Turdy

Brown

Trousers

Challenging business convention in a social world

Scot McKee, Managing Director, BirddogNov. 2011

Q: How many people own a pair of brown trousers?

A: Quite a lot – it’s a popular colour

Introduction

On the plus side

StabilityReliabilityApproachability

On the plus side

ElementalEarthyCore strength

But…

It’s also the colour of turd

Q: How many people are wearing brown trousers today?

A: Not very many

Confess

Why?

The colour of averageThe colour of boringThe colour of meh

Why?

Despite being the most popular colour in the world……Brown is not ‘business’

Why?

We could introducea world of B2B trouser excitement

Why?

But we default to a whole other category of dull for business

The boundaries

When we push the boundaries a littleIt feels like we’re going CRAZEEEE…

The boundaries

But we’re not reallyBecause this is proper CRAZEEEE

The boundaries

In B2B, we occasionally try to be crazyBut only manage to get halfway there

The boundaries

On a ‘crazy’ day in B2B…

The boundaries

…we un-tuck our shirts

The new world order

BROWN TROUSERS

Change two words

The new world order

BROWN TROUSERS

Change two words

The new world order

Digital

Into one word

The new world order

Social

Or another word

The new world order

And the B2B challenge becomes clearer

Digital

Social

Staff, customers & prospects have gone Digital and Social ‘crazy’

The B2B Challenge

But the business response isn’t quite working

The B2B Challenge

The challenge is for business to keep up with customers

The B2B Challenge

The response so far

In the ‘old’ digital days, you would send email

The response so far

Not working?Ok…SEND MORE

The response so far

But it’s still not workingBecause of the ‘social’ wall

The response so far

Remember the wall?

The response so far

It stops everything…

The response so far

So the B2B shirt has been ‘un-tucked’And the corporate website…

The response so far

…has been made bigger(or a bit different)Yay

Q: Who has changed or added to their corporate website in the last 12mths or plans to change it in the next 12mths?

A: Almost everyone

A question…

There’s a problem with that…

A question…

It stops everything, remember?

The brown wall of turd

Even when it’s ‘bigger’

The brown wall of turd

Source: Wired/Cisco

The web is dead

The web is dead

Audience adoption of social media is forcing business change

The central corporate ‘push’ hub

The web is dead

Now has to ‘pull’ audiences from social spaces

The web is dead

Now has to ‘pull’ audiences from social spaces

The web is dead

But while businesses focus on the website

The web is dead

The customers are ignoring it

The web is dead

Customers love being social

The web is dead

Oops

B2B has tried to join inBut hasn’t tried very hard

The second wave

Some business brands have a twitter account

The second wave

Some have posted videos on YouTube

The second wave

Some are even becoming fans of LinkedIn

The second wave

But the customers are moving much quicker

The second wave

Source: IBM/Social Media Today

Over 8,000 social channels

Mobile commerce to reach $31bn by 2016

938 changes to Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn since 1/1/11

90% of the World’s data has been created in the last 2yrs

28% of buying decisions influenced by social networks

Some facts

Source: IBM/Social Media Today

Every day you say, “wait and see…”Another 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created

EpicOops

The point for B2B is…

Those who “don’t see the relevance” – are dead.

The point for B2B is…

Those asking “what’s the 1st step?” – are dead

The point for B2B is…

Those “planning to allocate some budget to social media” – are dead

The point for B2B is…

Those still expecting “traditional measures” for social media – are dead

The point for B2B is…

Those “trialling social media” – might live

The point for B2B is…

Social media needs to become the fabric of all marketing activity

The point for B2B is…

The entire Marketing Plan needs to be socialised

(That doesn’t mean all marketing is social media…)

The point for B2B is…

Understanding the customer’s journey

Allowing online engagement offline

And vice-versa

Encourage advocates, not customers

Personality trumps protocol

Create experiences, not sales pitches

Social integration

Reward loyalty and brand advocacyGive fans a reason to engageEnable social fans to ‘sell’ for you

Social integration

After this presentation?

So what happens now?

The old/current modelReach 100 people?

So what happens now?

Or… we cascade the turdy brown model

So what happens now?

Tag it and make it searchable

So what happens now?

Tweet it

So what happens now?

Slideshare…

So what happens now?

Podcast…

So what happens now?

Video…

So what happens now?

Yes, really. LinkedIn for video

Yes, yes, yesWebsite too

So what happens now?

Pretty soon…

…a turdy brown global phenomenon

So what happens now?

By next year…

…we’ll all be turdy brown and untucked

So what happens now?

Traditional/Website/Email

Potential Reach?

100

Traditional/Website/Email

Potential Reach?

100

To our known/tracked network In the first 24hrs

Potential Reach?

100 100,000

Conservative extended community

Potential Reach?

100 100,000 200,000

Within a week

Potential Reach?

100 100,000 200,000 500,000

It’s not ‘free’CommentaryResponse ManagementCommunity Development

Guardianship

Seeding + Syndication + Aggregation = ReachIncreased Reach = Brand AmplificationBrand Amplification = SalesBut… ownership changes hands

Guardianship

From the moment you hit the buttonIt’s not ‘yours’ anymore

Guardianship

It belongs to the crowd

Guardianship

The audience becomes part of the brandIt wants to be associated with contentIt wants to participateIt wants to share

Guardianship

When brand support is highSales are the inevitable consequence

Guardianship

Letting go still scares the majority of B2B

Safe v Social

Leaving the opportunity for the brave

Safe v Social

Resistance is futile

Safe v Social

Engaging Content Creation

Distributable Social Content

Cross Channel Sharing

Message Amplification

Customer Engagement

To end at the beginning

Is brown

The colour of social success

Is also brown

The colour of social failure

“I cannot pretend to feel impartial about colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns.” Winston Churchill

You’ve been warned

Thank you (and be social…)

Scot McKee