp Bodnar for recognizing the need for social media marketing education and providing it to the local business community. See you next year!
Tags: Social Media
Kathy, welcome to the Daily Fix bunch!
I often feel the same way, when I know that social media is viable, I struggle to see why companies and/or management don’t think it is. I think there are a few things at play.
I think one challenge is that management doesn’t see the business value in social media tools like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. mainly because they just see them as applications that are time wasters.
The other big challenge is that companies struggle with the decision to really want to hear what customers have to say…it’s sort of like looking into a mirror and not liking the reflection. What happens with that information and what would it take to make changes? It can be scary to actually listen to what people are saying about you…
I think the #SMBF team is on the right track…education is key and continuing to share results (and snafus!) will help companies and their management team to see that social media isn’t just about tools (which come and go), but about taking customer/prospect relationships to another level.
Welcome to the Fix Kathy! This is a good reminder of just how early we are in the process of bringing social marketing into the mainstream. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking everyone gets it. We see Twelpforce ads for Best Buy, and Twitter/Facebook mentions in mainstream media all the time, but the vast majority of organizations simply do not know what to do with this phenomenon and are not engaged.
Beth hit the nail on the head with the mirror analogy. Diving in to social media is scary, and forces people to look at business in a different way if it’s going to be done properly. Having to listen and RESPOND/REACT to customer input quickly and in public view is a new paradigm for most organizations.
We should always remember that just because WE live and breathe social, we’re in the minority amongst the masses of business decision makers. For every example of a brand that’s doing a great job in social media, there are hundreds that are still on the sidelines.
This is a major growth area and provides significant opportunities for those who can convince the guys at the top to try something new. It’s rarely ever easy, but that’s what makes the payoff so great, right?
Augie Ray had a great post on how to approach decision-makers at the top that have not embraced the social phenomenon. Check it out: http://www.experiencetheblog.com/2009/10/marketing-is-not-changing-just-ask-paul.html
Thanks for the post!
Welcome Kathy. I think the answer to your question is simple. People, most people, don’t like change. Every new marketing media has met with this stubbornness on the part of many business executives who hold the purse strings. There is a sense of comfort in staying with what you know, rather than braving a new path even though the new path gets you to your goal faster.
The answer is customer education. I mean truthful education, not the hyperbole we often hear about Internet and digital media. There are just too many so called experts in social media, who are willing to say anything to make a couple of bucks. Social media marketing is not free, nor is it easy to make work. It requires a commitment and hard work. It also requires those who practice this art to have a solid marketing background.
Some of the problem lies with Marketers for not being able to convincingly communicate the value of SM as “here’s what’s in it for you – here’s the line between SM and your bottom line”.
I was at a client meeting recently where a senior manager was using the death of Michael Jackson as an example of how information travels via SM. The VP of Communications was horrified — why were employees discussing MJ on company time? — and slapped the manager down in front of 15 people. Talking about SM at that company is now seen as a career limiting move. Its funny and sad at the same time.
Nice post. SEO is a strategy which is useful for small business and also for large business sector. It is a new marketing strategy which has been successful in all fields.
Sometimes you have to show proof. One client of mine was skeptical about any social media until I showed him that after building up a decent following for his soccer account just one tweet about his sites blog post of the day got him 75+ hits in a minute. He’s a convert now.
Kathy’s here! Nice.
I love what Jason Baer says about this. The folks puzzled about social media are the same folks who spent seven years saying, “Tell me again — why do I need a website?”