How Online Networking Becomes Marketing

Does the thought of online social networking excite you? Or, do you find it annoying? If you are a social networker, is it because you're a junkie and can't wait to chat and keep your profile updated? Or do you feel as if you were sucked in because everyone else is already doing it and inviting you into their network?

I remember when it was no big deal if you didn't have your own personal email account. Today, if you're under 83 years old and not living under water, and you admit to not having an email address, people look at you like you have food stuck between your teeth.

You may have noticed that the trend to move into online social media is clipping along at a pretty respectable pace. Almost everyone I know in this business is on LinkedIn or Plaxo. More and more professionals are even admitting to having FaceBook accounts once they delete any embarrassing friends (a.k.a. drinkin’ buddies), goofy applications (send beers to your friend) or casual messages on their page (“Duuuude, wassup?). Some people are even tweeting on Twitter and posting their own blogs.

We're living in an era where not having a presence in an online social media is rare and, indirectly, says something about you. Whether true or not, if your name doesn't appear anywhere in the search engines, the perception can be that you aren't very important or you aren't doing anything of significance in your life or profession.

If someone is interested in buying from you or inviting you to participate in an RFP, you should assume that they are going to check you out online — to see what you've done, where you've been and where you're going. That's why it's important to have some kind of online presence (start with LinkedIn or Plaxo) and try to connect to business partners, colleagues, and clients. Check it at least once per month and keep your profile up-to-date to give people a reason to be interested in you. In this fast moving era, it's always best to be social.

→ Back to Top

The Role of Leadership in Company Growth

You probably wouldn't be reading this newsletter if you didn't already understand the importance of launching and maintaining a strong marketing effort. In this sour economy, it is more important than ever to market ourselves like crazy, giving people many reasons why they should buy from us.

As marketers, we may forget that one of the most important components of growing a company lies in strong leadership. The truth is, we can have a killer marketing campaign and a team of blood-thirsty pit bulls on our sales force, but without strong leadership, triumph may still be elusive. I've long believed that the success of a company can be directly tied to the quality and effectiveness of its leadership team.

It's a well known fact that workers join companies but they will leave people — more specifically, they leave their immediate boss. What do you think happens when you take a star performer and put them to work for a bad leader? People who like and respect the leaders they work for are more likely to regularly give 110 percent, which has a direct impact on the bottom line. They feel good about working harder, staying at the office longer, and working through lunch. Many can't wait to get to the office in the morning. On the other hand, a leader who does not have the respect of his group members suffers high turnover, and/or team members putting forth minimum effort, doing what's inspected versus expected. They fall prey to sitting on one side of an "us versus them" culture, which is cancerous and will quickly erode their brand.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Every single interaction people have with your brand leaves a distinct impression on them. People who love where they work will emanate their positive energy through verbal and non-verbal communications, which, in turn, leaves positive impressions on customers and prospects. People who are not happy with their leaders tend not to care about their company. They may have negative attitudes and little concern for pleasing the customers of the leaders they work for.

Just something to chew on…

→ Back to Top

Yes, Marketing is a Science!

And neuromarketing is the wave of the future. Sorry to report this, everyone, but it looks like we need to become geeky. What do I mean? Well, we all remember that one of the fundamental principles of marketing is to sell benefits, not features (a.k.a. sell the sizzle, not the steak). But, while we've been pouring over demographics, psychographics, buying behaviors, research studies, and consumer trends, a new type of marketing has come into play – neuromarketing – and more marketers are beginning to take notice.

It's rare that I would quote anything out of Wikipedia, however, based on my personal interest in the subject and the research I've done, I'm pretty impressed with the author who encapsulated the essence of neuromarketing as…
Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing that studies consumers' sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli. Researchers use technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure changes in activity in parts of the brain, electroencephalography (EEG) to measure activity in specific regional spectra of the brain response, and/or sensors to measure changes in one's physiological state (heart rate, respiratory rate, galvanic skin response) to learn why consumers make the decisions they do, and what part of the brain is telling them to do it.

Marketing analysts will use neuromarketing to better measure a consumer's preference, as the verbal response given to the question, "Do you like this product?" may not always be the true answer due to cognitive bias. This knowledge will help marketers create products and services designed more effectively and marketing campaigns focused more on the brain's response.

Neuromarketing will tell the marketer what the consumer reacts to, whether it was the color of the packaging, the sound the box makes when shaken, or the idea that they will have something their co-consumers do not.
So what does this mean for us as marketers? Simply this — we need to really understand human behaviors, their rituals, why people do what they do, and how we can reach that subterranean level called the subconscious, which is ultimately what drives "buy" versus "not buy" decisions. With people being exposed to hundreds of ads each day in one form or another, they can't possibly notice them all (there's a significant difference between being "exposed" to something and "noticing" it). Hence, scientists and marketers are coming together to make marketing more and more meaningful, more and more targeted, and more and more effective.

Pocket protector anyone?

→ Back to Top