When an individual representing Chrysler tweeted a derogatory remark about Detroit, a city Chrysler is invested in promoting, there was someone to fire, and there was an agency to let go.

Still, at the end of the day, the public holds the brand itself responsible for its social media streams. Chrysler will take the brunt of the impact.

As a result of the controversy, social media marketing takes a bit of a beating, as well.

Many CEO’s remain unconvinced about the power of social media. When their fears are played out by another brand, they feel justified in remaining on the sidelines. They may permit a defensive posture in their efforts – fielding customer complaints, responding to product criticisms – but they also may believe they have good reason not to engage fully.

Unfortunately, if brands fail to claim their spaces now in social media networks, they will regret it. Their competitors will become skilled with owned media while they remain inept. Instead of allowing fear to limit opportunities in social media, we believe the right processes and tools can help companies not only survive current trends but flourish in them.

At Media Logic, we use Zeitgeist & Coffee, a real-time marketing collaboration and management platform to develop ideas, assign, approve and publish content and engage in sincere two-way conversations with audiences in social media networks. It positions companies to deliver marketing for a social world.

Much of the talk surrounding the Chrysler gaffe focuses on policy. While guidelines are very important, they mean little without the processes and tools to support them. Zeitgeist & Coffee folds our input as an agency into the workflow of the company, while integrating the company’s own marketing protocol.

Yesterday’s AdvertisingAge article, “What Lurks Behind Chrysler’s F-bomb? Social-Media Turf War,” describes battles behind the scenes at many companies: Which department is responsible for social media? A collaborative process gives everyone ownership.

First, let me take you back some twenty months when I first ventured into my personal Twitter account, Facebook and LinkedIn pages. I readily entered this new world with just enough activity to stay visible and gain practical, user experience: posting to walls, liking, uploading, commenting, joining brand communities and dabbling in a FB apps (“What should your parents have named you?” or “Who were you in a past life?”). I certainly made my foray in a way that I would now characterize as flirting with social media platforms, kind of toying with an online social life.

In fact, I have a distinct recollection of a conversation with my same-generation friend, Sally, “Yes, I’m on Facebook and Twitter….have to be as a marketer…”  Sally is a committed blogger with strong opinions and impressive writing skills. She sees no difference between online versus offline life. She has a high level of connectivity, tweeting and re-tweeting, re-publishing, point/counterpointing, and is constantly engaged. I, on the other hand, approach social media and my online life as an academic exercise, a giant science experiment, somewhat detached and cerebral.

It took an insightful blog post from Alexandra Samuel to shift my perspective. And, in the process, help make me a better modern marketer.

In essence, Ms. Samuel divides the world into two camps – those whose reality seamlessly encompasses offline/online life and those who live a dual existence of In Real Life (IRL) versus online. She observes that a segment of the population feels moved to apologize for their online lives, a statement that prompted my “aha” moment. Ms Samuel writes:

….it’s our decision — individually and collectively — to separate the Internet from the context, norms and experience that guide human behavior. It’s our decision to engage in online interaction as if it were fundamentally different from offline conversation. It’s our decision to label the Internet as something — anything! — other than real life.

The author articulates a set of guidelines designed to encourage us to “start living in the 21^st century reality….to acknowledge online life as real, and [then] the Internet’s transformative potential opens up.” I find her advice, excerpted below, worth remembering in the pursuit of not only personal authenticity but also authentic marketing:

• When you focus on creating real meaning with your time online, your online footprint makes a deeper impression.
• When you treat your online attention as a real resource, you invest your attention in the sites that reflect your values, helping those sites grow.
• When you spend your online time on what really matters to you, you experience your time online as an authentic reflection of your values.
• When you embrace online conversations as real, you imbue them with the power to change how you and others think and feel.
• When you talk honestly about the real joys and frustrations of the Internet, you can stop apologizing for your life online.

To take Samuel’s guidelines and extend them to a modern marketing mindset may require a shift in thinking. However social media is, after all, no different than traditional marketing in one fundamental way: great advertising and direct response is created by those who have a pre-requisite beyond professional skills, that is, a personal and emotional connection — as a consumer not a creator.

At Media Logic, as early believers, we’ve had a head-start on moving past the intellectualization stage to view online/offline interaction and marketing seamlessly and agnostically. This perspective has allowed us to work with clients from diverse sectors – Financial Services, B2B, Retail, Healthcare – wherever they fall on the continuum and consistently extend the boundaries of what our clients think is possible.

I’ll leave you with a final thought from Alexandra Samuel “all it takes is the decision to treat your online existence seriously, honestly, and attentively and you will find the internet is RLT (Real Life Too).”  Great advice for people and marketers too!

So, it’s no surprise that we were recently told, “We want some of that Old Spice Guy stuff,” no less than four times, in a recent meeting with a company looking for a b2b social media strategy to capture some OSG-type magic.

It’s no wonder that companies want to capture the stuff of Old Spice. This week, Adweek published results that Old Spice sales have been on a steady double-digit uptake since introduction of its bravado-steeped manly man TV campaign featuring Isaiah Mustafa; and in the last month, its social campaign pushed the sales increase into the three-digit zone.

Watching this campaign unfold and peeking behind the (shower) curtain at how it was pulled-off, we’d say that the success of the OSG campaign involved four key criteria:

• The breakthrough social campaign embraced, didn’t seek to reinvent, the heritage of the brand
• It pushed the envelope, taking a familiar persona to the next level, ever expanding opportunities to converse
• It delivered its audience and  its audience’s main influencer something to talk about
• It delivers on the promise of the brand

Old Spice Guy knows how to get on his horse and sell it. No difference there between consumer and b2b marketing. It all goes back to marketing basics — know what’s important to your customers, find out where they are talking about it, give them something relevant to talk about, and be able to communicate how your strengths map to what they want – in the time and places where they are talking.

Want some OSG magic? Find your horse and get on it … just be sure that you know how to ride it. And if you’re not sure where to find your horse or how to ride, maybe it’s time you speak with us.

Upon entering the store it was clear that the interior had been completely overhauled since my last visit. They did a really nice job. It was as if Firestone decided to tap the modern marketing ethos – facilitate conversation and establish authenticity – as their design inspiration.

Most notably, the counter has been removed. Instead of constructing a three-foot-tall barrier between customers and employees, the new design includes a handful of high tables or stations where interaction and dialogue is intended to take place. This improvement immediately changes the purchasing dynamic for me. I no longer expect the I place order/you tell me what to buy/I buy because I don’t know any better/I leave dynamic. By simply removing the counter and adding the “conversation stations,” the employees feel more like advisors or guides; like they are there to actually help consumers, not simply take their money.

There is a computer at each station but, instead of shielding me from the screen, the employee turns the screen my way so that we share in its viewing as we scroll through product options. It provides a sense of transparency. I don’t feel as though this guy is going to try and sell me the most expensive set of wiper blades, but the wiper blades that best suit my needs.

So in addition to picking up some new wiper blades, my jaunt to Firestone helped to reinforce – through a surprisingly pleasant retail experience – the principles of conversation-centric marketing:

• Offer the consumer more control
• Engage in a conversation
• Be authentic and transparent

The popularity of the app gave rise to last week’s first annual Foursquare Day, the first globally recognized grass-roots celebration of the power of social media. Indeed, it was the power of social media that took Foursquare Day from being a simple idea to an actual live event: One day, an ordinary Foursquare user named Nate Bonilla-Warford had an interesting thought – why not celebrate the app on April 16 (reason being that four-squared equals 16), and have everyone “check in” to it on that day? He floated the idea around online, and it took off through the social web. It eventually caught the eye of Foursquare employees, who liked it, created an official 4sqDay badge, and set up their own party to join in the celebration with their users.

I was lucky enough to have received an invitation to join in the festivities. While I was there, I got to meet co-founder and CEO Dennis Crowley (who had time to snap a quick picture with me). The party drew quite the crowd, and featured Hollywood A-listers like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, as well as big names in media and tech, like Digg CEO Kevin Rose. But the best part about Foursquare Day was that among the hundreds of party attendees were many normal, everyday Foursquare users – just like me.

And that’s the beauty of Foursquare – it knows what makes its brand tick. It recognizes that its success rests in the hands of its users, without whom there would have never been a Foursquare Day. The truth is that conversations are taking place every day through Foursquare, and the company has chosen to join in, have fun, and celebrate not with a VIP-only who’s who list, but with the people who check in at their local Starbucks on their way to work every morning.

Blackshaw does a wonderful job highlighting the dualities and absurdities (not to mention clichés) that emerge in any discussion of social ownership. I think these dualities emerge because what we have in social is one of those “duck/rabbit” or “vase/face” optical illusions which delight and frustrate us because, although we can see both things easily, our brains won’t allow us to see both at the same time. “It’s a duck! It’s a rabbit! It’s a duck!”

It’s the same with social.

Looked at one way, the “duck” way, social is the sum of social promotions – the games, viral videos and contests designed to trigger sharing. Ownership of the “duck” is a pretty easy call … it’s the marketing department plus the marketing department’s professional service partners (its “digital agencies” or whatever).

Looked at another way, the “rabbit” way, social is something entirely different. It is not a set of channels or promotions. It is a toolset, completely under individual user control, that allows us to connect selectively with the people, news and information sources and assistive technologies (like search) that we trust. We – both individuals and businesses – customize and use this toolset to make sense of, and fully exploit, the fire hose of information that pours into our lives and our businesses.

Questions of ownership of the “rabbit” generally spiral into infinities. It’s everyone. It’s no one.

But maybe it is not about ownership, exactly, but more the path of least resistance, or better yet: path of greatest value.

Blackshaw writes, “In my experience, the leader who gets the best (and most inclusive) listening dashboard or radar in place quickly accrues the most organizational legitimacy. Listening pipes, after all, feed many mouths and can drive unity around a common purpose.”

Our experience with Zeitgeist & Coffee shows us that while the marketing department cannot “own” the social “rabbit” (any more than it can own the telephone or people’s private conversations); it can rather quickly become kind of a super-smart “switchboard operator.” Using Z&C, marketing departments, in partnership with us, can confidently and productively connect all the departments within their organization to their respective “networks of trust” – key stakeholders, influencers, customers, and, of course friends and fans (both current and future).

And it gets better yet.

We have found that deploying Z&C toward the goal of creating content for social channels quickly leads to the development of “silo-piercing” circles of collaboration. These circles of collaboration then become entities of independent value, that empower marketing departments to become central to corporate strategy through the process of rationalizing, managing and extracting full value from the direct daily conversations that now take place between organizations and their customers.

In a recent Smashing Magazine article, contributor Cameron Chapman talked about mapping real-world community planning principles to online communities. And when you think about it, this concept makes a lot of sense. By finding ways to convey the qualities of thriving real-world communities to the digital world, we can begin to enhance experiences in the social web.

Let’s consider this real-world analogy: you’re at a bar, and you want to strike up a conversation with the person next to you. You might begin by introducing yourself with your name… but you’re probably not going to announce your email address, mailing address, phone number, etc. If you were required to do that, chances are you wouldn’t bother starting the conversation at all. Now translate this logic to blogs: why would you ask a casual visitor to fill out a lengthy registration form just to leave a comment? Same as in the bar scene, the more conversation barriers you put up, the fewer social interactions you’ll have.

In most real-world communities, people instinctively know where to find social interaction. That’s because communities are built around common areas like parks, promenades, “Main Streets” and city centers – areas to congregate and circulate.  The same blueprint can (and should) be applied to online communities: if you want people to be able to locate and participate in conversations with your company, start by making sure it’s easily findable and accessible. Next, expose user-contributed content in prominent areas throughout the site. For example, the Media Logic web site features our latest blog posts right on the home page, as well as topical articles on every page of the site. This practice of featuring tweets, forum posts, and other user-generated content in highly-visible web destinations can greatly improve participation. In addition, making community resources available throughout your web site reinforces the value of conversation as a core component to your business.

Placing social media at the core of a business can be a daunting proposition – “What will people say?” “How do I encourage participation?” “How will I manage the conversations?” Granted, there are some risks associated with opening up to your prospects and customers. But tapping the power of social media for collaboration and conversation will reap rewards far greater than the risks. By applying lessons from real-world community planning to conversation-centric marketing strategy, companies can make great strides in earning trust, building brand communities and unlocking the potential of social business.

Have you put conversation at the core?

Who’s Ted McConnell? He’s the “general manager-interactive marketing and innovation” for one of the world’s top consumer goods companies — makers of everything from potato crisps to detergents to personal care products. And in a talk at a digital media forum back in November 2008, he was quoted as saying:

I have a reaction to [Facebook] as a consumer advocate and an advertiser: What in heaven’s name made you think you could monetize the real estate in which somebody is breaking up with their girlfriend?

Ted also reportedly said:

Who said this is media? Media is something you can buy and sell. Media contains inventory. Media contains blank spaces. Consumers weren’t trying to generate media. They were trying to talk to somebody. So it just seems a bit arrogant. We hijack their own conversations, their own thoughts and feelings, and try to monetize it.

Ah, monetizing. That’s old-school advertising thinking. Fourteen months later (an eternity from a technological and consumer adoption standpoint), we know that conversation-centric marketing is not about buying ads around the conversation… it’s about spurring and participating in the conversation.

But back then, Ted’s sentiments were greeted by some as refreshingly honest and true, as in this blogger’s reaction. Finally, someone would expose social media as the marketing fad du jour.

Well, things have changed.

In fact, P&G just announced that it will be making a major push in social media in 2010. You may also want to check out P&G’s Pringles fan page on Facebook, home to nearly 3 million fans!

Now, to be clear, this is not about mocking Ted’s certainty about the frivolousness of social media as a marketing channel. It’s to point out one simple truth — a lot of people felt that way. Just like they did when “this internet thing” was getting started. And it’s less important to dwell on the past, and more important to see the opportunity now.

I think we should offer kudos to P&G for joining the party, in a very big way. Heck, you may even want to send a congrats message to Ted.

On his Facebook page.

Related articles:

• Mike Fruchter: P&G Embraces Facebook as Big Part of Its Marketing Plan (adage.com)
• Proctor and Gamble embraces Facebook (nevillehobson.com)
• Facebook, Twitter and P&G (ventureblog.com)

Harness the power of social media. Register for your free presentation today and find out how you can use social media to build your brand and business.

Then, the second wave came.

Thanks to generous word of mouth, retweets from our Twitter stream and significant press coverage (including a pick-up by USA Today’s PopCandy blog), we saw our little bit of holiday buzz become quite a stir. Thousands viewed the card itself, and many moved on to check out the behind the scenes video and our Logical Juice blog.

Anecdotal response was also resoundingly positive, with comments coming from old friends, existing clients and new-found prospects. All in all, the project was a huge success. More than that, it’s another great example of how a Social Juice Promotion can go a long way toward building momentum, amplifying interest and supporting a brand.

If we as buyers do not have a personal experience with a brand, or know someone who has, we generally defer to (and trust) the “wisdom of crowds” and their conversations about a particular brand or product to inform our purchasing decisions.  In the modern marketing world, in which social media and social CRM are moving at break-neck pace, the crowd-sourcing mechanism will be a primary influencer of how, when and where B2B consumers decide to make a purchase. The once-isolated customer is now an active consumer of expert opinions, product comparisons and peer reviews, using the Internet and massive social networking to gather the necessary information for making an informed purchase decision.

The new participatory role of the consumer has fundamentally changed B2B marketing by presenting companies with the opportunity to excite and engage prospective customers in their prevailing platform for conversation. Now that the consumer has control (as discussed in our recent whitepaper, Forget the Funnel – a New Look at the Stealth Buyer), companies who wish to have a voice in the conversation must develop integrated marketing strategies that deliver consumers offers and experiences in an authentic and relevant way.

So how do you generate inbound leads with a social media strategy?  Develop an integrated marketing communications program that strengthens your brand within the conversation, builds referrals, communities and influencers and makes sense of your social footprint – a strategy that will pave the way for attracting highly qualified inbound leads.  Miller rightfully asserts that companies thinking strategically about demand generation must commit a significant portion of their efforts to using social media as a means for tapping the wisdom of crowds and conversations and building trust for their brands and products.  Just as it was in the traditional sales cycle, trust is a critical component to building a customer relationship, and companies can leverage social media to grow their consumer relationships, enhance B2B lead generation efforts and ultimately, convert qualified prospects into revenue for their brand.

Many companies in today’s market might be struggling with the costs of increasing their physical footprint. But with the right strategic approach, companies can afford to increase their digital footprint to reach more prospects, increase engagement and generate highly qualified inbound leads.

Learn how to integrate, manage and maximize your company’s total social marketing universe. Request your Zeitgeist & Coffee demo now.