Mike’s Points

Just about the time when social media marketing truly comes into its own — when you can really mean it when you say everyone is doing it — mobile marketing will take its place as the “next big thing.”

That’ll be in about eight or 10 to 15 years from now. Let’s just say 10, give or take a few.

Relatively speaking, there’s a small portion of the U.S. adult population active in social media. Still a large number, but still enough room to ignore it and still be successful. Ultimately, you go where your market is, and active social media marketing is not right for everyone. (I say active, but most all businesses should  be monitoring.)

While many most businesses and agencies are trying to get a handle on social media marketing and how to justify it, they need to keep an eye on mobile marketing.

Because boy oh boy, it’s coming. And, the potential will be much greater than social media marketing. At some point, much more so than social media, you’ll be able to say that literally everyone is doing it.

Why? Because mobile will be second nature.

According to Nielsen Mobile (courtesy of MarketingCharts.com):

• 46% of U.S. tweens (age 8-12) use a cell phones. That’s 20 million people, according to the study.
• 55% of tweens who own a cell phone send text messages. (That’s 11 million people, if you’re not doing your math.)
• 21% tweens who own a cell phone download ringtones (that’s 4.2 million).

“Tweens have grown up with mobile phones and expect them to do much more than make a call,” said Richard Wood, Nielsen Mobile Vice President of Consumer Insights, per the study.

According to a recent Harris Interactive Survey (conducted for the CTIA: The Wireless Association), 57% of survey respondents (2000 teens) “viewed the mobile phone as key to their life.” Nearly four of five teens, or 17 million, carry a mobile phone, which is a 40% increase from 2004.” (Courtesy of MobileMarketer.)

Despite the fact that an Experian Consumer Research study (noted into a MultiMedia Intelligence report, according to MobileMarketer) indicates teen mobile subscriber market is flat, if 90% of teens have a mobile phone, just think of the population raw numbers if you carry that percentage forward as those teens, the tweens, the youth, toddlers, babies and those not even born yet become adults!

As mobile devices become as commonplace as carrying a wallet or a purse, mobile marketing will be one of the primary vehicles to reach people.

Of course, as with any marketing communications, you need to consider the best vehicles and messages to reach your audience. Still, I’d say smart marketers will be keeping an eye, er I mean an ear on mobile marketing.

– Mike

Image of “making ‘Dontcha Wish Your Cell Phone Was Hot Like Me?’“” courtesy of ARI on Flickr.

Post was updated 9/23/2008 with a change of images due to request from the owner of the original.

A little while ago, I published a post about personal branding versus corporate branding. It was based on a post by Paul Chaney. Later, David Binkowski wrote on a different perspective about it. There’s still a lot of great potential for great discussion about the pros and cons of an employee who blogs at his/her own blog, gets a huge following and that impact on the employer, and on and on and on.

While thinking (again) about it Tuesday morning, it hit me. It’d be fun to take a little test.

Below are lists of well-known bloggers and corporate blogs. For the bloggers, can you name the employer? For the corporate blogs, can you name the blogger (or any, for those with multiple authors)?

Name that employer!

1. Steve Rubel (okay, gotta include some gimmes)
2. Jason Fallis
3. Chris Brogan
4. David Binkowski
5. Kevin Dugan
6. Josh Hallett
7. Paul McEnany
8. Matt Dickman
9. Leo Bottary
10. Robert Scoble (don’t ya still first think MSFT?)

Note: While there are many great female bloggers out there, the ones I’m most familiar with who have their own blog have their own agency or a solo practice. All of the bloggers above work for a company. For the next Name that list, I need to expand my blogger reading list.

Name a blogger!

1. BlogWorks
2. GM FastLane (yeah, that’s a gimme, too)
3. Airfoil Public Relations’ Clear the Air blog
4. Authenticities
5. Randy’s Journal (last name required for this answer )
6. Graco Blog
7. National Association of Manufacturers’ ShopFloor
8. Dell’s Direct2Dell (yeah, should be another gimme!)
   
9. Molson
10. Adobe Blogs (a collection of all Adobe blogs)

So, how’d you do? (Remember, we’re on the honor system here.)

-Mike

Early in my career, the need for continuous education of clients was impressed upon me. Since then, I’ve seen over and over and over yet again that there definitely is a need for continual client education.

And, internal, company/employer education as well.

In many ways, you can substitute selling when you’re talking about educating.

The need to educate or sell clients should be pretty evident. Clients need to have some understanding of what we’re doing for them and why. Yes, results need to be there. However, it’s clients’ understanding and eventual solid trust in us that produce long-term relationships and will keep clients from looking elsewhere for our expertise.

As with clients, there is the same need to educate internally — whether you work in-house or for an agency.

Of course, we need to educate down the chain — that is people we supervise and those new to the company. A smart sales manager for a former client said his job was to train his people so they could replace him. He was definitely a guy on his way up.

Equally important is the need to educate or sell up the chain. You know why a certain course of action needs to be taken, but don’t assume those who supervise you and higher up know. (Another benefit to educating up is that is helps those higher up in the chain to know the what and why of your role, responsibilities and the value you offer.)

But how? How to you justify a proposal, a new direction, a new approach?

Here are some ways to educate and sell your case:

1. Hard-core ROI. Whether you show actual numbers or a percent change, real numbers that show what your employer or client can expect are easy to understand.
2. Non-specific expectation. Okay, you don’t have hard-core numbers or percentages. You, however, can say that what you recommend should produce a significant, notable, slight, moderate — or other descriptive term — increase or decrease.
3. Case studies. Other companies or examples of what you propose that were successful. It’ll help your employer or client visualize what you propose by seeing successful outcomes of similar work.
4. Studies. Show that the best in class, successful, industry leaders or big companies are doing what you propose.

The first two items are good if you have prior experience in what you propose. The second two are for those proposals, etc., that you don’t have a lot of prior experience in but know — I mean know – it’s the right thing to do. So, you borrow from others’ positive experiences.

What other ways can we educate and sell ideas and ourselves?

– Mike

Like many others, I belong to various discussion boards and groups. One is the Young PR Pros Yahoo! Group. A few years ago, Greg Brooks posted a reply in a thread that I’ve found very helpful. It’s a framework that clarifies and clearly defines words like strategy, goals and tactics — words easily confused.

And words I’ve seen loosely tossed around like buzz phrases.

It’s a framework that has helped me remain focused when I’ve developed or been involved in marketing and communications planning and proposal development.

I’ve found it very helpful — and I hope you find it helpful as well.

• Mission: Reason for being; purpose
• Goal: On-going behavioral target related to the mission.
• Objective: Measurable step supporting the goal. Achieving an objective consumes resources.
• Strategy: The approach chosen to achieve an objective; the set of activities or projects designed to achieve the objective.
• Tactic: An activity or project that supports the strategy.
• Task: A discrete, measurable step that is part of the tactic.

Remember, I said these are simple steps — not easy.
-Mike

From time to time, you need a stat to include in a presentation. Or, you’re looking to make a case for an idea or new strategy. Or, simply, you’re looking to pass on good, meaty, worth-while industry trend information to clients or co-workers.

I’ve been there before.

So, as Labor Day Weekend wraps up and the work week begins, check out below what I hope are some labor-saving research, trend and case study resources.

MarketingChats.com

eMarketer

Aberdeen Group

Forrester Research

Pew Internet

comScore

Mobile Marketing Association’s Case Studies

Word of Mouth Marketing Association Case Study Library

Scarborough Research

Internet World Stats

I’m sure there are many other great resources. If you have a favorite or two not listed above, please share in the comments.

-Mike