The CMO's Guide To The Social Landscape

In my experience, I have encountered occasions when even the most insightful, experienced marketing professionals, including chief marketing officers (CMOs), are not as up to speed as they should be on certain tactics. Doesn't matter if it's online advertising, viral marketing, direct mail, or search engine optimization (SEO). It's not necessarily because they're not savvy, knowledgeable, or experienced about these strategies. Rather, it's usually because they've only worked in organizations where more traditional approaches were required, or perhaps, they lacked resources (usually financial) to design and execute fully-integrated, comprehensive campaigns...even though the intent to do more was there. In other instances, the dynamics of the organization and industry simply demanded that a limited number of marketing channels be employed to achieve desired results. It happens. No one company can absolutely do everything in the marketing realm; it's virtually impossible.

And this scenario is often found with social media, which leaves many senior executives scratching their heads, particularly about its utility, revenue generation, brand awareness increase ability, return on investment, and the list goes on and on. Typically, they know they should have some sort of program, but they're not sure how to structure it, fund it, or manage it. Much has been written about how to obtain buy-in on these initiatives from the C-suite, so I won't cover that ground again here.

However, what I will present today is one of the most comprehensive guides I've ever seen that spells out, in very clear terms, exactly which social media platforms should be used to create certain marketing outcomes. For the C-suite, it doesn't get any better than this.

Check out this handy guide, entitled "The CMO's Guide to the Social Landscape," and developed by CMO.com and SEO firm 97th Floor, have created the chart below showing which social networks are best to achieve various organizational, customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing goals. How useful are Facebook and Twitter for SEO purposes? Can Flickr actually drive Website traffic? Is LinkedIn useful for customer communications? If dealing with these questions are part of your day-to-day responsibilities, then you'll definitely want to check this out and then save it.

Make sure to click on the image to view this amazing infographic in PDF format, and then add this to your resource folder. We did!

Great Business Lessons from Horrible Marketing Strategies

Editor's Note: The following is a guest Marketing Mulligans post written by Alana Horowitz which first appeared on Business Insider, a new business site with deep financial, entertainment, green tech, and digital industry verticals. We're all familiar with the well-documented crises outlined below, but what about the important lessons that should be learned from them? Horowitz lays out the key takeaways from these famous faux pas.
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You can learn a lot about business from marketing history. Some of the most successful companies were born from great ads and publicity stunts (think of Apple's groundbreaking 1984 spot). On the other hand, bad strategies can be just as educational.

Here’s a look at what some of the biggest marketing failures can teach you:

The move: New Coke.

How it flopped: In 1985, The Coca Cola Company unveiled its first formula change in 99 years. The public was outraged. Replacing a tried-and-true classic with an unknown version would be like trying to change the national anthem to a Justin Bieber song. Coke quickly learned not to mess with brand loyalty and brought back the old formula 79 days later.

What you can learn: Stick to your brand. If you aren’t getting complaints about a service or product, there’s probably no need for drastic changes. On the other hand, it’s important to tap into your client or customer base and find out what they really want. Coke’s biggest mistake was trying out a new formula without ever asking consumers if there was anything wrong with the old one.


The move: Starbucks takes over the world.

How it flopped: Starbucks relies on its omnipresence as its primary form of advertising. How often do you buy their coffee because you literally can’t think of anywhere else to go? But there’s a downside to Starbucks’ ubiquity. There are so many stores (not to mention licensed franchises and grocery store products) that the brand itself has become watered down. It represents consumerism, not great coffee and friendly service.

What you can learn: Let your company grow naturally. Don’t force expansion or your message will become as diluted as a cup of Starbucks’ coffee.


The move: Kenneth Cole jokes about Egypt.

How it flopped: This year’s protests in Egypt were many things -- tragic, chaotic, revolutionary -- but funny wasn’t one of them. However, that didn’t stop designer Kenneth Cole from tweeting, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our spring collection is now available online.” Public reaction was so bad that Cole ended up deleting the tweet and issuing several apology statements.

What you can learn: Bad publicity is almost worse than none at all. A recent Google search for Kenneth Cole brings up articles about the social media misstep right under its own Website. If you think a stunt might offend people, it’s best to hold off.


The move: The Titanic is called "unsinkable."

How it flopped: Everyone knows the story. The luxury steamship was marketed as unsinkable -- until it was felled by an on its maiden voyage.

What you can learn: Whether it’s to one client or 3,500 passengers, don’t make promises unless you know you can deliver. Reliability is crucial, especially for a new business.

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