Social Media Marketing Challenges in the Biotech Industry

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Posted on January 31, 2024 by marc meyer

I once heard this line in a podcast, “Take what’s important and make it interesting.” It resonated with me immediately. If there was ever a direct call to action for all that we do in social media, particularly social media marketing in the biotech space, then that would be it.

I don’t see a lot of “how-to-do” social media marketing articles that focus on the biotechnology industry, and there’s probably a good reason for that. It’s hard. To counterbalance that, I thought this might be a good opportunity to talk about the challenges of navigating through it with a clear path and understanding of what it’s going to take to “win”.

I’ve been in the biotech space with Revvity, for the last three years. Overall, I’ve been in the social media “space” for over 15 years, so I’d like to think I’m fairly qualified to lean in on the topic of social. Depending on your background and experience, I may be preaching to the choir here, but the bottom line is this; The social media challenges that exist in biotech are no different than they are in retail, tech, finance, or sports.

It’s Always Going to be About Content.

Till the cows come home, it’s always going to revolve around content frequency, freshness, and the types of content that are created. At a high level, we can chisel that previous sentence into the side of a mountain. Factor in strict FDA and FTC guidelines and sprinkle in some HIPPA compliance for extra measure and your team has quite the mountain to scale. Fresh content or not, you’re probably asking yourself, how can I tell my company’s story if I’m not allowed to “really” tell my company’s story?

The challenges, however, are this, and I think this is applicable across all industries. Once you get past the creation of said content (including copy, image, and landing page), and of course making sure you’re coloring inside the lines of whatever industry you are in, you’re not done. The emphasis then shifts to the audience and the platform. Is your stuff being seen by the right people on the right platform?

In other words, you must ask yourself (and your internal teams) if creating a TikTok video on cell and gene therapy geared towards chief scientists is really going to have the same impact as a gated white paper on the same topic offered up on LinkedIn. For now, I think we can say with some confidence that at least from a chief scientist’s point of view, they are not gathering market intelligence on cell and gene therapy solutions from TikTok.

As if your content, audience, and platform selection aren’t enough to keep you up at night, let’s factor in the desired outcomes of your content? What is the desired outcome that you want from that content piece? What do you want the chief scientist to do? Let me just say, you don’t have much time to get them to the dance…on time..

The Right Content + The Right Audience = The Possibility of Some Type of Action

At its most basic, fundamental level, you must fish where the fish are. Are we trying to cast a wide net? Sure, we are. But we’re also looking for a specific type of fish that might be interested in our bait. For starters, and this may seem silly, but you must ask yourself another pointed question, and that is, is your audience online? Are your decision-makers online? If so, in what capacity? What do they do when they are online? What types of content are being consumed by them or offered up to them? Do they engage with the content?

All of these answers can be partly arrived at by setting up social listening posts, which is highly recommended. At a high level, your listening posts will tell you IF they are out there, what are the content types being offered up to them, what’s working, and what’s being said. Listening posts, done correctly can give you a lay of the land of what’s possible. I highly suggest that you set this up and you always leave it on. Those insights will fuel your content ideas and your messaging.

When I was with Accenture, we had internal discussions amongst ourselves and with stakeholders every day with the primary goal of trying to understand what content would resonate with our target audiences (white papers, infographics, industry data, videos, our latest thought leadership, etc., etc.), where did they want to consume it (usually LinkedIn but not always), and when did they consume it (on the way into work, at lunch or on the way home). If you and your teams are NOT having those types of conversations, then you’re just yelling into the void.

It’s imperative to dig into your audience personas. i.e., the who, what, why, when, where, and how that comprises your target audience. Your audience IS online, you just have to find the sandbox that they’re playing in. In the past, we have found that LinkedIn user groups have been mildly successful from a targeting standpoint but even that can sometimes be an inexact science as well-, but it is worth trying.

For the sake of this discussion, we must assume that your target audience is online and is impatiently waiting for your creative message/post. You must understand that not all audiences are like you. In other words, there’s a high likelihood that they are NOT in front of a machine from 9:00 to 5:00 like you. Thus, you have very little time to get their attention. The window is half closed already. Thus, you must put yourself in their shoes. Give them what they want, how they want it, and in a manner that doesn’t waste their time.

Picture yourself as the customer. Where do you go for your information? Where do you go for market intelligence? How do you like your content packaged and delivered?

And thus, assuming you have done the work, it comes full circle. You found your audience and now you have to give them what they want.

What is good content?

In our example above we mentioned chief scientists who hung out on LinkedIn. Why not Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter/X? Simply put, LinkedIn has the best distribution of executives, chief scientists, lab managers, and essentially all of the target audiences we are interested in as a biotech organization.

So, if we’re now thinking about that particular piece of content that will resonate with our targeted audience on LinkedIn, then there are a couple things in play. Do we create long-form pieces of content? A video? An infographic? Or do we go with short-form, staccato-like pieces of content? What should the CTA or call to action be that can drive the user to a landing page? See, there are a lot of different variables there that can affect performance. But at the end of the day, let’s decide. Let’s commit to a strategy and consistently measure it. Let’s think about what we want to do here. We have a piece of content. We want to get the most eyeballs on it. We want to get the most qualified eyeballs on it, and we want them to act on it. Are these things possible? They are, but you have to put the work in to understand the lay of the land. It’s no different than scouting your opponent in sports, doing your homework so that you’re prepared the next day or practicing your scales in music.

The last that I’ll add is that you should “always be testing”. One thing that working in social media will always afford you is a front-row seat to people and organizations trying new things. You should do the same. Start with different types of creative, copy or calls to action. Test them against each other. See what resonates and what doesn’t. The proof will be in the metrics and the metrics will be your friend. Be data-driven. Cancel that, be data-obsessed. It will tell you whether you’re fishing where the fish are and whether the bait you have, is working. Now go forth and take what’s important and make it interesting, your chief scientists are waiting for you!

How to Navigate Social Media in an Era of Misinformation and Disinformation

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Posted on October 27, 2023 by marc meyer

I have a difficult job. Not like it threatens my life or heaven forbid, it involves manual labor, but aspects of it can certainly be a drag on my psyche, my energy, and my hope for humanity. At the very least, over the last seven years, my job has gotten progressively more challenging; and maybe challenging is a kinder more diplomatic word but suffice it to say, it has become at times, quite vexing. If you look up the word vexing, Merriam-Webster defines it as causing annoyance, frustration, or worry. My job is that, and more at times, as I work in social media.

Which is why I asked the golden child, Chat GPT, the following question:
How do people navigate social media in an era of misinformation and disinformation?

I wasn’t so much asking on my behalf as I was wondering how others, lay people if you will, tackle the day-to-day challenge of separating fact from fiction and beyond in social media.
What I got back as an answer was close to what I might advise organizations, companies, and people to do. However, what I’d like to do is add my two cents to whether it’s possible to actually execute on each bullet of Chat GPT’s response. So, let’s break it down.

Let’s start with Chat GPT’s overarching response to the initial question: “Navigating social media in an era of misinformation and disinformation requires critical thinking, digital literacy, and a cautious approach.”

I agree, but right out of the blocks I must openly ask three questions:

1) How many of us while consuming social media content critically think about what we are reading or viewing? Do you ever ask yourself if what you’re reading smells? Or are you good with whatever it is you just read or viewed?

2) Being digitally literate means what in today’s day and age? That’s such an all-encompassing blanket statement but I get it. We all know how to fire up a computer and “go” to a social platform but at that point, all bets are off on what happens next, and lastly,

3) How can consuming content and being cautious NOT be mutually exclusive? That being said, throwing caution to the wind starts with that first click within any social platform. Does it not?

Let’s continue. Here’s more of what Chat GPT supplied in italics with my running comments baked in.

• Verify Information: Always verify the information you come across, especially if it seems too sensational or questionable. Look for multiple credible sources to corroborate the information. In practice, you would think or hope that everyone would do this, especially today, but I can tell you unequivocally that few actually do. Opinions, facts, lies, hyperbole, and images are very much strange bedfellows and yet they are the malleable pillars that content creators rely on. It’s the fuel they need for their fires to roar.

• Check the Source: Examine the credibility of the source. Reputable news outlets, government agencies, and academic institutions are typically more reliable than unknown or biased sources. This is like the first bullet point but if your go-to source is not credible or if all you do is watch or listen to ONE source for your information and think that’s credible enough for you, then how would you know ever if something was fiction? And oh, by the way, the truth, is never in the middle.

• Fact-Check: Use fact-checking websites and tools to verify the accuracy of claims or news stories. Fact-checkers like Snopes, FactCheck.org, and PolitiFact can help separate fact from fiction. Who really does this?

• Watch for Red Flags: Be vigilant for red flags that suggest misinformation, such as misspellings, outrageous claims, or sensational headlines. I think we’re all guilty of this one, but it essentially comes down to two things, 1) If it’s too good to be true, then it probably isn’t-think Nigerian Kings and or 2) Common sense? …it’s not so common.

• Question Your Biases: Be aware of your own biases and how they might influence your perception of information. Try to approach content with an open mind. Not a chance. Most people believe that their beliefs, that their truths are the only beliefs that matter and everyone else has no idea what they are talking about.

• Limit Information Filters: Avoid the filter bubble by following diverse sources and viewpoints. This can help provide a more balanced perspective. What are the odds that someone watches a left-leaning network and a right-leaning network regularly?

• Educate Yourself: Invest time in improving your digital literacy. Learn about media literacy, critical thinking, and how social media algorithms work. This sounds like a great idea on paper but John and Jane Doe in Oklahoma ain’t got time to do that.

• Privacy Settings: Adjust your social media privacy settings to control the information you share and who can see it. I consider this to be something that a more seasoned user might do, but for the average user, or even the power user, muting oneself is not something that most prefer, nor does it prevent the consumption of or proliferation of misinformation.

• Avoid Sharing Unverified Information: Refrain from sharing content you haven’t verified. Sharing unverified information can inadvertently contribute to the spread of misinformation. “I don’t need to do any homework, I’ve been following this source for years, thus, I trust it…” Which leads us to,

• Report Misinformation: Many social media platforms have mechanisms for reporting false information. If you encounter fake news or misinformation, report it to the platform. No one is doing this. Why? How would they know what is fact or what is fiction? If it’s their “trusted source”, then that’s good enough for them.

• Educate Others: Help friends and family become more digitally literate by sharing resources and discussing the importance of critical thinking online. This sounds great in practice but…most people’s eyes glaze over when talking about critical thinking.

• Follow Experts and Fact-Checkers: On social media, follow experts in relevant fields and organizations dedicated to fact-checking and truth verification. Their content can be a valuable resource. A fantastic idea but who determines who an expert is? What is your criteria for deciding that an organization is dedicated to fact-checking? What is the experts’ credentials? I actually think that if you can identify someone who is non-biased you might be onto something. Good luck?

• Discern Satire and Parody: Understand the difference between satire or parody and actual news. Some satirical content may be mistaken for real information. Probably one of the more difficult things to do. Content these days is created so seamlessly and so effortlessly that discerning what is real and what is not can sometimes be virtually impossible. This is where the, “doing your homework” aspect of social comes into play.

• Use Critical Thinking: Apply critical thinking skills to assess the logic, evidence, and credibility of claims and arguments. Great idea but that’s no fun. Right?

• Stay Informed: Stay up to date with current events and developments to have a better context for evaluating information. Context is everything in social media, but understanding the context of something requires the ability to take one’s head out of the sand from time to time and look around. Take the temperature of the room from ALL parts of the room.

Ok, so a couple of things. First, did Chat GPT’s response nail it? Sort of, but to be honest, for the average user who might be searching for the right answer, this comes pretty close. For the power user though, was there anything in Chat GPT’s answer that was new? Not really. So it’s a push. I’ll give it a grade of C+/B-.

I know a lot of these bulleted points require some type of lift, which a majority of people will not do. But if you care about the veracity of the social content that you’re reading or consuming, then it behooves you to at least consider the content and the source simultaneously. In today’s climate of 24-second new cycles, obtaining completely unbiased and purely factual information from any (news) source, be it a social media post or not, is going to be challenging; as all sources are subject to some degree of bias or editorial perspective. Your quest, if you care, is to understand why the content you are reading, viewing or consuming, was put out there in the first place. If you understand the motive, you can understand the game.

How are Those 2022 Predictions Working Out?

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Posted on May 13, 2022 by marc meyer

Why do prediction posts have to be written at the end of the year? There are no hard fast rules as to when they officially have to go out. I suppose it’s just sexier if it’s before the start of a new year. In my case, it’s just been delayed because I’ve been sitting on them, waiting for them to happen. Actually, that’s not true, it’s just been a severe case of procrastination and I apologize. Suffice it to say, the guilts have driven me to finish this piece. I could probably have shortened this post up dramatically though by just saying that Tik-Tok will be THE platform of 2022, but what’s the fun in that? Pardon my buzzword bingo but let’s get a bit more… granular.

As 2021 dry-heaved to a thankful close we had no choice but to be optimistic in 2022. For most of the inhabitants of this earth, the last two years have been fraught with challenges that we never could have imagined. During that time, the one binding thread that kept us all on the same page, so to speak, was information. Both real and imagined.

With that said, I’ll start by going out on a relatively sturdy limb and say that social media, as a source for information, disinformation, and entertainment, in all its various shapes and forms, has been the absolute center of our global universe for the last five years.

What has 2022 brought to us all? Simply put, more of more. More trials and more tribulations. From the standpoint of a traditional predictions piece, it really was a no-brainer for me to say or write that social media was going to continue to be the heartbeat of chaos and reason and the pulse of saints and sinners. Absolutely. The volatility of it all, every platform buzzing, converging all at once, 24/7, the noise, it’s all still there.

I know that’s not a prediction as much as it’s me being the observer of the obvious, but let’s continue.

If you’re wondering who receives thank-you cards for social media’s newfound prominence in our daily collective conversation, be sure to include Covid, politics, the war in Ukraine, and inflation; and while you’re at it, write out a few more for a lot more Covid and a lot more politics.

For those that say they don’t pay attention to social. I’m going to have to call you out on that. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but let’s be real, it’s really hard to avoid avoiding it. It is virtually impossible to avoid rubbing bumpers with social media on a day-in and day-out basis. It’s not just Twitter and Facebook anymore either. It’s Snap, Reddit, Instagram, Twitch, Tik-Tok, We-Chat, and What’s App, in addition to a host of newcomers such as GETTR, Discord, Truth Social, and Clubhouse.

In fact, chances are, on any given day, a headline that you see in your email, or online, or in ‘your feed”, was fueled by social and you may not even know it. As hard as it may seem to fathom, social media is the engine that drives the world’s collective opinion. Right or wrong, good or bad, social media sits there daily waiting for you and if you don’t see “it” that day, don’t worry, they’ll be more tomorrow. Social resets every day.

With that said, let’s focus on social media’s impact in a B2B world. It’s just as volatile and equally as uncertain for those in the B2C space, but for those trying to make a buck, it’s never been more unpredictable and yet still so promising.

Four+ months in, the stone-cold reality in 2022 is that the business world needs social media. It’s a necessary evil. You can’t not do it. Whether you and your teams know what you’re doing in social media will always be debatable, but business teams must embrace it from an overarching Comms POV. In 2022, NOT utilizing social media in any capacity is probably the reddest of flags and biggest of mistakes. Specifically, for B2B, social media is a complicated love/hate relationship. It always has been. With that in mind, what does the future hold for B2B’ers? What’s in store for the remaining 7 months?

Let’s start with this. 2022 will be the year in which we all think we know what an algorithm is and does even though we don’t actually know what it is and what it does.

The user or consumer or whatever it is that we want to call ourselves, is getting smarter. We know we are the heart of the conversation, as it has always been and always should be; the only difference is we know “what’s up” now more than ever. In other words, we’re a little bit smarter and a little bit savvier on how this social media thing works.

The question though is, do the social platforms really care about us the user or us, the data source? They better care because 2022 could also be the year of the empowered user.

In no particular order here are a few other 2022 social media predictions I had written about prior to the new year in which I thought we’d see a lot of discussions about:

2022 will be the year that trust becomes the currency of choice in social. What does that mean? How is that defined? It’s simple. Users speak with their actions and their words. What does The Street care about when it comes to valuations for social platforms? It’s all about daily active users or DAUs and monthly active users or MAUs. Namely, it’s all about a platform’s ability to attract and retain users over time. However, what we need to see this year and beyond is an elevation of understanding and acknowledgment of what consumers expect. They can’t regain what they’ve never had. Have you ever wondered why these platforms bury their EULAs, their T’s and C’s and their privacy statements? Because if the user actually took the time to read and understand what they were agreeing to in order to “use” the platform, they would never check that yes box.
Strategy and tactics will take a back seat to community and conversation in 2022. The former will still lead to the promised land, i.e. conversions and leads, but the value of the latter will never be higher. At the end of the day, social media is still a transactional, arrangement between strangers but to bolster and validate Seth Godin’s 2008 book, Tribes, everyone has a tribe and, thus the strength and growth of communities will continue to deliver on that notion.
The proliferation of apps and tools for creative purposes skyrockets in 2022. Everyone is a creator even if they are not creative and thus teaching a man to fish has never been more attainable. Folding creative apps into social media is no different from peanut butter teaming up with jelly. It’s a natural fit.
Brands finally get it in 2022 that the key to great social media engagement is telling real stories. Don’t talk at me, talk with me. You can look no further than the explosion of video. People love stories about real people and about real things. According to Statista, US residents spend an average of 323 minutes per week watching video content – on mobile phones alone! Rubber, meet the road.
Social and search continue to be drivers of conversation and commerce in 2022. This isn’t as much a prediction as it is an acknowledgment that people search whether it’s via Google or via Facebook. They also use both for research, which can then drive consideration, which in turn can drive a commerce-type activity, eventually. My point? Social and search are inextricably joined at the hip.
The value of how “to do” social “right” for brands and businesses becomes non-negotiable in 2022. In addition to this, the business value of social media can never be underestimated and thus the emphasis on brands getting it right becomes an unavoidable focal point. There’s an old saying, “you never get a second chance at a first impression,” which could not be more accurate when it comes to social. Brands are under a microscope and social media, done right, can give them an opportunity to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers, stakeholders, and shareholders.

In conclusion, I’d venture that these “predictions” could be used next year to a certain extent and even the year after. The takeaway is that users or consumers are getting smarter in how they use and “see” social media. They’re getting savvier if not more comfortable. Unfiltered conversations are becoming a driving central force and a more accepted theme on social platforms, and brands have never been more vulnerable to fact and fiction, and yet, they’ve never had a more golden opportunity to get it right or fail miserably. The question is, do they want the user to decide? We’ll see in 2023.

Content-The Struggle is Real

Posted on August 9, 2019 by marc meyer

The short definition of a content strategist, is essentially the person who is charged with keeping the company interesting. Of course the longer definition has to do with content calendars and working with agencies and teams and departments and writers and designers. The reality is that yesterday’s content is gone, today’s will last until about 9 pm tonight and tomorrow is a new day.

The content struggle is real because people don’t want to read anymore. Let’s face it, it’s all about the Gram, and it’s a Gram world and we’re all just living in it. Go look at your metrics or anyone’s metrics, the best stuff? It’s video. Let’s talk about the monolith in the room, Facebook, which has the largest audience of any social network at more than 2.07 billion monthly active users. Did you know that around 100 million hours of video are watched every day on Facebook? Or that more than 250 billion photos have been uploaded to Facebook? That equates to 350 million photos per day. See my point? See what the content strategist is competing with every single day? Content resets every day and UGC (User generated content) is the clear winner.

The overall point to remember about Facebook is that people come to share, to be distracted and to be entertained. In other words, if your plan as a brand is to share cat videos, you’ve got a shot.. For example, the “How to wrap your cat for Christmas 101” video, has gotten more than 100 million views and over a 1 million shares. That’s what you’re dealing with. We have become visual animals.

It is no surprise that ‘32% of marketers say visual images are the most important form of content for their business,’ and why Instagram has such a high number of engagement.

That’s right, the users, their behavior, and social media sites as a whole have evolved. The real question though is, have brands evolved along with the social platforms? Social media has become such a critical part of business growth, that it can make or break the future of your organization. Getting it right as a channel component in your marketing mix is tantamount to driving successful brand awareness and consideration. To underestimate it’s power and effectiveness is akin to saying that you don’t care what your customers do even though I’m going to show you what they do, how they do it and what they say and what they say about you…

The pace at which social media has evolved is such that most marketers and consumers still don’t fully grasp the fundamental shift it’s created in the way we do business. That being said, it comes down to content and it comes down to compelling content. Visual content. Content that engages. Content that entertains. Cat videos… At the end of the day, what you say can get lost if it’s behind something or supported by something that has ZERO perceived value (or entertainment) by the user.

As soon as marketers realize that social media is a zero sum game in which the push to gain our attention will be simultaneously negated and augmented by the push to divert our attention, they’ll start to understand the strategic and tactical implications of creating content that lasts longer than 24 hours.

It’s Time to Rethink Facebook

Posted on January 25, 2019 by marc meyer

You’re thinking of leaving Facebook. I’m thinking of leaving Facebook. You want to leave because you feel like your data is not safe, the customer experience is not what it used to be and you’re creeped out by the contextual advertising and oh yea, the political vitriol. It may be time to evaluate the value of your relationship with Facebook.

You feel this way because in September of 2018 there was a data breach that affected 50 million users, and you might have been one of them. That’s a legit reason. Then there was the Cambridge Analytica scandal. You know, the one in which the political consulting firm connected to the Trump campaign, harvested the sensitive data of nearly 87 million Facebook users without their explicit permission, and then did something with it; but you’re not sure what “it” is. I’m not either, but that’s a pretty good reason to leave too.. And then there’s that whole contextual advertising thing taking place on the social network. You search for sunglasses and low and behold your Facebook pages are filled with Ray Ban ads. It IS creepy, especially when we start to fold AI into the mix (Are they listening to me?)

Regardless of your level of discontent, chances are you might be looking around and wondering out loud, is there something better? If you’re in the United States and you’re between the ages of 25 and 34, you’re wondering out loud the most, as this group has the most Facebook users at 50 million+. In Europe, the feeling is no less different. creating the global sense that Facebook users need more than what Facebook is giving. Or is it what they are taking? Depends on who you’re talking to.

The crux of the issue isn’t that you want to leave Facebook just because of the data breaches, the contextual advertising and the never-ending political finger pointing. The real raison d’être could be that you just don’t like the user experience anymore. I know I don’t. It has grown stale and repetitive. In fact, I’m willing to bet that you’ve grown weary of seeing the same people posting over and over about the same things, the same dialogue, over and over and over again. You like them as people for the most part but now they’re getting on your nerves. Just walk away you’re told, don’t log on. You try, but Facebook is everyone’s favorite dumpster fire, train wreck, car wreck, church choir, food-court, public drunk, on full display. You can’t turn away. It’s a voyeur’s delight.

Just for some perspective, do you know how many of the 2.2 billion users that Facebook has, have bailed due to the data breach? A lot. in some cases, upwards of 40% have decided to take “a break” from the social network. So my question is this. Has Facebook lost the trust of its core users or the fringe users? Forty percent is a lot.

Data breaches aside, and for some additional perspective, what do users like about the Facebook UX? For some, it’s graphic, it’s visual and it’s conversational. For others, it’s all about the connective aspect of the platform and the ability to “lurk” on what’s occurring in other peoples’ lives. Still some like the fact that the barrier of entry into the collective pulse of what is current, is low and seamless. The graphical layout is semi-easy on the eyes and the browsing experience is uber simple and it’s content rich. For many, it has replaced what AOL used to be to the masses-an internet portal into the world around us, except with more of a direct lifeline to our friends, their friends, our families, our likes and of course our dislikes. But Facebook is flawed.

As AOL eventually became overrun by “better” alternatives and we all became pretty weary of another AOL disc in the mail, this too shall pass with Facebook. Regardless of the fact that there are 2 billion active users on the social network, we will move on to something newer and shinier. It’s inevitable and the numbers are slowly starting to say the same thing.

At its peak, AOL had over 35 million active users, and though those numbers pale in comparison to Facebook, those were really big numbers back then. However, if you had told those 35 million users that eventually AOL would be deemed irrelevant in less than 10 years, they might have laughed. So what is currently out there that might replace Facebook? Here’s a list of contenders/pretenders “other” than Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Snap, in no particular order. Peruse them in depth at your leisure. I don’t endorse them, I just found them.

So what will it take for these networks, or a future network to succeed? Will it be a data thing? A privacy thing? Will it be something in which we pay to play? In my opinion, it’s going to take something that is not Facebook in the least bit. Something that will be completely different and more experiential. Perhaps it’s VR or AR based. It will be equivalent of the Model T versus the horse. When Facebook came on the scene, there was nothing like it. There were things like it already such as MySpace and or Friendster, but we had seen nothing quite like it.

Clearly social networking and social networks fill a niche and a need to communicate, to share, to emote and to vent, but at what cost? When does Facebook jump the shark?

When was the Customer Experience ever NOT a Priority?

Posted on January 21, 2019 by marc meyer

I have a hard time processing statements like this:
“Meeting the expectations of today’s consumer is tricky business.” These are really common types of statements in today’s digital centric, retail world and I’ve been seeing them a lot over the last couple of years. It’s as if the retail customer experience has changed. I mean like really changed. Since the dawn of retail time, A product is sold and a product is bought. If the retailer was nice to you, it was a plus. If the retailer knew your name, even better. If the product was good, that’s great. If the product was great, even better. If the product is inferior, then all bets are off. If the retailer, could care less, then consumers spoke with their dollars and their feet.

That has not changed. Even today.

What has changed is the ability to learn more about the customer. What hasn’t changed is the way you’re supposed to treat the customer. What hasn’t changed is giving the customer a great product or service. Why is this any different today than it was a hundred years ago? Has technology caused a greater divide in the customer experience? Maybe. I thought it was to close the chasm that was brought on by competition and choices. The thinking was that because marketers were now armed with lots of data there would now be a more harmonious relationship. A better customer experience.

Marketers have become so obsessed with tools and resources that drive sales, that they have forgotten about, wait for it, the customer and the experience. This is not a difficult thing. Sometimes I think that marketing stacks get so high that marketers and retailers can’t see the customer that’s standing behind them. To hear companies state that they are now, more than ever, going to start focusing on the customer, just baffles me. When did this change and why did it ever? Why are we making it so difficult?

Why Social Media Will Challenge Marketers in 2019

Posted on January 17, 2019 by marc meyer

What are people thinking? What were they thinking? Who’s doing the thinking? Why are they thinking that? In 2007 when I joined Twitter, those were not front of mind questions for those of us using the social network for the first time. In 2019? That’s exactly why we go to Twitter. It’s a pulse check.

In 2007, when I joined Facebook, it was all about the one degree of separation between you, and who you knew. Now it’s about so many “other” things besides you and yet, in 2019, it still comes back to you, particularly when we have to synthesize the latest batch of Facebook data privacy breaches. Clearly, this is not your mother’s Facebook.

As most marketers know by now, we are pretty far removed from “the what” and “the why” these platforms were built for in the first place. The way social networks are utilized now both from a marketing standpoint and a UX standpoint, has undergone an almost 360 degree change since those early years. They are nearly unrecognizable. Those that were there in the early days, will be the first to admit that indeed, the times have changed for Twitter. Couple that with how Linkedin is now being used on an every-day basis, the evolution of Instagram, and the rapid adoption of Snap, and the choices and the ways that consumers want to communicate, have never been as diverse and complex.

In my opinion as soon as marketers came to the social media party en masse, the dynamics changed forever. People often say that it’s the users who determine how a social network is used, and that might be true, but it’s the marketers who determine how a social network is consumed. Here’s the best way I can put it and this isn’t far off either. Let’s say you and some friends go to this awesome club in a perfect location, it has unreal musical performances, cool people abound, chill atmosphere, great unique food that works, real comfortable seating, never crowded, killer beer list, etc etc. OK, you get the picture. Now let’s say a promoter takes over, or marketing steps up and in. The word is out on the street. If the marketers were any good, the place is overrun with new people. Lot’s of people. Lot’s of different people with different tastes, opinions, needs and wants. The club now has a choice. Does it want to stay that cool hip joint that only the cool hip people know about? Or does is want to grow, expand and thrive? It has to adapt or die, embrace change or lose relevancy, right?

The club will never be the same for the early adopters. In name, it’s still the club, but the old guard will always gripe about the way it used to be, and the new guard just drowns them out because this is the way it is now. Sound like a familiar story?

The new club fits the needs and demands of its most ardent and current users. It is still relevant today because of its location. So as things around it evolve, it too must evolve. As such, those that go there, change, adapt and or move on.

That’s the current state of social networks. they’ve changed not only for those that built them but also for those that were there in the very beginning and fell in love with the naked conversations that were plentiful. Has it changed for marketers and advertisers? Absolutely. Is it just as valuable to marketers now as it was then? Absolutely. Just different, more diverse and more complex. Data notwithstanding, today’s social media user is a lot more hip and comfortable on the platforms in which they hang.

Through their maturity, or immaturity, depending on how you want to look at the current list of dominant social networks, it’s become fairly evident that each channel has evolved into what they are and what they are going to be. The challenge for the user, whether they are a marketer or not, is to really understand the nuances of what is happening on each network. Step back and really look at how they are used. There is a rhythm to each, and in order to assimilate or merge into this non-stop, virtual stream of oncoming traffic, the tactics that are used to thrive and survive, have to be different.

That’s what is changing from network to network. How you post, what you post, what you say and how you say it, it’s different and it has to be different. This includes the paid game. Social networks have evolved and or devolved depending on how you use them. For millennials, the levels of transparency can sometimes be frightening to Gen X, Gen Y, and Boomers. For them, it’s akin to using snow tires in the summer or deciding to pop and lock in the middle of an upscale restaurant. They wouldn’t do it but for marketers the game is all about impressions, reach, engagement and conversions. So everything is considered. The bar has been raised to ridiculous heights in 2019 and the goal is to grab attention and or “get noticed” or “go viral,” if so, go for it, but know this, it’s not sustainable.

The complexity of our world and our society dictate that we become more flexible. This extends to how we use social networks. For marketers to thrive, they have to quit assuming that just because they know your name, that that allows them to cop a feel anytime they want. This is where analytics can only get you so far. To thrive in 2019 in social media, marketers have to possess equal amount of understanding networks, people, data, empathy, systems and what the end game is or should be.

In closing, I’ll use this last analogy. Picture social networks as the events at a track meet. A sprinter cannot run the distance races. The pole vaulter isn’t going to throw the shot put. Each race is different and requires different types of people. Each race requires a unique set of tactics, speed, strength, and or endurance. The ultimate goal though is to win but you have to train. Though you might win, coming in second or third isn’t so bad. You are measured, you are benchmarked and then you try again. By season’s end, you should be at your peak and be ready to compete, challenge and hopefully win. Better tools, better coaches, better conditions, equipment, they all factor in. But sometimes, someone comes out of nowhere and can shock the world. It can happen. It has happened. We’ll just have to see. Until then, embrace the change and stay relevant in 2019 by keeping your eyes and ears open and knowing that your ability to pivot will serve you and your org well.

The Many Faces of Digital Influence

Posted on April 12, 2018 by marc meyer

I’ve been in the search and social media space long enough to know that without a doubt the two most vexing topics year in and year out are how best to leverage a brands presence in social media and how to engage with influencers. In my opinion, influence in social can have many faces. The face we see the most isn’t an influencer but what I like to call a “frequencer.” This person isn’t as much a thought leader as they are someone who pushes out content like they’re a bot. In fact, they just might be a bot, but what we need to stop doing is calling them an influencer and relying on their influence to help our brand. There’s a better way. You see at the end of the day, it’s all about eyeballs and traffic. If it’s “influence” that drives them, then so be it.

Look Beyond the Numbers

If we look at Twitter for example, what does 600,000 tweets mean to you? Does that mean influence? What are they influencing? How to schedule a post or a tweet 100x a day? They aren’t influencers, they’re conduits of someone else’s information. They’re facilitators of someone else’s thoughts. When do they have time to take a meeting? When do they have time to formulate their own POV?

A thought leader, in my opinion, is sharing their thoughts, their opinions, their fears, their predictions and their point of views on a topic or discipline that they’re deeply familiar with in a space that they’re deeply tethered to. These are people that drive traffic.

Recently Onalytica came out with their Top 100 Influencers in digital transformation, a space that I am deeply familiar with. I don’t necessarily consider myself an influencer in the space, but I am acutely aware of what is happening in the space, who the players are, who the companies are, and who the wannabe influencers are.

If we are going to determine influence by frequency and ‘hashtagery’, then the Onalytica lists are spot on. If we were going to base it on thought leadership and actual engagement, then you’d have to pare the lists down by half, maybe more. This isn’t an indictment on Onalytica or those that are on the list as much as it is a suggestion to brands and those that manage social media at the highest levels, to understand more of what and who you’re measuring. Or better yet, what the end game is.

Brands and orgs can not get caught up in an equation that looks something like this:

Visibility x Frequency = Authority

Readers have to take the content that is pushed out on all social platforms and do the following: Consider the source, consider why it’s being shared, consider what the end game might be, and then determine its value to you and your org. At the end of the day, give me the thought leader, not the influencer.

The Key to Success in Enterprise Social Media

Posted on January 31, 2018 by marc meyer

Lately, I’ve been thinking way too much about organic B2B social media marketing. For obvious reasons, it’s where I play and have played for the last eight years. In that time, I’ve worked for some of the largest companies in the world and If you were to ask me what keeps me up at night it would vacillate between how can I do more with the tools and resources I have available to me and what am I missing? This is the great struggle for the enterprise in social media. Where does it fit? Does it fit?

I can tell you answering any of these questions requires some soul searching. The bottom line is that creating a solid, measurable, B2B social media strategy is extremely difficult, and to say that the enterprise just doesn’t have a clue, though it makes for great copy, just isn’t true. They know what’s up, to a degree. Whatever their degree of understanding is, the stark reality is that the pressure is on every CMO to make something of the potential that social media might offer the organization.

Let’s talk about business value

That clock you hear in your cube at the office? That’s for your benefit. It’s ticking and you need to figure out real quick where social media fits within your org. I’m of the opinion that social has to be part of any org; and where the rubber meets the road is the understanding or lack of understanding of those that are entrusted with managing it. My quick and dirty argument is that if you don’t use social then what are you going to do?

But let’s back up. You see, the challenge in your organization as it is in every other B2B organization, is that solving for X in social media, boils down to closing the chasm between conversations and conversions. It’s brutal at the B2B level.

Conversions in social media in general, in the purest sense of the word, can be few and very far between. But the same goes for conversations. Can we get people to click on content? Yes. Can we get people to talk about that content? Not really. We can get them to like, share and retweet but those are passive activities. They’re easy and lazy forms of what everyone defines as engagement. Now snap B2B on top of that. Uh-oh.

To put this in terms we can all relate to. A home run in B2B social media from an engagement standpoint for some companies might be 1%. That’s right,1%.

Time to temper those expectations or time to innovate.

I have a suggestion though. Maybe we need to look at B2B social media metrics differently and perhaps weight them differently. If you can get the data right, you can get the analytics right, right? Maybe I’m suggesting that conversations at the the B2B level, are so tough to come by, that maybe we need to measure them differently? Quit looking at them through a B2C lens.

Let’s simplify this. Would you agree that essentially, B2B marketers, are relying on a definition of engagement that a) really doesn’t mean much anymore in social media and b) shouldn’t apply to them? One could argue on behalf of both points.

The way engagement is and has been measured has been fairly consistent from the very beginning, but that doesn’t mean it’s right. What I’m really saying is that in place of more quantifiable metrics, the best that we have or the best that is presented to us as metrics by various tools and platforms, is how we’re measuring success. Likes, loves, mentions, favorites, follows, shares. expands and clickthroughs are our barometers for success in social media. Those are good but we need more, we need better.

For myself, I look at all of those things the same way, they’re good metrics and they give me a glimpse of something, a taste of something, a start, a start to something, something that could turn into something more. That’s it. It’s a pulse and it might be the closest we can get to a customer, client, prospect or partner, short of being with them in the flesh; and that’s pretty damn compelling. However, if we want to move the needle, then we need to do a better job of measuring customer engagement. Why? We need a better snapshot of who does what with our content. Should I care, that you took a millisecond to share, like or re-tweet a piece of my content? Not really, but if I know more about you. then maybe I can gauge and measure your INTENT.

You’re only as good as your content

The driving force behind this will be content. Content is driving everything. Great content, bad content, middle of the road content. All of it, in all its many different forms, is driving e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g…. We call it content, but back in the day it was a newspaper insert, a magazine ad, a radio spot, a 30 second commercial on TV. The form has changed but not the function. Get our attention.

What’s consistently baked into that content? A brands message. The point of that message? Buy our stuff. And Social media? What’s its form? What’s its function? Buy our stuff. The difference between the old and the new, social can be a more direct conduit to the customer. The problem? One voice to two ears. Multiply that exponentially and what do you get? A funnel with noise.

Social media marketer doesn’t mean social media analytics guru

If we can’t get comfortable with a firm definition of engagement where the only thing that matters is, if there is some type of conversion behind it, then we need to at least get a better idea of who our followers are; or who is most engaged with our stuff. The keys will be your content and how your audience is engaging with it.

The bottom line will be the data that’s derived from your content. Quality data, not just likes and mentions. Once we have the data, then we can make better decisions and informed decisions on what’s working, what’s not and how we’re going to reach those that matter. I’d also like to suggest that having a robust and separate social media analytics practice would be one of the wisest investments the enterprise could have going forward. Translation: Just because you might be a CMO or a director, doesn’t mean you’re a data scientist. Maybe you are but in my opinion, it’s the only way the enterprise is going to move the needle forward in 2018 with social media. Take the analytics side of the equation seriously and fund it properly.

With social media and its various platforms we do what we do and it is what it is; and because of that, you can do anything, try anything and say anything. For brands, that’s the great potential.