Scott Monty, my former crayon colleague, is now head of Social Media at Ford. They have a gem of a site about the Ford Mustang. One of my favorite videos was Father’s Day. Gotta admit, I shed a tear :-). Great piece.
Loved the approach for introducing the 2010 Mustang. Besides the leaks of images and info and other approaches, Ford did the following here:
1. They setup as this tribute site to the Mustang
2. Their passionate Mustang fans submitted stories and videos
3. they ran a competition with a phenomenal prize - the 2010 Mustang
4. The public voted for the winner
5. They had a written and a video section so ludites and technos could enter
6. The stories and videos are entertaining, funny, touching.
November 4, 2008 was an amazing night for America. An African American man wins the general election running as an American who happens to be African American. Many thought that people’s vote may have been swayed by race. In the end it wasn’t even close and America showed that it has come a long way. And many Americans are pretty proud of that, whatever the outcome of the Obama Presidency. With all the problems we face in America, last night was an elixir for many.
I have been privileged to have witnessed similar history before and the emotions this time were seemingly different, but yet the same.Except this time – it was happening around me.Last time, I watched from across an ocean as Nelson Mandela walked out of jail a free man.After spending a lifetime incarcerated because of his strong will and quest for justice, peace, freedom and equal rights regardless of race color or creed.And shortly thereafter I watched as people lined up for hours (some waited overnight) around city blocks and in rural areas as all South Africans voted, many for the very first time. And Mandela was elected President of nation divided for so long, yet hopeful for a new future and at the same time fearful of the unknown. The first black President of a country that never imagined or thought that they would get there anytime soon.
Mandela sworn in as President
“We have fought for a democratic constitution since the 1880s. Ours has been a quest for a constitution freely adopted by the people of South Africa, reflecting their wishes and their aspirations. The struggle for democracy has never been a matter pursued by one race, class, religious community or gender among South Africans. In honouring those who fought to see this day arrive, we honour the best sons and daughters of all our people. We can count amongst them Africans, Coloureds, Whites, Indians, Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews – all of them united by a common vision of a better life for the people of this country.”Nelson Mandela at Cape Town’s City Hall on the day he was elected President of South Africa.
So says Warren Buffett who, according to CNBC, has for almost six years been close to 100% out of equities (except for his Berkshire Hathaway investments. In his Op Ed piece in the NY Times today, which is a must read, Buffett says:
Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. And most certainly, fear is now widespread, gripping even seasoned investors.
He goes on to say that bad news is a good thing for an investor as it provides opportunities to buy into the future at marked-down prices. And that taps into the long term where things will be positive. In a succinctly put lessson on long-term investing, he says that people who are in cash are actually holding a depreciating asset as inflation will increase. While he acknowledges that he does not know what the equity markets will do in the short term, in triue long term investor mode he says:
My car insurance bill has been steadily rising, year after year, despite the fact that I have a clean record. The logic, I’m sure, was, “well, let’s raise it a little and see who quits…”
If revenue increases enough to make up for the few who quit, you come out ahead. So, quarter after quarter, year after year, repeat the same process. Raise it a little, check to see if revenue rises in aggregate, and repeat.
What makes people choose to be in certain communities; choose to engage, or choose to activate or become buyers or consumers is in my opinion based on psychographic elements that are keys to growing audiences beyond the bucketed core demographic of say 18-34 year olds with a cross reference to a marketers product - say for example car buyers. Understanding target customers’ attitudes and behaviors towards social media platforms,and most importantly their relationships with and through those platforms is critical to achieving marketing success through social media.What you hope to achieve, how you get there and what strategy you use to build engagement and conversion goes way beyond how that community engages with a single technology or single social media channel.
You are reading a preview of Activating Broader Audiences to Generate Increased ROI. Read the full post here.
I was looking for some information this morning for a call with a client who is engaged with an 24-34 year old audience. The more I looked, the more a thought hit me. They live in internet time. So should my data and my strategy.
Research studies done over 3–6 month periods are inevitably becoming increasingly meaningless at the end of those 3-6 months and especially the strategies that are extrapolated from that research. Don’t believe me? If I gave you a social media research document and strategy from six months ago, would Facebook be at it’s core? Just look at what has happened in the last 3 months with the MySpace and Facebook audiences. Flexibility is becoming a key ingredient as things happen in internet time, and flexibility in research, strategy and execution needs to match the time line to be relevant.
