Campaigns to Conversations

Posted by Ambal Balakrishnan July 28th 10

Social media requires constant interaction and almost instantaneous response. How should marketers tackle this challenge? We asked Jessie Paul "What are key marketing trends and predictions for 2010? What actions should marketers take in 2010?".

Jessie Paul is CEO of PaulWriter and ex-CMO for Wipro Technologies and a member of Wipro's Strategy and Diversity Council. She has over 15 years of experience in marketing and brand internationalization and is author of No Money Marketing.

Jessie Paul

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"Time to move from a campaign–based approach to one of continuous conversations with stakeholders."

Jessie Paul's Marketing Prediction for 2010

Firms will build online communities by collaborating with a content partner, using an existing platform such as Ning, or creating their own. From an employee perspective organizations will deal with allowing workplace access to social networking tools, building “gated communities”, or embracing cloud solutions like Yammer.

This will raise issues of who will respond to queries, comments, and what is confidential. Listed companies will have to figure out relevance of terms like “silent period” and ‘selective disemmination” in this media. Marketing and legal will grapple over unsubstantiated claims and squatters. The first few high profile mistakes will take place next year. Many will not cope with the sudden increase in customer/employee interactions and will abandon their outreach plans.

Jessie Paul's Marketing Action for 2010

Social media requires constant interaction and almost instantaneous response. Marketers should proactively hire a qualified and empowered team to manage the outreach.
Create a social media policy in collaboration with the legal team which addresses potential landmines. Then run an extensive internal education program on the do’s and don’ts. A separate Social Media 101 will need to be conducted for the Board and C-Suite
Realize that social media is labor-intensive and not capital intensive. Revise budget allocations accordingly.
Shift from an annual theme or campaign to create “communications sachets” - that are frequent and short. Integrate social media into the brand campaign.

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