Convince and Convert Blog: Where Social Media and Email Collide

Many companies are reluctant to fully dive in to social media, either because they are afraid of losing control, or because they believe their customers aren’t using social media. The latter is especially prevalent among B2B companies, and when viewed from a purely numerical perspective they may be right. (photo by The Dana Files)

An agency client of mine - Bliss PR - works with many large financial services companies whose customers are established CFOs. Are there 50-something CFOs using social media? Of course. Do most of them congregate in typical social media outposts? Probably not.

Consequently, my advice in these circumstances is to abandon an outpost strategy in favor of a humanization strategy. Find a thought leader in the organization, and make them the star, instead of the company itself. Chris Brogan calls these folks Trust Agents, and cites Frank Eliason from Comcast, Scott Monty from Ford and others as examples.

Related: Twitter interview of Scott Monty about social media at Ford.

I mostly concur, and I think for many brands it’s smart marketing (even beyond the huge potential customer service benefits).

9 Ingredients of a Humanization Campaign

For agencies, your role in a humanization campaign is almost like a publicist. Find ways to make the designated star a thought leader:

• 1. Build and optimize a blog
• 2. Reach out to other bloggers in the category for guest posts
• 3. Syndicate content to vertical aggregation sites
• 4. Publish white papers and ebooks, and/or conduct Webinars
• 5. Create a few killer presentations and get them on SlideShare
• 6. Do at least a little video blogging to make him/her three dimensional
• 7. Hustle for speaking engagements
• 8. Get on Twitter and make sure he/she sets aside time to really engage people
• 9. Make sure current company customers know all about the initiative and are invited to partipate

By making a real person in a company the social media outreach vehicle, you can at times bypass potentially thorny legal and corporate confidence hurdles, and give the organization plausible deniability if it for some reason goes horribly wrong. “He went rogue!” they can cry.

Simultaneously, you get almost all of the benefits of a corporate-branded social media program. Honesty. Transparency. Engagement with customers.

Forrester is the king of this strategy. When was the last time you went to the Forrester Web site? Contrast that with the last time you went to Jeremiah Owyang’s site (or Peter Kim or Charlene Li before they left). See what I mean?

Does this humanization strategy work? Do you have other examples? 

Welcome. If you like the content here, consider susbscribing to my RSS feed. You can also find me on Twitter @jaybaer

Featuring Jason Falls, the head of social media at branding agency Doe-Anderson, author of the Social Media Explorer blog, and all-around social media nice guy genius. Jason submitted himself to the rigors of the Twitter 20 interview (20 questions live on Twitter) on November 14, 2008. Excellent questions and comments from viewers throughout, too. Thanks to everyone who participated.

(photo by Shashi Bellamkonda)

From Jason Falls’ Keyboard to You: Interview Transcript

1. @jaybaer: How do you describe your role at Doe-Anderson (branding agency in Louisville)?

• @jasonfalls: I advise our clients on social media strategy and educate them on using social media tools to communicate more effectively.

2. @jaybaer: How does your social media department intersect and interact with other parts of the agency?

• @jasonfalls: We are integrated within the interactive department but with a strong tie to PR. However, Doe-Anderson cross trains and pollinates.

3. @jaybaer: You’ve expanded the team over time. What do you look for in a social media professional? Conversation ability? Tech skills?

• @jasonfalls: You can’t be strong in social media programming and strategy without strong writing and conversation skills. Tech can be taught.

4. @jaybaer:(? from @geekmommy) Louisville doesn’t leap to mind re: social media/tech hotbeds. Easier or harder doing in from there?

• @jasonfalls: @geekmommy is just jealous she doesn’t live in Silicon Holler. The Internet dissolves geographic barriers. I do what I do anywhere. 
• @jasonfalls: And Louisville/Kentucky is responsible for @peterkim @mattcutts @pearsonified Drew Curtis, @robmay Profilactic, etc., etc., 

5. @jaybaer: What type of reporting and metrics do you focus on with your social media programs? Do you sync with interactive analytics?

• @jasonfalls: We do sync with interactive analytics but try hard to set expectations to match the goals. Reach, relationships, conversations.

6. @jaybaer: Lots of discussion around where social media belongs. PR, marketing, customer service, etc. What’s your opinion?

• @jasonfalls: Social media is an extension of good public relations, but should be a company-wide approach PR helps manage and facilitate

7. @jaybaer: Some say “listening” is an agency function, but “engaging” needs to be done by the client. Can the agency be the voice in SM?

• @jasonfalls: Tough one. Depends on the client. If they can’t communicate well, then Dear Lord, don’t let them do it. 

8. @jaybaer: What do you say to clients that are afraid of really communicating via SM, and ONLY want to listen? How do you conquer fear?

• @jasonfalls: The best way is to prove it to them - find a negative conversation and correct it. Show them how to turn the tide. Proof works.

9. @jaybaer: What’s missing then from most corporate social media programs you see today? What makes you say d’oh!

• @jasonfalls: Strategic thinking. they just throw “viral” crap out there and call it social media. GTive your fans something to talk about, do.

10. @jaybaer: I hear you there re: lack of strategy. Conversely, what’s the most overrated aspect of SM today? 

• @jasonfalls: Most overrated aspect is No. of followers. If you can’t get them to do anything, then what good are they…or what good are you?

11. @jaybaer: Do you advocate distinctly different outreach methodologies for bloggers and traditional journalists?

• @jasonfalls: Absolutely NOT. Problem with most PR is they’ve been reaching out to traditional media wrong. Bloggers are teaching us that.

12. @jaybaer: Very interesting. You’re saying treat journalists like bloggers, not the other way around? Relevant, focused pitching, etc.?

• @jasonfalls: Damn straight. Key to blogger outreach is relationships, same as traditional media. Why is this so hard for people to understand?

13. @jaybaer: Best examples of programs you’re really proud of? http://www.thestuffinside.com is legendary work. Others?

• @jasonfalls: Wish others thought so (StuffInside). A lot of my good work is internal coms. But the Beam Baja Twitter Tracker was good thinking. 

14. @jaybaer: Were you a bourbon guy before coming to Doe-Anderson and Kentucky, or is that just an occupationally-acquired taste?

• @jasonfalls: I’ve been a bourbon guy for a while. Raised in Kentucky. My father introduced me to Elijah Craig about 10 years ago. 

15. @jaybaer: A toast to you, sir. How did you gravitate from sports communications to PR and social media at an agency?

• @jasonfalls: I’m schitzophrenic. Heh. I’m a communicator. It doesn’t matter what about. Do your homework, build relationships, talk. 

16. @jaybaer: How does the agency world compare to client side marketing (or university side in your case)? Resources? Pace? Juggling?

• @jasonfalls: Agency life puts you behind the 8-ball for multiple clients at a time. It’s mind-boggling how much is expected. Not enough hrs. in a day.

17. @jaybaer: You did a lot of work in the education arena previously. What do you see from .edu in SM? How can they do it right?

• @jasonfalls: Education and social media? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. They’re so anal about “protecting” students I’m shocked they have Websites.
• @jasonfalls: Of course, I worked in college athletics. The NCAA is the biggest censor and fascist regime on the planet. SM and NCAA? Nope.

18. @jaybaer: You mentioned your kids (2 for me as well). Social media take a ton of time - often unpaid. How do you balance it all?

• @jasonfalls: I’ve gotta pretty damn cool, hardworking and tolerant wife, first of all. But you just have to put it down.
• @jasonfalls: I go dark some weekends and evenings until 8 p.m. because my kids come first. It’s not easy, but I don’t need to be big on Digg.

19. @jaybaer: Can you tell us a bit about http://www.twit2fit.com your social media wellness community?

• @jasonfalls: Twit2Fit started as a lark and is now motivating and supporting over 200 on the Ning site, countless others here.

20. @jaybaer: Last one. What’s your summary 140 character advice for social media success?

• @jasonfalls: Produce good content, treat people with respect, understand what goes around comes around and grow your network off-line, too.

I saw my mom the other day. She’s a pretty hip lady for 64. She was a high school teacher for about 30 years, and was always a student fave. Stylish. Knew the music. Knew the scene. Thought Patrick Swayze was hot. 

Now, in her semi-retirement, she’s the editor for an online-only newspaper. She takes digital photos, uses a content management system, writes a little SEO copy. 

She was asking about Convince & Convert and how it was going. I told her it was coming along nicely, that subscriptions to the blog were way up, and that people like Chris Brogan were saying favorable things about it. 

“Chris Brogan? Who’s that? Doesn’t he play for the Coyotes?” she asked. 

While I was surprised at how imposing a character Brogan is when I met him recently at Marketing Profs Digital Mixer, I’m pretty sure that he in fact does not play hockey in the NHL. (photo by Brian Solis)

And there’s the lesson.

Social media makes it simple to get wrapped up in our world. Reading blogs, tracking tweets, doing consulting. It’s easy to overlook that none of this passes the Mom test. 

SEO passes the Mom test. Email passes. Tivo passes. iPhone passes (at least conceptually). Of course there are elements of social media that pass (MySpace, and increasingly Facebook). But as a discipline, social media and its practitioners absolutely do not pass. Not even Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk. 

Keep it Real

I find conferences exacerbate this effect. I was at PodCampAZ recently (hat tip to Brogan and Chris Penn for starting it all, and high five to Evo Terra and Brent Spore for a great job on this year’s AZ version). I probably shouldn’t have been, but I was flat out astonished at the number of content creators in the audience. Watching a live stream of a room that I was in, and having that stream coming from the laptop of the guy sitting next to me was Matrix-esque. 

The fact that in 550 years we’ve gone from the invention of the printing press to a world where every kid with a cell phone is a potential real-time broadcaster is exhilarating. But it doesn’t pass the Mom test. The recent Forrester technographics study update backs me up. Only 21 percent of Internet users are classified as content creators. 25+ percent of people are unlikely to create online content any time soon. 

The Time Will Come

It’s easy to become frustrated with brands that don’t get it. Marketing directors that refuse to engage in social media. Twitter spammers. Bad pitches from PR folks  that have never read your blog. (nice case study from Dave Fleet) And on and on.

But what we can’t forget as an industry (if it can even be called that) is that we are at the very tip of the spear. We’re where SEO was 10 years ago. Where television was 50 years ago.

We can’t expect a business community that has been fundamentally operating under the same marketing principles since the invention of the newspaper to immediately embrace this new opportunity en masse, regardless of how obvious the benefits of doing so may appear to us. 

As my Mom used to tell me, “Be Patient. Your Time Will Come.” And when she knows Brogan, we’ll know it has indeed arrived. 

Do you agree? Does social media fail the Mom test for now? Are we overeager about social media?

Many companies and even agencies are reluctant to engage in social media because they are afraid that some sort of consumer backlash will occur, doing damage to the brand.

Certainly, there are a few noteworthy examples of social media missteps from brands like Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola et al. But in most cases, those shortcomings were due to overreaching “let’s make something like Facebook, but all about Coke” and no lasting brand damage has occurred.

What I see is that most companies know they have some sort of operational or customer satisfaction skeletons in the closet, and fear a customer that has had a genuinely inadequate experience pointing out those shortcomings to an audience that is far larger than one.

But isn’t it possible that those same customers will shine the light on truly excellent facets of the company? Now that they have their social media program rolling, does Comcast fear feedback from it’s customers? No, because that feedback is an opportunity to improve.

Don’t Assume The Worst, Here’s Why

In the spirit of not assuming the worst case scenario, I’m sharing the story below which is both seasonal and a shining example of how fear can seem so reasonable, but be so wrong. I hope you enjoy it.

My wife woke me late at night in mid-October. “Did you hear that noise?” “What noise?” I answered groggily. But then I heard it too. Perhaps best described as a mild ruckus, it sounded like muffled conversation mixed with opening and closing of cabinets.

I listened attentively, now very much awake and with the building sense of unease and dread that makes our fingertips tingle. I scanned the room for a weapon. Seeing none other than a clock radio, I quietly opened our bedroom door and crept out onto the second floor landing. The noises were definitely coming from below, on the first floor living area.

Not really sure what to do next, I shouted out “Hey, who is that? What’s going on?” in a tone that attempted to be menacing but came out warbly and meek. The noise stopped. Uh oh.

I darted back inside the bedroom, and grabbed the phone. “I’m calling 911,” I said to my wife. “We’re being robbed.” A flash of panic across her face as she ran quietly down the hall to the kids’ bedrooms, scooping them up and returning to our room, trying to keep them quiet and unpanicked.

I explained to the 911 operator that we had a home intruder. She said that the police were on the way, and asked if I could see the street. From the landing, I could see out of a high second floor window and watched as the police vehicles approached. My heart was beating so hard it felt like my sternum was breaking, but I’d never been happier to live in the house on the corner – right by the main road.

I lost sight of the police when they turned into our development, and the phone was unsettlingly quiet for a long time when the operator said “please stay on the line and I’ll relay instructions to you from the officers outside.”

A minute went by. Then five. What was going on? Was there a driveway altercation? A foot chase? My mind was filled with Tasered bad guys lying sobbing and unremorseful in my plants.

Then finally, the operator spoke. “Sir, the officers are unable to come to the front door.” “Oh my God. Why not?” I said, reaching a crescendo of paranoia. “Your house is surrounded by a pack of javelinas,” she said.

(Note: Javelinas are wild pigs with tusks that live in the desert southwest. Also known as peccaries, they run in packs and can be quite unpleasant. However, they are not typically thieves)

Five or six moments of confusion later, the whole family was gathered at the front door, looking outside as the police engaged in a vehicular roundup of approximately 15 javelinas who had ventured down from the mountains near our house to absolutely annihilate our pumpkins that we had preciously placed near the front door. It looked like grenades had been detonated inside the pumpkins, as our entire yard was covered with fleshy, orange debris.

Evidently, it had been quite a party for the javelinas, who had snorted and moaned and bumped against our front doors, sounding like a band of smash and grab burglars looting and pillaging.

After hanging up with the operator and resuming a mostly normal pulse, the doorbell rang. I opened the door and the police officer said “We’re happy to look around inside, but we’re pretty sure it was those pigs.”

Smart ass.

That night actually began a reign of javelina terror, as they visited our neighborhood many times in the next few weeks. A dead one was found by the neighbors. Plants were eaten. Roses destroyed. Meetings conducted. Eventually, they moved on. Many local residents were visited by the javelinas, although I was the only one that called the cops.

Do you have a story of expecting the worst? Please share it in the comments

Thanks to Jason Falls for the inspiration (okay, it’s a straight rip-off) for this post. Jason pointed out five lesser-known bloggers that he reads regularly (including Convince & Convert). His post seems to have triggered an a-ha moment, as several other excellent social media bloggers including Mack Collier and Amber Naslund have posted similar lists of people to read. 

This is truly the genius of the World Wide Web. A hyper-linked community that enables users to find interesting and useful content based on the recommendations of real people, enabled (but not driven by) technology. 

Here’s my Fab Five bloggers. People I read that may be less well-known by Convince & Convert readers. Also, because I work in email marketing and digital marketing in addition to social media, my list is not purely social media focused, as are those cited above. 

Tamara Gielen

Tamara’s blog BeRelevant is dedicated to B2B email marketing best practices. Tamara doesn’t post a ton of her own content, but her ability to cull down the huge output of blog content about the email industry, and include only what’s legitimate and groundbreaking on her own site is a godsend. 

Tamara is also the founder of the Email Marketers Club, a social network for professional emailers with more than 1,700 members. By day, Tamara is the Director of Email and Digital Dialogue for OgilvyOne. She lives in Belgium, and can be found on Twitter @tamaragielen 

Bryan Eisenberg

One of the few folks out there who have been in digital marketing as long as me, Eisenberg is a conference staple (especially search conferences). His insights into customer experience, usability, information architecture, and conversion rate optimization are simply unparalleled. If you need to get more results from your Web site, he’s a guy to follow.

His blog Grokdotcom is more of a company-wide production now, but still brimming with insights. Watch for his regular series of books too. His new one, “Call to Action” is outstanding, and “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark” is required reading for all Web designers, project managers, and information architects I hire. 

He’s on Twitter @theGrok

Dan Zarrella

A great blogger with no shortage of opinions about social media, search, and cross-linking. Not afraid to rock the boat, Dan Zarrella brings serious science to the discussion of social media and viral marketing. He believes that “going viral” is no accident, and I believe he’s the number one guy to watch in terms of the emerging confluence between blogging, other forms of social media, and SEO.

He’s got some very useful tools for maximizing the search and viral friendliness of your blog. Check them out in his Tools section. 

Dan is on Twitter @danzarrella

Michael Gass

I do a lot of work for ad agencies and PR firms, and Michael Gass’ blog Fuel Lines is redefining how agencies think about business development. A great example of a blogger picking a distinct topic and absolutely owning it, Michael eats his own dog food (and the food of other dogs as well). You see, his consulting business is based on helping agencies use smart blogging, SEO, and social media to generate inbound leads - rather than shooting in the dark making cold calls.

In addition to regular, insightful posts about the future of ad agencies, Michael has added a ton of value to his blog with a sweeping survey of the agency biz dev landscape, and a “best agency blog” competition.

Michael has been a huge help and a great friend to Convince & Convert. If you’re at an agency (and even if you’re not), read his stuff. He’s on Twitter @michaelgass

Jason Falls

Yeah, he put me in his five. But, I would have had him in here regardless. With the tsunami of blog posts, opinions, pass-alongs, retweets, and me-toos out there, Jason Falls maintains an exceptionally high quality level. If he says something on his blog - Social Media Explorer, it’s worth reading. If he sends a tweet, the link is worth clicking.

Unlike many (most?) social media consultants, Jason is actually a practitioner of the art. His work for Jim Beam via his agency Doe Anderson is one of the legendary examples of social media press releases and integrated microsites. His blog isn’t about what social media will become, it’s about what social media is now, and how to do it right. 

Jason is a straight shooter that’s not caught up in his own emerging Web fame, and among the top tier of social media and PR 2.0 “names” I find him to be the most dedicated to sharing and extremely giving with his time. He was an early champion of Convince & Convert, and I’ll never forget that. (Chris Brogan is another one that’s amazingly cool to lesser known folks, despite his insane schedule and content generation volume). 

Jason is a must-follow on Twitter @jasonfalls

Who Are Your Fab Five? Leave Them in the Comments, Or Write Your Own Post

Since the advent of the printing press, professional opinions have helped shape our own. From Hearst to Murdoch, from Cronkite to Brokaw. Huge companies that employ thousands of trained journalists have helped us understand what’s good and bad, and whom to embrace or fear. 

Not for long. This is not a flesh wound. The Internet killed old media, it’s just not dead yet. 

The First Cut is the Deepest

That innocuous and ugly first banner ad on Hotwired.com spawned an information and interaction demon that it swallowing up media as we know it.

The proliferation of free online content via Web site, email newsletter, and RSS feed has become the hemlock for media companies. Newspaper ad sales dropped 14% in Q1 2008 alone. A 200+ year institution with a 14% drop in a quarter. Amazing.

Every newspaper in the country (and most magazines and TV stations) have reduced their news staff considerably. This of course results in decaying journalism: more wire copy, fluff features, less investigation, etc.

Decaying journalism reduces readers, subscriptions, and ad revenue even further. It’s a vicious cycle that cannot be stopped. You don’t have any money so you lay off reporters, so your newspaper starts to suck, so people cancel their subscriptions, forcing you to lay off even more reporters. Yikes.

Someday, You’ll Yearn for Larry King

“Serious” journalism as we know it will be gone with the possible exception of subsidized news outlets and egghead journals.

Because there won’t be any budget to do any meaningful reporting, “news” will even more be a collection of personalities, each “spinning” a tiny scrap of information and making their living micro-casting their shtick to a highly-targeted audience. This “Perez Hilton Effect” will make news cursory, instant, and increasingly salacious as pro bloggers fight for page views using overly dramatic headlines.

PR is Needed More Than Ever

There’s been a lot of chatter about the role of PR in a new media world dominated by consumer generated content. I believe PR is actually more critical under those conditions. This explosion in news outlets will make it even more difficult for companies and organizations to communicate at any scale without PR help. Is your in-house corporate marketing team going to do outreach to 350 blogs? Maybe, but not likely.

Plus, a single corporate misstep will go viral instantly, making online crisis management through social media and video response a huge service opportunity for public relations professionals.

This of course will require PR types to manage relationships with many “prosumer” news outlets, and even if they don’t engage in social media and conversation marketing per se, they’ll need to be technologically adept and highly trained. Instead of using Bacon’s and Profnet to build a media list, they’ll use Radian6, Twingly, PitchEngine or whatever the semantic Web brings next.

RIP WSJ

As a news consumer, I mourn the death of old media. I loved reading stuff made from trees, and I appreciated (as a former journalism major) the role of the media in keeping our society informed and orderly.

But the genie is out of the bottle. And for PR firms, the murder of old media isn’t a threat, it’s an opportunity.

What do you think? Comments below please

It used to be that you actually met someone in person first, and then developed and nurtured that relationship into its natural culmination - helping them move.

The Web and social networking has changed that, and now friendships are developed in a variety of digital forums, eventually moving offline and becoming three dimensional.

Below are the Before Social Networking and After Social Networking friendship development scales. Each step in the relationship is measured as a % of how likely you would be to help somebody move.

Do you agree? Is this how your online relationships grow today? PR Firms, is this how you’re developing relationships with reporters and bloggers? Leave a comment.

Before Social Networking Friendship Scale

After Social Networking Friendship Scale

My training and consulting programs for ad agencies and PR firms

As part of my panel on social media at the Worldcom PR conference in Montreal recently (see post below), I created these “7 Deadly Sins of Social Media.”

Are you willing to admit your sins in the comments?

1. Deafness

Actively listening to what’s being said about your brand is at the core of social media.

2. Slowness

Social media is a NOW environment, not a “we’re working on the December issue in July” industry.

If it takes you too long to react, the opportunity can vanish.

3. Caution

Companies have to empower their agencies to facilitate social media conversations. Agencies have to empower their employees to handle social media on behalf of clients.

If you’re afraid, you’re not in the game.

4. Phoniness

Social media users – especially social network members – are cagey. They can smell b.s. three clicks away.

Resist the temptation to create your own reviews and other falsehoods. It doesn’t work.

5. Greed

The whole point of social media is for people to let other people know what’s good and righteous.

If you refuse to link to other sites or don’t create and distribute good content, etc. you are not being a good social media citizen – and it will get noticed.

6. Inflexibility

Think of social media as its own world with its own rules.

Don’t try to “social media-ize” your existing marketing and message. It doesn’t work.

7. Seriousness

Much of the social media’s appeal is based on humor and satire.

If you or your company can’t handle getting made fun of on occasion, you may want to rethink your social media plans.

Download the sins as a PDF>>

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Why, What, When & How to Implement Social Media Campaigns

Just finished moderating a rousing panel discussion in Montreal at the Worldcom Americas conference. (Worldcom is the world’s largest collective of independent PR firms) Joined by Mike Corak from Off Madison Ave, Stefan Pollack from the Pollack PR Marketing Group, and Diego Biasi from Business Press (all the way from Milan), we addressed an invigorated group of PR firm principals.

Lots of great questions about the nuts and bolts of social media.

That was the intention of our presentation, to focus on the specifics, not just the usual “social media is important” pabulum.

Comments on the presentation most welcome.

View or download here via Slideshare:

Will the Crest Weekly Toothpaste Launch Work?

In a sign that the guys who control ad budgets are getting the value of interactive advertising faster than the agencies that place it, P&G announced recently that they are introducing their new Crest Weekly toothpaste almost entirely through the blogosphere.

Samples of Crest Weekly were sent to prominent bloggers (as well as 600,000 Moms) in an effort to trigger an underground viral effect. P&G marketing honchos say that Crest Weekly is an unconventional product. You use it weekly to augment your regular brushing - it has more grit in it to give you that “just back from the dentist, but not numbed or broke” feeling. Thus, it is difficult to explain on TV.

While that makes sense, I suspect the famous data hounds at P&G are also cooking up a little test to see if social media can really carry the water for a launch.

It appears - at least for now - that it cannot, but results are inconclusive.

Ironic Lack of Word of Mouth for Oral Care Product

My search for blog posts, Tweets and other signposts indicating that bloggers indeed used Crest Weekly and wrote about it turned up fairly low volume - although Ariana Huffington’s smile looks a little brighter these days.

I found 10 separate blog posts, on well-targeted sites (beauty, women’s, shopping). I also found just one Tweet (from one of the bloggers promoting her post).

My favorite among them was Tia Williams’ “Crest In Show” post that artfully wove in her background as the daughter of a dentist. Nice!

P&G has not said how many bloggers were given samples, but they did disclose that they began arriving in early August. The product launches in stores next week (mid-September).

The Cavities in the Crest Weekly Launch

There are two fundamental problems with the Crest Weekly approach.

1. They actually sent the product out too early. Blogging is a NOW thing, not a “we’re working on the December issue in August” thing. Sending out samples 6 weeks before the product launches when one use of the product will clearly communicate the benefits to the blogger is too long of a lead time.

It will be very interesting to see if blog posts about Crest Weekly intensify next week when the product launches. I suspect some bloggers are holding their posts until closer to launch. If you find some new ones on Google Blog Search or Technorati, please let me know.

2. The tactic overwhelmed the strategy. The notion that a major consumer goods manufacturer would launch a product via social media is so novel (for now) that the buzz around it became about the marketing approach rather than about the toothpaste. In fact, there are actually more blog posts (including one more once I click Publish) about the social media launch then about Crest Weekly and its magical teeth scouring properties.

Hopefully, P&G won’t interpret this to-date tepid response from the blogosphere as a sign that social media won’t work, and will instead adjust its tactical plan next time around for greater success.

In a related story, Kellogg announced today that the ROI on their digital marketing for Special K cereal (blogs, ads, microsite) is superior to the ROI for traditional advertising. While this isn’t shocking to yours truly - a well-targeted and well-executed digital program will almost always beat traditional in a pure ROI fight - for a company like Kellogg to put that information in print (Ad Week) is a quite the watershed.

Have you launched a product or brand using heavy social media? Did P&G do the Crest Weekly program right, or wrong? Please tell us your story in the comments.

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