Does Your Brand Need a Running Start?

The common misconception amongst most big brands is that they can jump into the social media space at little to no cost and be massively successful.

Wrong.

As marketers pushing social solutions, we can share the blame here. After all, large brands have seen so many success stories amongst start-ups (crowdSPRING, Zappos and Ning) and small businesses (Kogi BBQ, Upper Crust) that they've become conditioned to expect the same types of success at a very low cost.

The larger the brand though? The tougher it is to illicit a reaction that isn't ingrained in the psyche already. The value prop is more complex because pre-existing feelings are acting in conjunction with the call to action.

Here's the good news:

We've gotten past the bouncer and have made it into the club. Social media is hot. The rush is on to establish credibility in new channels is intensifying and brands want to find new effective ways to converse with their customers. Brands have bought into the conversation, they just don't know what to talk about.

Understanding the fundamental differences between the early successes of social and the lessons learned by those pioneers is the basis on which we base most current social strategy.

The problem?

Those companies started off by simply putting a toe in the water and learning to swim. They didn't have to deal with the complexities of stock holders, lawyers and pre-existing brand image. The easy part of adoption is over, now we need to demonstrate the benefits of social programs on a larger scale.

Starting now, here are some real problems facing large brands today that need to be overcome:

1. Margins

Small businesses need to make less money to become profitable. It's that simple. When you have a larger infrastructure you need to make more money in order to still maintain a profit. The bar for success is much harder to reach. Therefore, any marketing expenditure has to promise a massive return to justify expense.

Solution: You need to spend money to make money. This means investing in larger infrastructure, programs and more ambitious collaboration systems. System-wide change and silo-busting takes significant investment, it isn't something that can be done by an intern in a back room.

Change needs to come from both the top, bottom and middle of an organization to make any headway. Therefore, you need to enhance your collaborative efforts first then try to take on more ambitious change. Communication and speed is the key to survival in this new environment. Stop swimming and you'll die.

2. Complexity

Established and recognized brands have pre-existing beliefs, feelings and ideas around them. After all, they've spent millions of dollars pushing their message on consumers to think a certain way about their company.

What makes you think you can change perception without a conversation strategy and creative concepts acting on behaviors?

Solution: Simplify your messaging, offerings and marketing. If someone can't grasp the basic concept of what your brand stands for in 140 characters? It's time to get out some scissors.

Your message needs to translate down to your local offices or affiliates as well. Expect your content to be remixed, just make sure it doesn't lose its meaning and power.

3. Being in the spotlight

Coca-Cola has a reputation for driving innovative marketing. It's their brand mantra and established goal. They put massive amounts of money behind their marketing. Thus, if their social doesn't deliver as desired? It will be seen as a failure internally.

Solution: Fail. Early and often. Just make sure that you are able to rapidly change course with your marketing. Marketing a product now moves at the speed of popular opinion.

Think less like a brand manager and more like a campaign manager during a presidential election: Expect changes and challenges to messaging on a regular basis, adaptability of message is your best bet. Plan for the best, expect the worst.

4. Channel reliant media

The 30 second spot is dead. Why should we try and fit all our content around that singular idea? It's not about the big idea, it's about the 500 little ideas that build on one another and work together.

Solution: Cloud marketing. What does cloud marketing mean? It means taking a concept and throwing it out into the world as an ever evolving concept. One part crowdsourcing, one part creative seed and one part social trigger.

The best recent example of this type of thinking? The marketing around Dante's Inferno (a game from EA). Check out some of the cool executions here: To hell and back: EA's guerrilla marketing campaign for 'Dante's Inferno' , AdFreak

5. The knowledge gap

What is your typical customer's social expertise? Do they have a smartphone? How many hours do they spend on Facebook? In order to create effective programming for your audience you need to understand the engagement/conversation strategy necessary for your target.

Now ask the same question of your marketing team...

Solution: Identify a social activation point (where your customers actually are) and position your team accordingly. Concentrate your efforts around that point and cultivate and curate as needed. Fill in the gaps of most immediate need first and then widen your gaze.

6. Ownership

Who actually owns social/community efforts? No one seems to have a great answer, thus everyone is laying claim on the new toy.

Solution: No one owns social media. It's an effective augmentation of all your pre-existing business efforts. Your team needs to coordinate to ensure the targeting, creative concepts and conversation strategy all work together.

Next Steps

Big brands are in the process of getting these ducks in a row. They won't see the kind of massive successes dictated by start-ups until effective processes and people have been put into a position to succeed.

The metrics, insights and lessons learned from these early social executions are extremely valuable to a brand. The realization that most brands will come to?

Social isn't free OR easy. It will make your brand stronger and more efficient though.

Photo Credit: Race for a Reason, 22994175@N03, dominik99, vanz, stuartpilbrow, imuttoo, quinnanya

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment, showing us some social love or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.