Reading for 9/10

Dan and Chip Heath's Made to Stick is a book about why some ideas thrive while others fail.  What makes something a sensation? In Chapter 6, entitled "Stories," they delve into the potential for success when stories are utilized in campaigns.  The one in particular that jumped out for me was the one of Jared and his "Subway diet."  Most of us remember Jared and his extreme weight loss through eating Subway's line of healthy sandwiches and the tremendous amount of success it brought the company.  Jared became a national sensation and everyone knew his story.  What I didn't know was how it came to light.  Jared didn't set out to became a weight loss icon and Subway didn't set out to find create one, but through the grace of chance and people sticking by a good idea when they find one, Jared's story beat the odds.  It was his tale that inspired people to write about him, then to relate to him, and then to care about him.  All Jared ever wanted was to lose weight.

I think the reason this story is included in this chapter is not only because it was such a success, but also because it demonstrates perfectly the Heath brother's recipe for "SUCCESs" (p 222).  The tale is "Simple," "Unexpected," "Concrete," "Credible," "Emotional," and a "Story" (p 222-223). It showcases every point the authors have been making about what makes something "stick." It's a story like Jared's that has all the appeal and potential to reach millions of people, and that's why it did.  This is so important to the Heath brother's point that you will get much farther in a campaign or marketing idea if you keep in mind that people relate to other people, not to checklists.  This is why the "7 under 6" campaign before Jared didn't take off, but he did.  No one cares about a set of numbers, they care about an ordinary person who did an extraordinary thing.

Reading for 9/3

In Paul Gillin’s third chapter of Secrets to Social Media Marketing he begins the discussion by stressing the importance of companies being able to “tap into the conversation” (p 41).  I think this idea is absolutely essential to the success of social media marketing because there is a plethora of free tools at their disposal, if only they know how to find and use them. The internet is full of consumer feedback and conversation just waiting to be found and used by the service providers.  What companies seem to be failing to capitalize on is this abundance of commentary, suggestions, and criticisms.  While certainly not everything written on the internet is necessarily constructive or helpful, a great deal of it is.  And the best part is that there's so much of it you can easily find what the majority of your consumers do actually agree upon.  There's so much potential to what social media has to offer companies in the way of immediate and superfluous feedback.
In addition to the tremendous amount of consumer feedback, social media also offers this direct interaction with the individual consumer.  If companies can find a way to work into this aspect of the market, then they can cut out all of the negative aspects of broad range campaigning and appeal to smaller, more similar groups of people.  By tapping into the potential of targeting groups and their shared interests, companies now have the opportunity to campaign to the individual as opposed to the whole.  People tend to ignore mass marketing and generic ads, but advertisement that targets their personal likes and peaks their interest is something that has much more potential to grab attention and appeal to the consumer.  I think the focus Gillin places on the importance of companies realizing this and utilizing it to their fullest potential is extremely important for social media marketing and a key component that must be fully realized.  

Reading for 8/27

           Paul Gillin eases us into Secrets of Social Media Marketing with the notion that “tools are secondary.”  He wants us to understand that while something newer and better will always be on the horizon, the customer is using something else already.  So rather than waste time waiting, it’s a much better use of your energy to focus on your goals and how you’ll accomplish them.  It’s also important to note that social media isn’t always the best medium for your product or purpose.  Sometimes it’s better to stick with the traditional.  Social media is a targeted campaign for a narrow demographic.  While it is a narrow market, however, it is a very powerful one.  People are becoming more and more desensitized to broad marketing and ignoring it in favor for what they find among those with shared interests.  This is what makes social media such a powerful tool.  Social media is all about sharing and communicating with people like you.  So naturally it turns into a place for people to complain, brag about, or otherwise comment on companies and their products.  This is one of the most important things to remember about this medium, it’s an opportunity for the consumer to be honest and for the companies to listen to the feedback and embrace the honesty.

            Unfortunately social media can also be a tricky market due to the consumer’s nature to want to share information with other people, but not with companies.  This is examined in Chapter 6 of Gillin’s guide.  People tend to resist the campaigns they see clouding their online communities as they’re viewed as intrusive or invasive.  Essential aspects to successful social media include open enrollment, connection and communication amongst members, personal spaces for information about the consumer, and smaller communities within the network, amongst others.  One of the biggest draws for social networkers is the opportunity to keep in touch with people they otherwise wouldn’t.  For others, however, it can also be for networking for their career, keeping up with trends, or just to get a jump on the relationships to come. 

            In the first chapter of Design to Thrive Tharon W. Howard shows the importance of social media to the way people communicate with each other and how that has changed over the past few decades.  Here, again, it is noted that it is a niche market and a powerful one, but that the engine itself is not the most important aspect to success.  Rather it stems from the inclusion of “RIBS,” or “remuneration,” “influence,” “belonging,” and “significance.”  These four criteria are what account for a successful marketing strategy in social media, according to Howard.  Chapter two deals with the fundamentals of a social network.  As opposed to an online community, a social network is comprised of relationships that revolve around the individual; they are user to user.  Also, a group isn’t always a community.  These are nuanced differences but they are important ones nonetheless.