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.

All are being hailed as social media innovations and harbingers of the death of traditional advertising. More accurately, they are examples of big brands scrambling to cope with consumer empowerment and a fractured media landscape.

Pepsi’s “Refresh Everything” campaign is the most ambitious. At the very least it is a great stunt. The company made the news by deciding to not run Super Bowl ads. That announcement probably generated more media exposure than running Super Bowl ads would have. Beyond the stunt, the campaign is a brave experiment. Pepsi is gambling that distributing $20 million across thousands of bloggers/activists will gain more media exposure than $20 million spent during Super Bowl. They’re gambling on the social media “network effect.” And they are gambling that “do-gooders” will not be embarrassed to attach their ideas to a big corporate brand. We think Pepsi could have given the campaign more of a traditional media push. Regardless, if it works, Pepsi will have succeeded in killing two birds with one stone – they will effectively counter their “big bad global brand” image and multiply their media investment. What is notable about this campaign is that it is all about mission and has nothing to do with product.

Domino’s “Pizza Turnaround,” on the other hand, it is all about the product. It’s the story of how the company changed its standard pizza formula in response to customer feedback. No mission, but very conversation-centric. The launch video struck just the right note. It’s lighter and less ambitious than the world-changing Pepsi campaign, but then again we are talking about soda pop and fast food here. Because it comes off as honest, responsive and relevant to the product, this campaign is likely to connect. It will drive reconsideration and trial. Whether the “new” product can live up to the promise, well … Regardless, as an example of a good conversation-centric marketing campaign, it’s a hot four-cheese success!

Finally, the Taco Bell “Drive-Thru Diet” campaign. Hmm… Rather than leverage the conversation to address the company’s real product issues, like Domino’s is trying, or focus on a mission, like Pepsi, Taco Bell is attempting to use an integrated media strategy to do that old fashioned marketing trick – sell us a counter-factual pile of beans. They’re going to try and get us to believe that stuffing down fatty foods in our cars can help us lose weight. What? Who is going to buy that? I can believe that a Subway lettuce sandwich is a better choice than a greasy burger. But can I really believe that a Taco Bell “diet” will make me skinny?

Yet, despite the critique, I have to applaud all three efforts.

We are living in interesting times. And if there is one truth in our new conversation-centric marketing world, it is that brands need to be fearless and try new things. Cut the strings of caution! Experiment. Even if Taco Bell customers don’t lose weight, Domino’s doesn’t deliver and Pepsi falls flat, there’s little downside. That’s the irony of consumer empowerment. Brands have lost a lot of authority, but they’re no longer expected to be perfect either.

Throughout 2009, professionals on both the client and agency side have been scrambling to make sense of a new marketing reality – tighter budgets, mobile computing, empowered consumers – and get their heads around its implications relative to strategy, creative, media and budgets.

A few of the answers are coming into focus.

DOWNLOAD THE WHITEPAPER

In this whitepaper, “Conversation-Centric Marketing: Making Sense of the New Social Order,” Media Logic cuts through the confusion to present a new model for marketing. We outline the radical changes that have occurred in traditional client-agency-customer hierarchies; suggest a framework to help guide strategy and integrate traditional and social media; and offer a concise list of suggestions for how the client/agency relationship must evolve in order to take full advantage of the opportunities presented.

Media Logic welcomes all comments.

The first path is a conservative one, on which larger entrenched institutions create barriers to protect their position and power. The second path is a bit more comforting to both the old and new guard, as it is the path of change. We accept change, we compromise, we embrace the delicate uncertainties, etc. About the most painful aspect of this path is the idea that agencies, and the businesses they look to serve, will be forced to learn new practices. In doing so, disciplines will be forced to share more significant budget lines with areas of emerging opportunity.

The third and final path he describes – “digital dreaming” – is terrifying because you can’t control it, define it, predict it or balance a budget on it at the moment. It is a path that mandates we leave behind the old rules and realities that have defined marketing to completely embrace the promise of technological possibility. It is the path that forces you to let go completely of any lingering hesitation caused by fear of change. (Sound pretty familiar? This third path is akin to the year we have just experienced.)

I’ll take the third path, though – not because I am excessively driven by unmanaged risk, but because it speaks more to the idea of creative thinking. Critical problem solving deployed to deliver practical solutions, as opposed to the stale waffling of bartering that often plagues marketing – especially in the media planning realm.

Now, keep in mind, Dr. Fredericks’ book was published way back in 2007. At that time Twitter was only recently conceived, Facebook was potty training, and Apple was preparing to unleash the first iPhone on gadget junkies. Fredericks clearly states that his basis of affection for the third path is its being based on search. Yes, search, as in algorithms, Google and Bing. The content that we crave, know, seek and love will no longer be defined by its house but instead by what he terms its “essence” – whether it is text, video or audio. How will we get this essence? He proposes it will be based on voluntarily engagement in a new stream of content distribution, via both pay-for and ad-supported delivery methods.

It is a great hypothesis and, to some extent, one that has already begun to emerge as not only possibility but reality. We see it both in paid keyword search and behavioral ad delivery models via online ad networks. You type “social media marketing” into Google search and you get a stream of data that the engine tries to quantify as valuable to you. In the process, without any breakdown of the organic information that is returned, I or any number of media planning wonks will beg your indulgence to consider clicking on our paid sponsor link.

We also see it in direct content purchase via iTunes or in accessing data on Hulu. It is built on the notion that advertising is no longer dependent on the content alone to reach vaguely identifiable large packs of humans. Instead, the consumer’s intent, actions and behavior can correlate to drive relevancy of messages. It strips away the notion of the nightly news reaching adults age 35 – 54 who might have some propensity to be in the market for various things like detergent or a car. It strips it completely bare. Then it attempts to identify the consumer’s needs and potential interests based on his most immediate intentions or request for information queries.

Imagine it outside of a search engine for a moment. What if you turned on your entertainment hard drive to tap into the latest episode of Breaking Bad. You can either choose to pay $2.99 for an ad-free viewing or a free view with content support. Say you already drop $45 a month for broadband access; you might be inclined to choose content support. A menu pops up and you are given a set of category options based on your preset interests and businesses willing to pay $2.99 for that interest.

Where the wheels on this bus go “squeak, squeak, SCREECH” is that while Fredericks talks of empowered consumers with fervor, he misses the opportunity of what can only be defined at the moment as audience search. Essentially, do not wait for your customers to stumble over to you based on the intent algorithm. Tap directly into the power of the conversations that technology is emboldening your customers to have with or about your product or service. Find out where your customers are and create environments in which they will engage your brand, product or service. (I’m not creating a new mode of thought here – Seth Godin talks about similar ideas in Tribes, and Everett Rogers explained how communications or idea paths disseminate in similar ways in Diffusion of Innovations.

To me, “digital dreaming” is not only about understanding intentions and actions, but also uncovering the things that both excite and dismay established and potential customers – and perhaps the not-so-satisfied ones to boot. It really boils down to this: You simultaneously need to find better ways to reach out to potential customers with more meaningful messages, while also engaging your existing customers who have great passion for what you do. Some of you are rolling your eyes thinking, “How will I get people passionate about my product? I am not a ‘social’ brand!” I’d say, don’t look for what you mistake to be existing fruit; it is probably past its peak anyhow. Look for the seed to plant new ideas or uncover hidden aspects about your business that are inherently interesting and possibly social. Start with accepting the fact that the technology is here and it is changing how people’s communication is sparked. If you still don’t have an idea that works for you, support another entity that does. A lot of what social media marketing is about is reciprocal relationships. Support what others are passionate about and they will be more likely to consider your brand in return for that support.

Recently, we watched some digital dreaming unfold when an item pinged up in a Zeitgeist & Coffee^SM weekly landscape survey for our client MVP Health Care. What we found was a Twitter posting regarding MVP. The individual had noted the presence of community relations and brand signage at a bicycle race in which he had participated. Not long after the event, the individual was delivered an ad impression via our online video display campaign. He literally grabbed the core “TriVantage” product message from the ads’ closing graphic and proceeded to share it on Twitter through TwitPic to all his followers. The conversation became the medium, the technology, the process and the message. It gets rebroadcast and maybe “re-tweeted” and “liked,” so on and down the line.

This isn’t planned. We didn’t sit plotting in the viral war room. What we did do a few years ago with our client was come to a smart and sound conclusion that the marketplace had significantly changed. Being just a logo is not the recipe for being noticed. Your logo is the mark by which you are easily identified; your brand position is what you actually deliver to your customers. We presented a prospect with a strong message and brand experience, in multiple venues that matter to them. The message and the choice of venues were impactful enough to catalyze a positive, unsolicited response. We could keep doing it the silly old “reach and frequency” way. Continuing to put faith in saying nothing often may get us some unaided brand awareness points on a compromised survey. Or we could focus on the notion that people are willing to engage our brands and have an open mind to the possibilities.

This does not mean these efforts happen at the expense of existing media channels in favor of social media efforts. What it really means is start making the messages better and more tangible wherever they are going to be broadcast. Plug and play options will be best in Dr. Fredericks’ future world of advertising… and the future is now. Is your marketing digital dream ready?