“Local Social” – the way small and large brands can authentically reach their target audience.

August 22, 2010August 22, 2010 / John Ayers / Leave a comment

Major brands are finding it ever more difficult to effectively reach their target audience. Mass media can do some of the work, but as we become a ever more digital and mobile culture, we also become more cynical of ‘advertising’ and want to be in control of our purchasing decisions.

Enter social media, which (ironically) over the past few years has quickly become mass media, where large corporations are buying on-line ads to target a large audience or even to refine the target to be certain they are getting to their customer.

So is it working? Are big brands reaching their audience through traditional media and digital media? Maybe the question is what is the best way to speak with your target audience in todays landscape, regardless of the media used? How do you motivate someone to change a behavior, to believe in a service, to buy your product, to think positively of your organization?

The answer is direct personal contact. Yes, actually one individual or small group who is valued in a community to share the word about a product or service. I am not talking just about an international on-line community (facebook)- though it can be, I am also speaking about a real community – as in a neighborhood often partnered with an on-line community.

I call it Local Social. It is more authentic and builds a real-world experience. A relevant environment where each and everyone is part of the discussion. It is really what drives word-of-mouth marketing and builds effective crowd-sourcing and personal conversation. But how does a national or international corporation reach their target market in this environment?

Answer: Not the way they have been. They need to adapt new techniques in the local social space. Engage community advocates for their brand. Brand evangelizers in a given market can be the difference in success or failure of an awareness campaign. Those more savvy, can sniff out an ad vs a discussion from miles away. So be careful or they will turn on you!

I know very well the importance of local social because of a community effort I have co-founded in Los Angeles. We have created a family of local social networks that continue to grow organically from community member involvement. You can find more about what we are doing at http://openneighborhoods.net/ As a creative marketing consultant, I am also involved with brands and organizations that are in development of similar awareness campaigns to engage their community. I see this being a serious trend in effective marketing as we move forward in the digital space. Not an old concept, but rather the same idea in a new era.

John

Pete’s team over at Mashable just posted a great story about the general concept and it discusses it in terms of a “community manager”.

As the world of dominant brands becomes more fragmented, established companies and startups are hiring community managers to cultivate an engaged community in a digital world where customers’ experiences with the product is amplified through social media, whether good or bad. And it’s not just the experience that users value; the relationships and connections they are able to make with companies and fellow consumers are just as important.

Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation may have been The Greenest Generation too.

July 28, 2010July 28, 2010 / John Ayers / Leave a comment

For the past three weeks, I (with my wife & kids) took a remarkable and beautiful trip around a good portion of the United States. We camped at Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Watched herds of bison grazing and even saw a bison swimming across the Yellowstone river in Hayden valley. We watched cut-throat trout spawning, saw Old Faithful… and saw a great number of elk including one that was a 16 pointer. One morning I was startled by a deer passing thru our camp-site. We continued on to see Devil’s Tower, got caught in a rain and hail storm on our way to Mt Rushmore. We then camped near the developing sculpture of Crazy Horse and drove through the Black Hills and the Badlands. In South Dakota, we saw a black bear wild preserve, and watched for miles upon miles the richness of farmland producing corn, wheat and other crops seemed to be flourishing. Huge sky, big clouds, green pastures and clean air, just as it was growing up in the Midwest.

As we continued on – across the top of our nation’s wonders, we made our way to a vacation and family visit in Wisconsin. After this truly wonderful trip to get to my home-town – what was remarkable was how eco-conscious my elderly parents are. I have witnessed them for years being cautious of their over-use of ‘things’.

This visit it dawned on me that it went way beyond that. It is part of who they are, not who they are trying to be or become.

They will reuse a napkin on occasion. They have one small (tiny) trash can in the kitchen and naturally recycle, or compost everything else. The empty peanut butter jar could have been sent back to the packing plant to refill – they scrape it so clean. The dishes aren’t done with water running, but rather with a small bit of soapy water in the sink. The backyard is full of raspberry bushes, flowers, green beans, onion, tomatoes and more. They don’t water the lawn., they cut it and let nature take it’s course through the seasons. Never will you see a bit of food thrown away. The lights are only on if needed.

Witnessing their innate responsibility made me look at our own generation and the younger generations as well. My conclusion is that we have all been pretty fat and happy for far too long, and it is time that we take a serious look to prior generations to see how they lived. Ask any elderly person who actually lived through the depression of the 1930’s and I can assure you they will recall the times where they had to reduce, reuse and recycle not because someone told them to, not because it was chic or because they were trying to make a social statement. It was because it made sense to their well-being.

Growing up in the midwest, I was born and raised in a natural environment and having gone on this trip brought back some wonderful memories and provided a perspective for me that I wanted to share. The bottom line, I suggest you dig in the dirt and plant a garden, turn off the light when you leave the room and finish all of the food on your plate.

:•)

Survey Suggests Role for Social Media in Healthcare.

Filed Under (Consumer-driven Health Care, Health, Social media, health insurance) by Martin Trussell

There has been much chatter lately on Twitter and in the blogosphere about the use of social media in healthcare. According to a story written by Les Masterson and appearing in HealthLeaders Media, use of this new technology may be just what the doctor ordered.

It seems that The Microsoft Health Engagement Survey 2009, conducted by Kelton Research, shows that most people still don’t visit their health plans’ websites or believe their insurers support their health. Still, survey respondents say they are interested in their health plans connecting with them via e-mail and phone for electronic coaching. The key, they say is that they want those services integrated into their lives.

Masterson points out in his article that the consumerism movement with insurers and employers pushing more out-of-pocket costs onto members has led insurers to invest in online components in hopes of creating more educated consumers. However, nearly half of those surveyed think health plans only support them when they need a doctor.

According to Masterson, the disconnect occurs as a result of consumers simply not visiting their health insurers’ websites. Though 82% of insurers provide websites with health and wellness information, nearly three-quarters of respondents visited their insurers’ websites fewer than six times a year. That includes 16% who never visited their insurers’ sites and another 16% who only went on the sites one or two times in the past year.

The survey revealed that of those who actually visited the carrier’s website, nearly half went to find provider lists or coverage information. Only one-third checked out information on health and wellness and this was mostly after a diagnosis had occurred. In other words, they were not being proactive.

So with health plans and employers pushing to control chronic diseases, how do they communicate wellness messages to their members? There are some hints in the survey results. First, the vast majority of people surveyed said healthcare technological solutions are inviting, and secondly, most respondents said they were interested in communicating with their insurer through e-mail.

In fact, more than half of the respondents said they are interested in using e-mails to ask questions about benefits and coverage; receive feedback about their health; and get encouragement, reminders, and advice on diet and exercise.

In other words, people seem to want to communicate with their health plans using technology, but it must be done as part of their normal use of the media.

Does this mean that I am going to “Friend” my health plan on Facebook so I can receive a reminder to have my annual checkup while I am checking out what my friends and family are up to? Why not? Should I “Follow” my health plan on Twitter so that I can get tips on dealing with the summer heat? Sure. Would I read an e-mail message from my health plan and click to a link containing my latest EOB and tips on how to save money on my next prescription. Definitely.

Hopefully, health plans will use this research as an incentive to continue to push forward on the use of e-mail and social media to better communicate with their members and to help them control chronic illnesses that can become so expensive when they go unmanaged. Sure, there are privacy challenges, but it is worth working to overcome these challenges to reach members with pertinent and timely messages.