Will Twitter Disrupt Your Business ... or Enhance It?
How Social Media Tools Can Complement What You Do
Phil Johnson |
, by Clayton Christensen. The basic idea is that every once in a while a technology comes along that disrupts the established order. It's cheaper and better than the current technologies and will eventually topple the established market leaders. Think hard drives, computers, and semiconductors. The dilemma for established companies is that to succeed in the face of a disruptive technology, they will have to let go of the products and business models that made them successful so that they can start to develop the next generation of innovative products. They may even have to move away from their current business before customers are ready to adopt the new technology.
Today, agencies face their own disruptive technology in the form of Web 2.0 tools and social media. To pick one specific example, social networks such as Twitter can improve on a host of agency functions and often at a fraction of the cost. To be clear, Twitter won't displace all the functions of a marketing agency. Companies will continue to need brand identities, lead-generation programs and creative ideas that connect with people emotionally. Twitter, however, can serve as a marketing platform that allows companies to build brands, manage customer relationships, and share content. It's simple, it's powerful and it's inexpensive.
Does it have the potential to redefine the value and purpose of the modern marketing agency?
Here are just a few of the places where you can start to see Twitter and other social networks overturn the established order:
They make it easier and faster to monitor what customers think about your product and company. Tip: Use the Twitter search feature to see what people think about a client's brand.
Twitter gives you the ability to move beyond targeted messages to real conversations. One-to-one marketing celebrated the ability to tailor a message or an offer to an individual. Twitter lets you actually interact with people.
Through social networks, brand identity has broken free of the agency-driven campaign. Companies such as Zappos and Amazon have built their brands through the principles of community with very limited advertising.
We're well beyond arguing whether these changes are real. You can see the evidence stack up every day in The New York Times and BusinessWeek. Fox News profiled Ford's head of social media, Scott Monty. There's not enough time in the day to read about the new-business applications for Twitter on Twitter and related blogs. If you're going to try, Pistachio is a great place to start, as is Web Strategy by Jeremiah.
The big question is how should agencies respond to Twitter as a disruptive technology? Do you give up short-term revenue from traditional marketing services that may be obsolete in several years, so that you can reinvent your business model? Do you hang on to your current business model as long as possible and run the risk of falling behind?
I bet that most of us believe that we can create a hybrid model where we continue to practice traditional marketing and introduce select social-media components to our programs. Personally, I don't think that goes far enough. While we're taking half steps, new breeds of social-media agencies such as The Advance Guard are springing up to capitalize on disruptive technologies. My bet is that advertising agencies, even those with strong digital capabilities, will have to find a way to put social media at the core of their business model, because in time it will displace many of the marketing tools we use today.
The bright light for agencies is that they can use this time of transition to make their organizations a proof-of-concept for social networks. They should be able to demonstrate how they have developed their own brand on Twitter and other prominent platforms like Flickr, YouTube and SlideShare. That they have created multiple touch-points for sharing content. That they have built a network that connects all their important audiences. And that they are accessible and open to honest conversation with all the people who want to engage.
When this happens, one side benefit is that agencies will be more transparent to each other. Already I'm engaged in conversations with competitors on Twitter that I might not otherwise have had. Much of the content that we want to share with our clients and prospects is also accessible to our competition. I can tell you that the sky has not fallen. If anything, it has made us work a little harder to keep company with some of the great agencies that we admire.
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You can follow Phil Johnson on Twitter: @philjohnson
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Finding better ways to design campaigns around Twitter, building client specific APIs and communications strategies are all ways cutting edge agencies can actually make the disruptive nature of the technology work in their favor.
2009 is going to be an interesting year...
http://www.twitter.com/admaven
http://admaven.blogspot.com
I love what you said here:
"The bright light for agencies is that they can use this time of transition to make their organizations a proof-of-concept for social networks."
They should be able to do this in addition to (and really, in support of) doing all the other valuable things they offer their clients- especially the careful, strategic thinking that is really at the core of any agency's business. Someone told me recently that there are over 12,000 social media "expert" consultants on record. I wonder how many of these folks are actually making ends meet this way, or have a real track record of success anyway. But agencies like yours already have the track record and certainly the ability to get up to speed on social media. Adopting these tools and practices should be similar to what it might have been like to adopt email or start designing for the web. They're something, but not everything.
Chris
http://Twitter.com/savvyauntie
Social media is the promise (or threat) of 10+ years ago that digital was going to change the advertising fundamentally and for good. Now here we are at the center of a consumer controlled marketing shift and traditional agencies are again trying to find their place.
Phil, you're right, a new breed of agency is emerging as a result: agencies with a digital foundation and an ability to take risks and experiment with emerging technologies.
My prediction: these innovative agencies will win in the marketplace in 2009 and moving forward.
www.marketinghitch.com -- Connecting marketers + agencies
Couple things I wanted to share in light of your thoughts. First, in regards to the statement that agencies should consider placing social media at the core of their business model, I think you touch upon something very important here. Whether social media channels are used as complements or catalysts, the notion that messaging can constantly be refined through conversation is something that we should all embrace. Further, understanding how technology integrates into this mix in facilitating those conversations is precisely where the new breed of agencies will win out.
That said, the second thing I wanted to point out is that we should also remember that the use of social media requires strategies that aggregate, streamline and/or optimize content and experience sharing. There are at least 22 different channels or types to choose from and dozens more associated touch-points, so it is equally important that we choose wisely and think about brand experiences as they relate to how we relay messaging and how people share content with their peers. In other words, we don't want to overwhelm people, we want to empower them.
A personal example: I am a strategist who thinks about social media activation at the core of everything I consult on. However, my own use of social media is limited, or "carefully chosen". I don't really like to generate articles on my blog or tweet a whole lot - I'd rather join conversations wherever they may be happening and lend insights when I feel they may be appropriate. Does this make me less of an expert? I should hope not. Seth Godin seems to feel the same way (granted, I'm not him, but hopefully you see my point).
Anyway, I'll keep following you on Twitter and keep joining the conversation...
http://www.social-cache.com/2009/02/facebook-linkedin-twitter-past-present-and-future
The biggest change is that creativity is now the currency if advertising. In my industry, the legal field, there was a time when new attorneys could not compete with the established firms because the were not allowed to advertise. When the advertising ban was lifted, new attorneys still could not compete because they couldn't afford to advertise. Now, a new attorney with some creativity and some knowledge of SEO (or access thereto) can compete with the biggest firms. Indeed, smaller companies are more nimble and can incorporate the new technologies faster.
http://twitter.com/AaronMorrisEsq
Our biggest job now is to educate clients on the use of social media to build or promote a brand. There's some trepidation out there, because as products become part of a consumer conversation, an element of control is lost. At the same time, the online dialogue can help companies to refine or improve their products to meet consumer needs. It's up to us to become as conversant as possible in social media, and to advise our clients accordingly.
It is always difficult for some, myself included, to look in a new direction and proceed forward...getting out of the comfort zone.
Articles and comments like the ones here truly help, and are a wake up call at times. Even conservative traditionalists (like myself) need to stay ahead of the curve in business.
Chris Christensen, Oklahoma City, OK
let's be wise and take advantage of the momentum, but let,s not be stupid.
Cheers!
My PR agency and I hold weekly meetings, but we take our notes and highlight action items on a PBwiki, to facilitate collaboration:
* http://pbwiki.com/content/creative-client-collaboration
Our Customer Evangelist tweets on the company's behalf (http://twitter.com/PBKrissy) but the individual members of the team have their own personal accounts as well:
* http://twitter.com/chrisyeh (me)
* http://twitter.com/dweekly (founder)
* http://twitter.com/dustball (chief engineer)
You still have to tell compelling stories to a receptive audience. That never changes, no matter what we call the tools.
Where I disagree with you is maybe on the notion that niche social media agencies are going to displace the digital ones. (You seemed to imply that a bit I think) The reason I feel this won't happen is that social needs to be integrated into everything digital and can't be treated as a niche activity itself. A niche agency can't handle holistically handle strategy, media buying, website development, ad creative, pr all those marketing/business pieces which have social integrated into them. That's just my take and of course its in sync with the company I work for (a digital agency) but thought it worthwhile to put out there.
http://agitationist.com/twitter-in-140-characters
We are currently structuring a business for corporate social media training, and consulting as we see this is a strong need today.
Say It Social.com
Twitter:
Ty Downing