Most all of these brands displayed a sense of optimism, a structure for growing relationships with people and a strong growth story driven by smart marketing. IBM talked of character as their north star; Weight Watchers centered on Customer Truth; Kraft about taking big leaps based on great ideas, and Kimberly Clark on finding authenticity with people.

WHY DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT
This was all good but what got attention, what might provide a platform for innovative thinking around this truth, authenticity and character was the story of carrots and garbage. Two companies had the room buzzing. Light bulbs seemed to go on around the room. It was the light of …“why didn’t I think of that?”

In a three-day conference like this, there is a great deal of time spent in lunches, cocktails, dinner and more cocktails. This is where you hear the smack downs and shout outs. From what I saw and heard, the favorites were Bolthouse Farms “Baby Carrots, Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food” and Terracycle’s “Turning Garbage into Gold.”

Both of these addressed huge problems; garbage and obesity, that our marketing has been complicit in creating. Burying us in our own garbage and becoming so fat our health as a society is at risk, makes most other problems pale in comparison. Seeing the numbers for obesity in the US, state-by-state, year-by-year, in heat maps … someone saw a business opportunity.

PICKING A FIGHT WITH JUNK FOOD
Bryan Reese, CMO of Bolthouse Farms and his team first had to back out of their mindset of carrot producers as their competitors. They realized obesity was the problem and junk food was their real competition. and created a plan to change the habits of youth junk food consumption, where obesity typically begins. He had the house rocking with clever creative based on ”Baby Carrots, Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food.” They picked a fight with junk food and drove double digit growth

They used creative marketing to convince teenagers carrots are cool. Funny TV spots of carrot guns, vegetable drawers of death social games, carrot sex spoofs and much more get attention of youth. They also replace vending machines in schools with baby carrots coolly wrapped to look like junk food. “We use the vending machine to communicate funny, instead of how about we eat baby carrots?”

CHANGING THE DEBATE ON BRAND RESPONSIBILITY
Which brings us to garbage. Albe Zakes – VP at Terracycle, told us how they have grown from a 2-man dorm room operation to a global phenomenon that collects and repurposes waste in 15 countries on 4 continents. Repurposing brand waste has become the real focus… repurpose and reuse being the key words.

TerraCycle has changed the debate on brand responsibility. They realized every brand has a waste issue, most all their packaging is non recyclable and brands are not stepping up to deal with it. They pitched brands that spend millions on this packaging and branding to reuse their brand packaging and avoid the pollution of landfills and incineration. It is catching on. Kraft Foods, Frito-Lay, Mars, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oreal Coca Cola and others have signed up and created partnerships.

The brands allow TerraCycle to repurpose their used packaging… their garbage… into useful, sustainable products. Capri Sun juice packs are repurposed, sewn on to products like purses backpacks and lunch boxes and sold next to Capri Sun juice packs in Wal-Mart. People see and hear this story and feel these brands are responsible, are now a part of the solution and share that with their friends.

SPREADING FAST ACROSS FOUR CONTINENTS
TerraCycle partners with schools to set up search brigades for collection of chip bags, juice packs and 50 other reusable garbage items which TerraCycle pays the school for, making it a win-win for the brands, the people, the stores and Teracycle. This approach is spreading fast across 4 continents as it makes sense for all parties.

In terms of garbage, making money on it and turning it into new branded products for the original brand, this is brilliant. Not only do they shame the brand into being responsible for the waste product of their production, they get them to co host the reuse of that product, find a new market for them and earn money and good will.

These two companies have addressed man’s most basic questions which we have ignored for years; what am I going to eat and what do I do with my garbage? Instead of a food which is bad for society and ultimately bad for marketers, they prove we can provide good food and do smart things with our waste.

SOCIAL MEANS GET THE SUPPORT OF THE PEOPLE NOW
Our ever-growing social world where people have the power to turn the spotlight means that brands are under a microscope of responsibility. Today’s “Occupy Wall Street “might become tomorrows “Occupy Your Brand”. All these brands recognized the changes that social media have brought to their world and are looking for ways to evolve in ways that will get people to support them.

IBM’s “Character”, Weight Watchers “Customer Truth”; Kraft’s “Great Ideas”, and Kimberly Clark “Authenticity” could all end up there. Let us hope this is our future and that marketing rises to make this a better place where we all win. Kudos to the ANA for a hosting a wide-ranging discussion and cheers for carrots and garbage.
Tom Troja Founder- The Social Symphony October 25, 2011

Last week at Digiday Social in NYC we had two of our best thinkers express powerful ideas that are worth connecting.

Rishad Tobaccowala Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, VivaKi talked about “marketing to the gods” and Shiv Singh, Global Head of Digital, PepsiCo extolled “real time marketing”. They both prefaced their ideas as a little crazy but also right, true and urgent.  I agree.

Rishad explained that we are “Marketing to the Gods.” (Paraphrased below, which you can also watch at http://www.livestream.com/digiday.)

Brands and markets are built because people choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what they just did. Our biggest challenges, opportunities and issues will be connected to realizing people have emotions and feelings and companies that empower people, make people feel real good… like gods… will win.

Shiv talked in detail about Pepsi and offered a strategy that he is “betting his career on”… “Real Time Marketing”.

There is a new imperative driven by fact that Pepsi has to compete with the people’s 30 billion status updates every month on facebook for attention. What we need is real time marketing that goes from strategy to execution in 9 minutes or 9 seconds, not 9 months. It is our responsibility as brands to push this through, real time interaction centered in social.

THE HEART OF OUR CHALLENGE

When you put these two ideas together, we get to the heart of our challenge. How do you market to gods… effectively interact with people that want to be treated like gods, who expect and demand more for their attention, in real time, hour by hour, day by day?

It starts with answering the question, who are you? Or more specifically, what gods are you? You must be as interesting as they are, as their friends are, to compete with 30 billion updates.  You need to think like gods to market to gods.

The gods I’m referring to here are those of mythology. Joseph Campbell talked about the power of myth and the universal stories of god like heroes, explorers and rulers that are innate in people’s DNA, born inside of us.  He spoke of these gods as archetypes that everyone relates with and gives their attention to.

ARCHETYPES REPRESENT GODS FOR BRANDS

These are the gods, revealed through archetypes, that brands use in real time marketing. We have been developing this approach called Social Archetyping™ and writing about this, most recently with Archetypes are the Magic Bullet for Brand Social Identity – Tom Troja.  Archetypal marketing™ provides what people envision, feel, sense and want, told in human voices on this new social stage

Without these archetypes, what are your sources, your foundations for real time marketing?  What gods are you based on, what is your identity? How do you help your people effectively inspire and move others in the moment, day after day, hour after hour?

Shiv’s example of real time marketing is seeing Lady Gaga walking with a Pepsi, he takes a picture, emails it to Pepsi real time production team and has it pushed out in 9 seconds across all social platforms.  Nice… but who can wait for Lady Gaga? Who of us can just count on things happening that we can only react to?

PEOPLE ARE THE GODS OF THEIR OWN ATTENTION

Gods don’t wait. Gods rule. Gods create. You will need to behave like a god if you expect gods to listen to you. People are the gods of their own attention and they are giving less of that attention to marketers everyday. This is the battle brands need to gear up to fight in this new social world to sell their goods and services.

Real time god work isn’t easy. You have to be sure of your sources, your inspirations and your archetypes. You must have well trained, creative people who know this intuitively, can react in the moment based on a flexible and fully formed social identity that tickles the gods out there.

Tom Troja CEO and Founder Social Symphony

tomtroja@thesocialsymphony.com

“What we sell is the ability of a 43 year old accountant to dress in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him”                                                                                    Harley Davidson Marketing Executive

Archetypes provide the missing link between customer motivation… why they might care about you… and your product sales. Archetypes are what people envision, what they feel, sense and want. They act as the draw between products and customer motivations by providing our cultural storylines and signal the fulfillment of our desires.

ARCHETYPES EXPRESS THE INNER HUMAN DRAMA

Archetypal meaning is what makes brands come alive from an inanimate object. They are the heartbeat of the brand as they convey a meaning that makes people feel the brand is alive, a part of us somehow. Archetypes are what we relate with emotionally, how we feel when we have the urge to buy.

Plato called these patterns and imprints “elemental forms”, imprints hardwired into our psyche that influence the characters we like in art, movies, and music. Psychiatrist Carl Jung coined the term archetype and noted “these are forms and images of a collective nature which occur practically all over the earth.”

Joseph Campbell expanding upon the idea that archetypes are “basically the expressions of an inner human drama.” Campbell sat with George Lucas and helped him write the Star Wars Saga loosely based on Campbell’s thinking and his book, The Hero With A Thousand faces.

ARCHETYPES ARE THE EMOTIONAL LUBRICANT THAT MOVE PEOPLE

Using archetypes in social conversation speaks to our intuitive, emotional side allowing the more rational arguments to be heard. Archetypal marketing assumes that people’s unfulfilled yearnings might lead them to respond on a deeper level to what is missing in them.

What is missing from that 43-year-old accountant? Harley is playing to that outlaw in us. Nike is appealing to our own hero’s journey as we struggle to stay in shape, Ivory to our hope to stay clean and pure.

These brands are doing something more, they have a relationship with us. They make us care about them by making us feel like they care about us.  This is what archetypes do.

A friend, Michelle Lapierre, Senior Director, Customer Relationship Marketing for Marriott Rewards states the industries current challenge well,  “We are very good at solving problems, taking care of complaints using social, but… at making a good relationship better… we haven’t really figured that out yet”.

HOW DO WE MAKE A GOOD RELATIONSHIP BETTER?

The best social marketers today are using listening tools, trying to stay relevant in what people are asking for and talking about. Some of them are using social search key words to highlight the conversation based on what is trending to the top in conversations.

With others the calendar drives brand conversation with a “big happy 4^th of July” and “don’t forget fathers day.” Many are mixing in contests, coupons, sweepstakes and polls that dominate the discourse.

By themselves, nothing is wrong with any of these tactics.  By themselves they represent nothing different than what your competitor is doing. The challenge is to pull them all together with a strong social identity that is naturally yours, that speaks with an authentic voice people will embrace.

These tactics combine with a powerful archetypal voice across all social conversations, social activities and social media to play a harmonic theme based on your core as a brand. That speaks with an authentic voice everyone will recognize.

WE INTERGARTE SOCIAL ARCHETYPING™ ACROSS SOCIAL MARKETING

My company, the Social Symphony, has pioneered a process that pulls all the social tactics together through social archetyping™, giving the brand a powerful voice based on your archetypal core, that stands out and resonates as real.  This is not your fathers’ archetyping but one that reflects this new social age of participation and conversation… the people dominated reality of social marketing. People now expect more.

What we want to happen is combine all these tactics with archetypal voicing that excites people to tell their story aligned with your brand. We position you so people feel motivated… by their archetypal connection with you…  so they share their story. We inspire people to add their narrative, to share with friends. Archetypal conversations energize people to create that story.

How do you connect with the inner magician, the hero, and the explorer in all of us? Is your core the sage, the jester or the lover that connects to the soul of your fans? My guess is your 43-year-old accountant…  or someone like them… is waiting for you.

Tom Troja

Founder-  the Social Symphony

7/11/11 Copyright

The purpose of social marketing is to create repeated value exchanges and commercial moments between brands and people in social settings. To do this requires playing together these multiple areas of social focus,

I believe brands should engage all four disciplines of Social Marketing:  Social Conversation, Social Activity, Social Media and Social Commerce to successfully reach their audiences in the social facets people now utilize most often.  And while many brands have figured out one or more of these disciplines brilliantly, as they take more social control of their products, it will be important to engage all four disciplines.

Below is a brief description of each  discipline along with  a sampling of the players involved in each area. I hope the noted players and others not mentioned take the opportunity to chime in and clarify where they believe they belong.

THE FOUR DISCIPLINES OF SOCIAL MARKETING

1. Social Conversation - Brands talking directly with people.

The start to finish of brands setting up and running a facebook page, twitter streams multiple blogs message boards, IM, mobile and other social spaces where people and brands have direct communication. Conversation is the discipline that figures out all the pieces needed to make them successful.

This work is performed by companies that help brands enable and optimize direct conversation, strategy, social identity, execution, listening, curation and optimization. Companies helping brands with social conversation include Buddy Media, Vitrue, Social Symphony, Context Optional and Radian6 and a host of others.

2. Social Activity – all activity performed by people in apps, web and mobile. 

Brands influence people in social spaces that play games, give gifts, go on missions, chat, enter contests, share pictures, challenge friends, check in and update status. These are Social Activities where brands can creatively sponsor and support the social activity to positively influence people.

Some of the companies in the activity space are Zynga, AppSavvy, Meebo, Pandora, Foursquare, and SCVNGR. These companies are all based on creating relevant ways that brands can align with people inside and during social activity.

3. Social media- The display ads in social spaces.

This is the most traditional form of advertising of the group. Display ads float around activity and conversation. The companies succeeding here today attract large numbers of people engaged in social activities and include facebook, Pandora, Linked In and Twitter to name a few.

These ads should be targeted, social in nature and match the people in the social spaces where they are displayed.  Third party ad networks, ad exchanges, specialty social media buyers and traditional media buyers are helping to evolve this area.

4. Social Commerce – People organized for the purpose of shared commerce

Multiple forms are emerging from the simple to the complex. The common theme is that these brands are using social tools to get people to buy and/or to become an integrated part of the social commerce platform.

This includes companies focused on reviews, recommendations, platforms, storefronts, group buying, daily deals, sharing coupons, private sales and memberships.  Some of these companies are Yelp, BzzAgent, Bazaarvoice, GroupOn, Living Social, Shopkick and Gilt.

ALL THIS NEEDS TO WORK TOGETHER AND SO DO WE

There are many companies claiming they execute all four disciplines successfully however, I believe that because Social has such clear divisions that no one company has been able to successfully coalesce all four disciplines.  Imagine how well conversation can amplify the activity, how activity can heighten media and how they all can stimulate commerce. Working together, the four disciplines will become welcome and people will embrace them.

So speak up. Where do you fit? What strikes the right chord for you?

Tom Troja CEO Social Symphony 

Over 120 million views were of content created by people not related to Coke.

These are big numbers with big meaning for all of us.  So many people creating and experiencing content about Coke not created by Coke. What is Coke to do… what are we to do for our brands? It is interesting that this did not get much attention but not surprising as it upsets the applecart’s of those who think they are in charge.

According to Wendy… “We must meet people at their truth, on what is important to them and work back to ours. If I can’t connect on their truth we don’t get through.”  Wendy is learning the lessons of this shift.

IF CONTENT IS KING WHO ARE THE KINGMAKERS?

We the People… has a catchy ring don’t you think? With that many people voting with their hearts to watch and create what they want, what they trust, the dye is being cast for the rest of us.

Wendy has a great story of how people had aligned with Coke’s messaging over time and produced more meaningful content that Coke could ever do because it came from their heart and people sense that.

Coke has been at this awhile… 125 Years actually. They get the importance of social. They are the biggest brand in facebook, have executed multiple social efforts and are spending considerably more in 2011 for Social Marketing. They know the people are the king and they are working to create a brand experience where people reflect themselves into the brand itself. We all should be doing this.

BRAND IDENTITY ITSELF IS FRACTURING

As Wendy alludes to, truth is what people believe it to be. Perception is reality. Social only accelerates this. We want to meet people at their truth, what the brand means to them and help connect that perception with where the brand wants to be. We flex the brand, be open to possibilities that give more credibility to the people.

It is what people create about the brand that will have future influence that speaks the truth as it comes from them. The brands align by being imaginative, open, helpful and centered on people. Brands continuing down a path of one off campaign ”targeting consumers” with “roadblocks” that “micro-target” with a “call to action” is a dead end.  This strategy drives brand behavior not aligned with social connection.

CREATE YOUR SOCIAL IDENTITY OR IT WILL BE CREATED FOR YOU

This disparity between the viewing of brand produced content and people produced goes to the heart of social identity. If you don’t create a strong and true social identity for yourself, people will create it for you and you might not like the results.

Evolve your social identity by flexing the brand, imagining the brand from the peoples POV. Envision the brand at an emotional level of openness, concern and availability. Ground it in who you are as a brand. If done right, it allows you to be larger, to be flexible and a key part of the social swirl happening all around you.

It is the first thing you should do. It drives everything else. To do this, we use a reverse archetype model that taps into collective human truths and conversation. Whatever your method, make sure you look beyond a campaign approach and connect at a deeper, more meaningful level. Your social identity then animates your social behavior stimulating people’s creativity and passion.

HOW SHOULD YOU SPEND YOUR SOCIAL DOLLARS?

An overwhelming number of marketers consider social media to be integral to their strategies this year, and 70% plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% this year, according to a recent poll from Effie Worldwide and Mashable. 87% said social media was “important” or “very important” to achieving their biggest marketing goal this year.

According to the poll, brands want more friends. How you get those friends will be remembered. The content they create about you will peak volumes. Make this meaningful and connect in ways that help people want to join you, to give part of themselves to the brand, to add their narrative to a shared story so that their friends will friend you. Start there.

Social marketing is changing how the marketers can get laughs. In the past, a creative person conceived the idea and the agency built a plan to produce and distribute a campaign based on a humorous twist.

Today, we are seeing new phenomena where the brand can assume the identity of what is funny…  with people becoming the character, being comedy writers for the brand in the stream of the brands facebook page.

The Most Interesting Man In The World

Dos Equis just passed 1M followers on facebook based on “The Most Interesting Man In The World… TMIMITW.” Dos Equis invested in TV commercials and TV media for the last five years setting the stage for a most interesting character people identify with and are now making their own.

People from all walks of life, from all over the world are topping each other with line after funny line connecting around what they think is humorous on the Dos Equis facebook page with posts like:

Anthony Jones

He can solve the Rubik’s cube by making only one turn!

Ben Towne

While stranded in a burning desert, he was offered a cold Pabst. He declined

Abel Coronado

He and my wife had dos kids and I happily pay his child support….

This character was created years ago for the TV one-way world. In the TV spots he walks through the jungle, as the narrator would say “if he punched you in the face you would have an urge to thanks him”.

Narrator Allows Character to be many Things to Many People

The use of a narrator allows the character to create multiple identities and personas as he was always referred to in the 3^rd person. He rarely speaks for himself except to say “Stay thirsty my friends.”

The Dos Equis use of a narrator creates a mystery man, an interesting man who can assume many archetypes. In our imagination he can play the hero, the explorer, the outlaw, the mentor, the jester all to connect with a broad swath of people. He rarely ever speaks or pins himself down, allowing us to get involved and imagine him based on which archetype we aspire to.

As he migrated to social and people get involved, they channel themselves in to the most Interesting Man. People assign their own archetype to him. They include their friends in their posts. They share with friends and invite them to play along, marketing for Dos Equis.

People are now the comedy writers for Dos Equis. They provide the emotion using what is relevant today. They comment on the wall and use it relates to them and share with their friends.

Mike Quinn

He was at a club in Cairo and they ran out of Dos Equis, so he started protesting…then it all went downhill from there

Kostas Veliadis

Facebook gave HIM up for lent… Did you hear me Jim?

Vern Roberts

He posts his friend’s Happy Birthday greetings on his OWN wall!

People see him as a mirror of themselves

When you are on their facebook page you feel compelled to join in. Ones competitive nature is aroused. Doing this, you are coming from your self; from what you think is funny, from what you believe TMIMINTW to be.

This is a self-fulfilling circle. They believe that Dos Equis “gets them”. They become more of the brand as they feel the brand becomes more of them.

Dos Equis facebook page is getting 100 to 1,000 posts Per Day this way. Sales of imported beer are down 4 %… Dos Equis sales, however, are up 22 %.

He reminded me that when the Ghost of Christmas Past took Scrooge back to his time as a schoolboy Scrooge remembers how his father abandoned him at his boarding school. Scrooge did not know how to socialize because he never experienced meaningful social relationships. Later the ghost shows Scrooge how his success in business made him believe he had all the answers and what he had always done was the only way.

Marley told me that Scrooge was like some brands that have become set in their ways. He said that if they do not see that they are part of a changing community where the social rules are evolving, they will be abandoned.

Next the Ghost of Christmas Present visits and shows him the full social life and happiness of his nephew’s family. They have a young son (Tiny Tim) who can’t walk but they still manage to live happily on what little Scrooge pays them. Scrooge asks the Ghost if Tiny Tim will die. The Ghost tells him that if they can’t get money to get Tiny Tim strong, he will die.

Marley told me that some brands are like Tiny Tim. That their social identity is ill formed, unstable and needs to be developed and nurtured. He said that they can find long lasting success and happiness but if they continue to ignore and underfund their social growth, it would be their undoing.

Lastly, the Ghost of Christmas Present shows Scrooge that Tiny Tim has died, leaving the entire family in mourning. Scrooge dies alone with nothing but his old view of the world and possessions intact. Scrooge cries over his own grave, begging the ghost for a chance to change his ways before awakening to find it is Christmas morning and realizes he can still change.

Marley reminded me that it is Christmas morning for many brands and asked me to spread this word. That Marley’s story of salvation is about the awakening of brands to the core tenets of social human nature. That they should align with a spirit of personal meaning and human connection as it relates to their brand.

He said to focus on the value of your brand aligned with what it does for others. Figure out how to communicate to express your thankfulness for being able to help. Reveal an attitude, a spirit filled with kindness, wonder and gratitude. Express your brand purpose clearly; communicate your true value as a brand in a humanly meaningful way.

Figure out ways to flex your brand, expand the meaning of your brand, so that your value is displayed with a charged spirit. Don’t talk about yourself.  Remind people of the good in themselves, the good they can do, the good you help them do and that we do together.  Connect with people… make people feel like talking about you.

Use facebook, twitter, LinkedIn and all your social tools to spread helpful messages relevant to your business.  Let other people comment upon your goods and services and motivate them to talk about how you help people.  Reveal how people are helping other people with your product.

Use geo location to help people where they are. Use mobile to send messages of assistance, safe travels and timely offers . Use GroupOn in a way that feels like you are giving back. Really think and act social.

Remember, Marley said, this is about making real human connection and building long-term relationships. He let me know that Tiny Tim is now Big Tim and has 2,381 friends on facebook, is the mayor of Walmart and is tweeting everyone he loves your competition.

By Tom Troja – Founder-  Social Symphony – -December 7, 2010

Tyra is already a star. She has learned a lot particularly when it comes to people. Now she’s going social.  Last week at the IAB conference during Ad Week in NYC, Tyra let us know she is going to be more then just a name on the masthead. 

“I Call Them Fams Not Fans… They Are Family To Me”

Offhand she mentioned that she has over 2 million twitter Fams… Family not Fans. She made the point that if you think of them as Fans you get caught up in a celebrity trap where you are bigger and better then regular people. This celebrity thinking inhibits real connection with people. Fams not Fans.

Her philosophy is that we are all in this together as a family would be, that Fams don’t revolve around a star but relate to each other like a family might. She see’s herself as a “360’ human being, warts and all, and not an actor on a stage”.  This philosophy has been the driving factor in her success. Tyra acts as a member of her family, helping, loving, advising, teasing, laughing and bringing them home.

Tyra Will Use Technology to Build Her Fam

Banks is partnering with Demand Media who will cull topical insight from search and chat online. This will inform her of what topics will increase the probability that she will engage and help people and they will share and grow Tyra inc. She is going to use technology to learn what and to focus on what people care about.

That is not the big news but it gets the headlines and attention. Others can cull info and target content. The real insight here is Tyra’s way of connecting with people… that is the winning part of the equation. My money is on Tyra and her Fam thinking.

Are Brands Better Off Getting Fans Or Being Part of The Family?

Imagine having 2,000,000 Fams. Imagine people who really cared about you. People who tell your story for you, who tell their friends they like you and tell them to try you. Imagine people who defend you, who offer ideas, who buy your products, who try new things and become the backbone of your future offerings. Do you think you will get them from Fam or Fan based thinking?

The Fam thinking provides a combination of relevance and emotional connection making your content popular and more likely to be shared. What people will see is your relevance to them, what they will feel is your love, help and concern for them. What will sprout from them is more sharing, more Fams joining the family and more positive results for your brand.

How Brands Can Make Fam Thinking Work For Them

It starts with the mindset about how you position your brand for social interaction and relationship building over time. You want to place yourself as part of your Fams circle, to be a part of them and them a part of you… rotating together based on the value you offer.

Align with what they care about… their passions for food, music, travel, sports and others. Plan across one year unique ways your brand can be relevant and create conversation, invite participation in social ways. Enter and blend into those passions and provide value on a continuous basis.

Imagine A Larger Social Identity For Yourself

Flex your brand to be broader, to relate to different kinds of people in a social way. Visualize what that looks like driven by conversation and participation. Plan to make human connection and provide meaning. Start creating examples of what that might look like for you.

Plan ways to use paid media to drive earned and owned sharing. Build conversation and participation into your creative design.  Realize it is not all about the platform and technology; it is also about your ability to add connection and meaning.

All of us who have worked our bodies, who have gone in and out of gyms, swimming pools, pilates classes, so that we can play tennis, basketball, soccer, run … do what we love… we know how important it is to develop our physical core strength.

Development of core muscles stabilizes, aligns, and moves the trunk of the body and creates powerful core muscle coordination to help us live and navigate active lives. These core muscles create a solid base of support that enables us to generate powerful movements of our extremities.

DEVELOPING SOCIAL CORE STRENGTH

If we think of our brand as an extension of ourselves, we can see that our social muscles are undefined and weak.  Social is about building relationships for all to see. It is about talking with people, not pushing content at them. It is about getting friends to tell friends that they like, support and will buy you. How developed are your muscles to do this?

Strengthening our social core means that we are becoming more flexible in the way we handle life’s situations, pulling people in. We move gracefully through challenges visible for all to see, we base our choices around what we believe, and stay focused on helping people based on our brands true value.

This is how brands build stronger relationships with people. As social use grows, brands need to be adept at socially interacting with people, at putting themselves in the middle of what people care about, at being more valuable in their lives, at socially moving people to do more business with them.

BUSINESS CORE TRENGTH

Your social core strength is built upon you business core strengths. It is how you win as a business that is the foundation of your social interaction. It is your basic value that animates everything you do. The first step is to clarify your business value for your people using your social tools. Do not assume they know or have this.

Outline why people buy from you. Have a crystal clear competitive advantage. Define who is your customer. Explain your value so it cannot be misunderstood. Give examples of how you help people. Summarize this for front line social employees. Give them the business foundation they need to be Social Strong.

DON’T CLOSE THE GYM

A recent American Management Association survey indicates about 50% of U.S. company’s block employee access to social media sites. TechRepublic poll of IT folks puts the number @ 71%. They have closed the gym… Do not be one of them… they are falling behind. Make social core strength part of your competitive advantage.

Help your people get good at social. Embrace social as a brand. Educate based on your business core strengths. Encourage your people to be involved in their own social life, encourage them to examine what your best competitors are doing. Give them social guidelines and achievable business goals… and the skills and permission to be great.

When someone is standing in front of a drink display and seeing all the choices… what drives them to pick Pepsi over Coke or anything else?

Pepsi’s big bet is that Social Marketing will drive that inner voice to say yes! Yes to Pepsi in that moment of purchase. So…can we leverage social marketing to influence the ying and yang of every day forces?

Pepsi Refresh has gotten the word out with a sports and celebrity paid media plan anchored in getting real people to participate through social platforms to drive earned social benefits.

Pepsi promotes, “We’re looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. Look around your community and think about how you want to change it.”

THE TAO OF SOCIAL MARKETING

Tao can be roughly stated to be the flow of the universe, or the force behind the natural order, equating it with the influence that keeps the universe balanced and ordered.

Pepsi taps into this flow with its community call to action that engages people locally, gets them involved and allows people to release multiple emotions.  People are engaging with Pepsi in a broader spectrum of their lives where Pepsi has not been relevant before.

What is happening emotionally is that People experience the brand based on the brand listening to the people. What they see from Pepsi is openness and relevance. What they feel is love and interest for themselves and others. What they share socially is personal and Pepsi is involved.

ENTER AND BLEND

What Pepsi is doing is entering people’s lives where they were not invited before, becoming part of them. They are invited in and are able to blend by being a helpful catalyst for their passion.

People notice that the brand is seeing their position through people’s eyes. When Pepsi does this, people see they are listening, becoming a part of what the people care about.

This is a way of combining forces with people. It is a tactic of blending with people for the purpose of driving social actions with minimal efforts. The reciprocal part of Pepsi refresh allows Pepsi to be a part of conversations where refreshment becomes relevant, connecting back to purchase intent.

DEVELOPING SOCIAL BALANCE

All brands need to develop this social balance, to become adept at being relevant, at being involved and being trusted by the community. The key is playing to the relevance of the brands true value.

In social marketing the brands display that core strength by their ability to communicate in flexible ways and develop the balance to come back to their center, their core value, in relevant ways

Pepsi is able to do this by allowing people to express their many ideas, release many emotions and come back to Pepsi as refreshment across multiple social platforms. Pepsi helps them feel like having a Pepsi whenever that urge for refreshment comes.

HARMONIC SOCIAL MARKETING

So many brands have expressed frustration on “how can we be relevant in social”.

The answer is here, to tap into that social power and enter and blend in balance with social people. In Blending and balancing, you are gaining control. You are gaining by blending, becoming part of people, adding your value and  using their energy to move them and their friends closer to you

Whether it is soda, fast food, beer, cars, appliances, medication or politics… this will directly influence people to make purchase decisions in your brands favor.