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RCB Eagles panel: Doing Business in a Socially Networked World

What is the current landscape of buzz and viral marketing? How can a company effectively utilize blogs to promote its brand? In partnership with the Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University, Innovations Publishing held a panel event on February 27 to address these questions and more. The event, called "Doing Business in a Socially Networked World," was attended by C-level executives of high-growth private companies, Eagles sponsors and academia.

Steve Tye, vice president of Croft & Bender -an investment bank and private equity firm- moderated the event.  

Panel speakers included:

The current challenge facing marketers is multi-tasking. Internet users use a wide array of different media -such as watching television or listening to their iPod- while they are online. "The key is to engage them on their own terms," says Chris Tuff. Digital media is creating new expectations for both the consumer and marketer. Consumers would like everything to be searchable and would like all content to be on-demand. Consumers also want to distribute blogs, podcasts and other RSS feeds easily and cheaply. When it comes to advertising, they are seeking a fair trade - advertising for content. Marketers demand real time ROI measurement. They would also like to have access to easy product placement - online, in-stream and in-game.


From L-R: Chris Tuff, Josh Hoffman, Wes Johnston, Keith Herndon

According to Wikipedia, word of mouth (WOM) marketing is a term used to describe activities that companies undertake to generate personal recommendations as well as referrals for brand names, products and services. "WOM is a true media channel and it increases the effectiveness of an overall media program. Customers are now the communication instead of TV and radio. The marketing campaign is now also analyzed on communications rather than impressions," said Tuff.

Social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have only been in existence for a few years - yet they are prime examples of an increasingly consumer driven marketplace. "The most popular profile on MySpace is Tila Tequila - she is connected to over 1.5 million people and she was recently featured on MSNBC, said Johnston. "She came out of total obscurity as young Vietnamese refugee coming out of Singapore. After offering 1 song for free on MySpace, she was approached by a number of different record labels. She released her first single I Love U through iTunes on February 27, 2007 and announced she would be releasing a full length album. This is bubble up, consumer generated media."

"Companies can not only promote their brands easily and cheaply through blogs; but they can also launch specific blogs about products and to gain customer feedback," said Hoffman. "Companies also need to be careful using blogs. There's a lot of free software on the internet to create blogs. When you look at your corporate retention policies, especially if you're a public company, you need to make sure you have archives of those blogs if those blogs should be called into question in a legal testimony. You also want to have the ability to screen certain posts - especially those created internally."

"Blogs can be 'conversation stations' - a vehicle to engage with your customers. Using a blog as a soapbox for a marketing monologue will not only get discouraging fast, but could drive current customers away," said Tuff. "When a company says they're going to have an anonymous writer for a blog, I start waving a red flag. I've seen large corporations get burned so anyone is at risk." There are a number of key issues a company must deal with before deciding to implement a blog. "These include findability - all businesses want to be easy to find; extendibility - getting the word out; affordability; sustainability - change in constant; and trustability."


Attendees at the Feb. 27 Eagles panel event

A lot of companies are very quick to want a MySpace or Facebook page. "When you enter one of these networks as a marketer, you are usually viewed as an intruder," said Tuff. "It makes more sense for a company like Jim Beam to have a MySpace page because it wants to reach a large, broad audience and keep an ongoing conversation. If companies are serious about engaging in social networks to promote their brands they must do four things: create permission; drive conversation within networks; drive conversation between brand and network; and prepare to respond to comments on your brand."

"We have to be careful to use social networking tools cautiously and not pile too much content into them. MySpace has become so commercial that some have already predicted its demise," said Johnston. "LinkedIn is an excellent business networking tool that has not been overused but there are similar sites already trying to compete in this space."

"Employee access to social networking sites and personal email is a real issue for smaller businesses that employee a lot of creative type people. Each company has to implement a clear-cut guideline explaining what is accessible and not. In this way you can insure that half of your company server is not occupied with mp3 files," said Herndon. "The issue is not access to these tools and technologies, but making work meaningful and having systems in place to evaluate people to determine if they are engaged," said Johnston. "It's also a demographic question - if you are in a competitive field that's trying to attract a lot of younger sales people - then you are going to have to open your network up and allow employees to interact through these new channels," said Herndon.

The next RCB Eagles event will be held from 12-1:30 on Tuesday, March 27. Please look out for more details in the coming weeks.