Social Media's Ferarri Has Flat Tires

"A combination of good strategy and poor execution is like a Ferrari with flat tires"
~Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap

I've been thinking about the one prediction I contributed toward Peter Kim's 2009 Social Media list and it's been haunting me. So I went back to some basic personal inspiration and truths. A truth that we all probably know but are often times hesitant to admit is that it's really HARD to do something right. If you chew on Forrester's latest study—which points out that corporate blogs aren't trusted or doing all that well—as a marketer your first inclination may be "well, right—we tried a blog, and that didn't work, so let's try something else".

And that's just wrong.

Pardon my frankness here—but hear me out and take the words of Mr. Neumeier very seriously. Execution matters—in fact, it's everything. You would not be reading this blog right now if you didn't sense the countless hours I spend on it. The dedication it takes to keep this machine rolling. The effort I put into screening out signal from noise in order to try to deliver some value. It is a labor of love, and hopefully that's what keeps you coming back.

There are relatively few successful case studies in this space—and I can share with you from a personal perspective why that is as I've met some of the people that fuel them. I visited the folks at Dell when they were only a fraction of a team, the thing that I observed about them was their passion and commitment to the space. They understood not only the tools and how to use them—but were themselves immersed in the networks. Their jobs didn't end at 5:00.  I recently had a chance to visit Zappos, and you can tell that the culture there is different from most organizations. In fact, recently their CEO went out of his way to help us redeem a coupon and my wife was blown away that he took care of the issue himself as opposed to delegating it to someone else. It's no suprise that the Zappos presence on Twitter has nearly 30,000 followers. And lastly—have you actually spent time with Frank Eliason from Comcast? I have, and I can tell you that he never shuts down. He's constantly trying to help people or point them in the right direction.

If you're scratching your head wondering why your socal media initiatives aren't the bright and shiney object you were sold—it's time to realize that there is a truth here that goes beyond social media all together. The fact is that it's hard work to produce something of value. It's really tough to do something that gets people talking (in a good way), and no amount of strategy can produce trust. Trust comes with time, interactions and has to be proven.

Trust has to be earned.

If you've bought into social media—know this. A strategy is very important—especially when we're talking about large organizations with numerous decision makers. But we're talking about a slow burn here. I started this blog in February 06, and my career has benefitted from it—but it's an ongoing effort that requires passion, dedication and commitment. Same goes for the the way I use Twitter.  There is no way around it. In order to get these initiatives off the ground, work is required. A lot of it.

If you are a brand or organization struggling with your own social initiatives, I'd recommend you think about the following questions:

1. Do you have a passionate and dedicated team who will obsess over your efforts?
2. Are you trying to provide value or "quick hits"?
3. Are you willing to engage your customers/consumers?
4. Are you willing to empower your employees/agencies to represent you?
5. Are you willing to risk failure?

That's a start. I guess we could walk away from a Ferarri with flat tires, because there's not much you can do with it. Or you can roll up your sleeves and do what it takes to get it fixed. It'll probably be messy—you might even get a little grease on your shirt. But think about the places you could go.

Comments

[Cosmin Ghiurau]

David:

Excellent blog post. I agree with the need of an 'Evangelist' for any successful execution of a Social media execution. If there isn't anyone passionate about your company/brand. Why would anyone else care?

- cosmin

[Janet]

Excellent post. I hear people saying that social media doesn't work all the time when what it really is is the way they used social media didn't work, and so it's a fail for them. The fact is they didn't make the effort to earn trust.

Social media is hard work, and you can't just churn out a bunch of press releases and hard sell articles and call it social. This is a hard lesson for corps to learn, but they have to if they want to be successful at building the relationships necessary for social media to work for them instead of against them.

[Jon at zhiing]

Great post. For us, we are new at branding within social media pathways. Given the current nature of how easy it is to communicate within these mediums, it serves a dual purpose. First it allows us to brand and interact in discussions, but most importantly, with our user base, we have a channel for feedback and ability to interact to discuss it. The value in this is incredible. We are able to then implement the feedback into our products, providing a better product and experience and frankly it makes our job more fun.

I sure hope the tires are not flat.

Jon at zhiing

[Seth Gray]

very insightful post. I wonder how many corporate social media initiatives could answer "yes" to even 2 of your five questions.

Seems like there's a paradigm shift with companies like Zappos, where they're able to recognize and acknowledge value at an individual customer level (and they go to great lengths to find and tap into that value). Maybe Zappos is kind of like a hunter-gatherer: go out and find the value-- it's already out there. And maybe other, more traditional companies, are like farmers: they grow value internally-- they don't go out past their own pasture.

So, maybe, companies need to devolve from farmers to hunter gatherers?

[Joann Sondy]

As always, David a great analogy.

We do need a set of tires with a great tread for all the conditions we'll experience on this long journey.
J

[Amber Naslund]

Ferraris aren't cheap to fix, either. They require meticulous maintenance. I mean, not that I'd know.

Our ever-truncated attention spans expect instant gratification. And no amount of anything worth having or doing in business has ever been done overnight (at least not anything sustainable). We're perfectly willing to test direct mail campaigns, prototype products, strategize around new customer service strategies. We need to apply the same methodical approach to social media if it's ever to truly hit its stride.

Thanks for this, David.

[Geoff Mackey]

SO True. If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me to set up a facebook/myspace/youtube/etc. account for their organization well, I'd have several nickels.

It will be really nice when organizations start realizing that yes, we are great at creating superior experiences for their customers/followers, but that's only half the battle. You have to LIVE, EAT, SLEEP, and BREATHE your product if you want to take full advantage of everything social media has to offer.

[Joseph Rueter]

I want to drive! Let's fix the tires.

[Tom O'Brien]

David:

Nice post - and one that I definitely agree with. Success in social media requires a real commitment that spans departments. (Marketing, PR, Product, Legal, Customer Service, etc.)

SM success is also about relationships (not campaigns) which is why Frank from Comcast is always connecting and helping - rather than broadcasting.

As with all things worth doing, it is hard to change organizations, but there will be huge spoils to the winners.

TO'B

[Tom Asacker]

"The fact is that it's hard work to produce something of value."

I guess it's finally becoming clear.

[Larry Irons]

Nice points all around David.

A conversation requires a voice with a compelling presence and time to engage. Thackara (In the Bubble) uses the Japanese term nemawashi to describe the development of trust over time and I think the point applies to social media generally, but especially to blogs and communities. If a company doesn't have employees with the voice to engage their customers it probably needs to examine why before using a blog or other community oriented social software.

[Clinton Skakun]

Hi David,

Excellent example! We hear poeple complaining all the time about "this doesn't work", "this is a big scam". They ruin it for other people and bring down their hopes becuase THEY didn't give it enough effort to even earn the right to talk about it.

I find it blind sided when people say that Rich Dad is a scam, "I read his book and didn't make a cent". These are the people who stay poor because they're in the business of getting into something good and backing out when it requires a little hard work.

Great post as usual!

Clinton

[Blog Expert]

great thoughts all around. but I have to say, I hate Ferarris.

[John Gerzema]

The big challenge for brand marketers and their agencies is managing expectations around growth. It is the incredible upfront commitment and lack of short term visibility that makes social a tough sell. However, the deep consumer commitment that it creates is what can lead to the steep adoption curves that any brand is looking for. Social strategy inverts the typical brand strategy, bottom up instead of top down.

Works for Zara.

[Peter]

Transparency, passion and commitment. Three things that I thought of when I read your post and the examples you provide. The reason you put the hard work in late at night is because you love what you do and are committed no matter what hour of the night. Zappos and Comcast are both the same way. The reason that Tony Hsieh from Zappos does the things he does is because he loves his business and social media tools like Twitter allow him to be 100% transparent. That commitment is why the company is successful in the first place!

Great post!

[Kate Richardson]

Awesome discussion.

Getting it wrong and experimentation are often major contributors to success.

That means embracing failure in a way that helps you learn from it.

Also, execution too often gets a bum rap as it is sometimes seen as the poor cousin to strategy.

But bad execution is really bad strategy.

[help with dissertation]

Blogs are good for every one where we get lots of information for any topics nice job keep it up !!!

[Giovanni Cappellotto]

Thanks a lot. Excellent post.
http://lnx.giovannicappellotto.it/2008/12/17/social-media-lavoro-e-fiducia-del-consumatore/

[David Armano]

Thanks for all the thoughts on this. Seems like many of us are in agreement that there is a huge opportunity here, but it will take a great deal of effort to pull things off.

I don't mean to undermine strategy in any way, but point out that we need both. And it's becoming increasingly clear that there the more things change, the more they stay the same (meaning that mediocre only goes so far in any space)

[Patrick Prothe]

Marketers and related business people are so frequently looking for quick hits / wins. They're under pressure to deliver the numbers so are always looking for the next big thing. In many cases, their jobs depend on it - just look at the short tenure of most CMOs.

However, they're usually always looking because they don't focus and do the real work it takes to build real value. The work that takes time before the payoff. Perhaps the economic slowdown will force people to take a longer term perspective and allow social media initiatives time to incubate.

I've heard how in the music industry, the labels used to work with artists to develop their music - they weren't expected to hit the top 40 with their first record. The result were more thoughtful albums allowing artists to experiment and take more chances. Perhaps that's starting to change with self-publishing.

It seems businesses have moved the same direction - desire for guaranteed wins. I also think many are afraid to really hear / know what their customers think. It might hurt too much. They may feel too vulnerable.

Thanks for the insights David - I really appreciate and can sense the commitment you have for this blog.

[DrV]

Great post. Brilliant comments

[Connie Bensen]

It takes a lot of energy & human intervention. I see the community manager/social media manager being critical to answering your 5 questions.

I hope our paths cross this next year.
Happy holidays!
Connie

[Ellen]

David this is a great post, and I'd like to add something else that I think is also at play here. Many organizations have a difficult time doing what I call translation. Execution needs to effectively translate the strategy so that in the end, the right goals are achieved.

Tools like scenario planning should help in the translation process, but all too often I see them used halfway. It's one thing to envision a shiny new future, and quite another to think through, evaluate, and iterate the likely consequences of different execution approaches. We need both.

I like your example in the social media context. Different types of social media, and different forms of social interaction will produce different results. Without aligning your actions to your goals, the results will be random.

Thanks!

[Sandy]

Trust isn't enough. It also requires networking and PR skill. A lot of people have plenty of knowledge and skill, but they're routinely ignored because they don't have the network that gives them the stamp of approval.

[Dissertation Writing]

i would say that this post is really very informative, good work

[Agitationist]

Very well put, and a fine analogy.
I've posted a similar take from a media strategist's perspective:
http://agitationist.com/corporate-blogs-arent-trusted-forrester-research