Photo credit: Tiago Rïbeiro
“Once we get them to the site, we want to keep them there.” This was the mantra of early website strategists and marketers. Attract visitors to the site and hold them there as long as possible. A customer-centric approach was rarely supported.
Web 2.o technology and the social web changed the way we think about our digital properties. Although the realities of this paradigm shift are now beginning to be accepted at all levels within the organization, the following questions are keeping many of us up at night:
- Content: How far do we take the concept of “pollinating” the social web? Does all of our content need to be duplicated on YouTube and SlideShare? Do we need to come up with unique content just for these channels? What about bringing this content back to our site through Twitter streams, Google feeds, and embedded YouTube videos?
- Conversations: Yup, conversations are taking place off of our website – we get it. We also recognize that we need to play offense and defense. Now, do we need to establish a branded corporate account on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, or should we work to engage smartly in existing communities and groups. What about the community we worked so hard to develop on our website. Do we “pull” conversations away from established locations and “push” them to our preferred destination, or do we meet our customers in their chosen location? How do we do both without introducing fragmentation and confusion?
- Stickiness: If we promote our presence on the social web through our use of social badges in email signatures and web pages, are we driving traffic away from our website (the “stickiness” hang-up is still with us)?
- Business model: And of course, what’s the difference in approach for a B2C vs. a B2B organization? Is there really a difference?
Ultimately, the question is less about how to participate in the social web, and more about the audience and our ultimate business objectives. We need to experiment, test hypotheses, and fail. Hopefully, we fail quickly so that we’re on the right track sooner than later. I like Clay Parker Jones‘ philosophy of how to make something sticky in the natural, physical world:
1. Make it flexible. We all should know how to do this one. Allow real people to play with and help you improve your idea. If they have a good suggestion, use it to make a change.
2. Make sure it can flow. If a material can’t get its molecules into the nooks and crannies of another material, it can’t grab hold. Your idea (whatever it is, product, service, activity, whatever) should be able to get pretty deep into specific crevasses in people’s lives.
3. Make sure it has enough internal strength to provide resistance. That is, the brand should have a strong foundation, built upon understanding of customers, research, high product quality, etc.
How are you dealing with the competing forces of driving visitors to your site, “pollinating” the social web, and aggregating content back to your website?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post.
Circumstance, Audience, Patterning, and Reach/Frequency and other points play here.
The old concept of Reach and Frequency in Advertising101/basics…plays out here big time. And it’s all about compelling content – you have to stand out – be thought provoking – emotional – contrarian ….or ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. I guess blending in can be the right strategy/approach for some situations. However…that’s not my preferred path.
Good job in starting the process of creating a SM strategy… now if you get the answers, let me know
actually, as you probably know, this changes for all of us — but it is certainly a set of questions that must be considered (together with the purpose-thingy) when crafting the strategy.
nice post.
Nice post. Thanks for the shout.
Interesting to think about ways to keep your “thing” with people (in their digital ‘pocket’ or whatever) as they move throughout the distributed web.
Keeps me up at night, too.