#socialmedia you say?

Why Social Media is a lot like Politics

2012-02-17T00:03:00.001+01:00

In 2004 I ran for public office in Palm Desert and got my ass kicked. I had a simple message: Vote for me because I'm younger than 72!. Anyone familiar with the demographics and politics of that area will tell you that was indeed a little disruptive. I got whooped, but boy did I learn a lot in the process! You can't pick this stuff up in school.

One of the things I learned is how amazingly complicated a political campaign can be to plan and execute. Even a small local one. We're talking about the third level of complexity here as defined in this book I reference in a recent post about social media checklists. In the described hierarchy of simple, complicated, and complex problems we face, political campaigns fit into the latter. When properly executed, that is.

Funny thing is, so does social media strategy at this stage in time. And this got me thinking recently. Because I often find myself having to explain what it means to "do" social media both internally and externally. What resources, skills, and organization it takes. And it's really hard! Because there's no "canned" answer. But analogy is the best teacher. And since we're in an election year, and most people can relate to a political campaign, I find it convenient to explain one in terms of the other.

In politics, you have a candidate. In social media, you have a brand. In politics and in social media, you need a clear, simple and powerful vision any constituent can understand and parrot. In politics, you have a campaign strategist. In social, you have a social media strategist. In politics, you have community activists. In social media, you have community managers. Both trying to leverage grass roots movements, build mind share and gather tribes. Both pushing people to not just watch but also take action. In politics, you have campaign managers. In social, you have social media managers.

In politics, you have the power of press and media. In social media, you have the power of content. In politics, you need serious financial backers and connectors. In social media, you need high-level corporate supporters. With budgetary discretion.

In politics, you have fickle audiences, backlash risks, and potential viral crises. In social media, you have online crisis, bloopers, and scandals too. In politics, damage control is an art. Same in social media. In politics, you have to understand how to turn natural enemies into strengths. In social, you need to turn natural detractors into supporters. In politics, you never do anything for zero gain. In social media, 1 + 1 = 3 always rules.

In politics, you can never stop preaching. In social, you're always telling the story, evangelizing something internally or externally. In politics, you need a single short, consistent, simple message. In social media, KISS rules. In politics, money feeds the engine. In social, no budget, no future.

In politics, you try to better people's lives. In social, you strive to better customer experience. In politics, you need quick concrete results. In social, you better have an upfront plan for bottom-line ROI from day one. In politics, you need to make really tough decisions on a moment's notice. In social media, you often have to do the same and trust your instincts.

In politics, there are countless moving parts. People, money, places, time lines, caveats. If they don't all fire together in unison, people get hurt. In social media, seizing opportunity, synchronization, risk management and taming uncertainty are art forms. In politics, it's not always easy to stay clean and often tempting to take shortcuts. In social media either, but doing so, unlike politics this time, is always lethal.

Political campaigns never sleep. It's not a job, it's a calling. You give it your all, you take your punches, celebrate victories, learn from your mistakes. Then get up the next day to kick some more ass. Because if you're any good at it, deep down, you really love people and want to give back. Drive that difference, and maybe change the world a tiny little bit, on your shift.

As brutal as it is, there's really no other reason to ever get involved. Pretty much like social media if you ask me.

Pinterest: Ok I get it now...

2012-02-12T18:40:00.000+01:00

I spent a good amount of time playing around with Pinterest this weekend - both for work and personal purposes. Ten million or so users now in a couple of years. Pretty impressive. I wanted to do this for a while, and had messed with it early on, but had never really "groked" it before so I figured I'd wait and see.

But then I had this concept for a business use of the platform for work, which motivated me to experiment a little deeper this time. All of a sudden, I had this ah-ha! moment. It occurred to me that I didn't really need to maintain this blog anymore - at all. Here's why.

We live in a age of mutating human communications. I think it's both technology and genetically-driven. People absorb information differently nowadays - in packets bursts - much like TPC/IP, the technical foundation of the Internet. And this ad-hoc, quick, information burst model is how information travels on networks like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, or Pinterest. You go on, you go off, you grab a piece here, a piece there. Reconstitute as needed (or not). Some is legitimate, some isn't. In either case it's 24/7, completely redundant, and very fast.

I know from observation and experience that young people are no longer wired to process large chunks of information. Neither are customers, interestingly enough. And since young people are our future customers, there's an ominous warning there. Because it's not just about building presence on new social networks - that's the easy part - It's about learning how to talk to humans 3.0.

Because when you push out big blobs of content, or publish long blog posts, or make people wade through long videos, or countless archives in some kind of cute database to find critical information they need right now, it's not surprising they tune out. Heck, they can't keep up biologically anymore. Don't even bother!

Back to Pinterest. As I was setting up my personal account on there, I started thinking. If you want to know a little bit about me, you can spend the next several hours going through my blog posts here. And probably hit older posts on previous blogs I've maintained. And read a lot of stuff.

Or you can go check out my new Pinterest boards. It's all visual, it's immediate. So stupidly simple, there's really nothing to say about it. Watches, social media, what's inside my Kindle, a little Chuck Norris humor. Yup, that's pretty much all you need to know about me really :)

And all of a sudden, I get it now. And I'm not even a woman :)

Social Media Checklists: Cleared for Takeoff?

2012-01-30T10:53:00.000+01:00

I did Altucher this weekend, which is why I'm late in posting now. Between my social media work at Autodesk and the time I spend reading other people's stuff, it's been a challenge finding time. Especially when I find content I really like. This weekend I spent hours reading every single post this guy ever wrote since 2010.

James is a pretty famous guy who made and lost millions (not necessarily in that order), lives in my home town of New York City, and became an accomplished author essentially by giving his material away for free.

I won't go into the details of what this guy writes about. Suffice to say he hasn't had a bad post since 2010, and that's a pretty good batting average. Go read his material - I hope you get as hooked on it as I did.

What the heck does this have to do with social media? Stick with me, I'm getting there. You see, buried in the vast flow of Altucherism is a nugget called Atul Gawande. That's Dr. Gawande to us mere mortals.

To find him, you have to read Altucher's post about living forever. Go ahead. Do it. It's in item #10 about avoiding hospitals. See it? Great. Now, if you're involved in any kind of training or coaching for social media in a very large organisation, click on the link, and either order or Kindle the guy's book The Checklist Manifesto.

At Autodesk, my team is responsible for on-boarding customer service staff onto social media channels. We started with forums and Twitter. We're headed out to new frontiers shortly. Now, I'm not a certified trainer - I only play one on TV - but through experience and trial and error, I've been learning a lot about training people to be successful on social media channels in the past six months. And you know what? It's quite a challenge. And I'm talking about working with really good people here - experienced, seasoned folks used to real phone/email combat in the customer service trenches.

In the process, we did classroom training, videos, screencasts, vendor tools training, real-time piloting (as I call it), simulated exercises, learn-by-example, ad-hoc mentoring, you name it. We bought books, we wrote guidelines, what-if scenarios, and a myriad of shared documents on what to say, where to say it, how to say it, why to say it, etc. In a real-time 24/5 context, this stuff can get pretty hairy. Can you spell "information overload"? Additionally, we work social on a global level with international teams. So you have cultural differences as well. And then of course, different people have different levels of familiarity with different channels, various approaches to learning and retaining, and so on.

Yet of all the techniques and methods employed, at least so far, I noticed early on that "pilot checklists" were the most efficient. So now you see why, upon reading about Dr. Gawande's work, something clicked for me. More importantly, the Manifesto identifies three types of problems: simple, complicated, and complex. Social media oscillates between the latter two. So can checklists help tackle these? I think so.

It turns out that a lot of social media interaction (monitoring and engagement) can be decomposed into discrete and well-defined sets of simple sequential steps. I know this because I'm working on social media capacity modeling these days. And to do this right, you need to know how much time people spend doing social. Turns out with a little experience you can clock both monitoring, triaging, and engagement activities to the second. If you have the frequency of events, and the time per event, and you know how many hours a day an agent can spend on social, then you have a pretty decent capacity model.

I know most of us "experts" - much like the doctors in the Manifesto - like to think of social media as a "gift" only a chosen few can master, but that's just nonsense. Truth be told, social media is not "voodoo" anymore. This is particularly true for sheer engagement. And most people can learn this stuff effectively. They need to be inherently "social" - which is a human trait (nature) - and they need the right checklist, which is a machine/process trait (nurture). Then they need to read the checklist of course.

The checklist for Twitter pretty much goes like this (it's roughly the same in any other channel):

Find a post (we have a triaging decision map)
Assign it to yourself (we use Radian6's Engagement Console)
Classify it (discrete values)
Select engagement level (a workflow state machine)
Annotate it (metadata)
Tag it
Respond
Sign response (like ^XYZ)
If needed, go into DM mode (exchanging private user information)
Create corresponding case in CRM if and as needed

I'm simplifying somewhat here, but you get the point. You can do the same thing for engagement on forums, Facebook, G+, etc. and for various channel modalities for publishing and promotion. Consistently, the checklist system has been more efficient and easier to "regulate" than any other type of operational content. Why is that?

People need clear, concise, sequential action items when in the heat of battle, not large how-to theoretical documents. Checklists are like a safety blanket. No one can get slapped for a problem if the checklist procedures were properly followed (but the checklist author can).

Long documents are open to interpretation. Checklists are not. Checklists are easily accessible - our guys slap physical printouts on their cube walls - whereas shared documents on SharePoint are not. Checklists are easy to maintain and adjust based on "bio-feedback" (live from-the-field experience). Big documents are harder to pull up, shuffle around and maintain.

So there you have it - for all the time and effort put into large and long social media training processes, it turns out a few simple checklists can usually do the trick faster and more efficiently. Who would have thought? Except Dr. Gawande clearly.

Checklists. If they're good enough for 747 pilots, astronauts, and brain surgeons, they're good enough for social media customer service folks as well - and probably essential. I bet you the guys at the Dell or Gatorade Mission Control Center use them all the time!

Social Media and the Power of Crazy

2012-01-21T09:33:00.002+01:00

People underestimate the power of crazy. or maybe they're just scared of it, I don't know. But crazy drives innovation and progress. Traditional, safe, status-quo, and "reasonable" hardly ever does.

Think about the list of crazy innovators who made a considerable impact on the world of business including Einstein, Steve Jobs, Jean-Claude Biver, Tony Hsieh, Andy wharhol, Gary Vaynerchuk, Jeff Bezos, Sam Walton, Larry Page, Howard Stern, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Richard Branson, Ray Kroc.

And on and on and on. All certifiable nut cases. All amazingly bright and successful in business. Coincidence or pattern? Can people with normally-wired brains build empires founded on innovation?

History seems to prove otherwise. I've often wondered why. Business isn't supposed to be driven by anything less than cold, rational, calculating cogitation. And yet, nut cases seem to have a considerable advantage.

They all tend to attract luck. They're fanatical workers. Mesmerizing evangelists. Brutally brilliant. Often megalomaniacs with little to no people sensitivity and zero social skills. They're immensely competitive and intolerant - despising error and mediocrity. They don't process contradiction or rejection. You tell one of these people that their idea won't stick, and they'll look at you like you're a mental patient. Then promptly pitch it to someone else.

Yes I know there's a fine line between passion and madness. These folks often teeter between the two. But it's not just these famous names listed above. Those are just some of the famous ones. At the extreme end of the cuckoo "curve".

How about where you work? Almost everyone has that "kinda crazy" guy or gal at the office. You know, the eccentric one with the weird ideas every day. The "weird" one. With the bizarre eye-rolling concepts everyone calls "so totally inappropriate for us". The stuff that's "never been done before" or will "never be approved, no way, not ever". Because it's just too insane. You know, it's waaaay out there. So out there, matter of fact, that it probably deserves serious consideration, doesn't it?

That's precisely the kind of nutcase I want on my team. Because innovation never begins with sanity. And one of those nutty ideas is likely your next jackpot. One thing's for sure: none of your "same old" traditional ones will ever be.

And in this day and age of social media and marketing democratization, the possibilities afforded one single crazy individual to "change the world" (and your organization in the process) are virtually limitless. So if you've got the tools, and you've got the nut cases, you have the recipe for innovation. Talk about a strategic advantage. Be a shame to waste it wouldn't you think?

In a recent post, Seth Godin predicts the end of the "average worker". I say good riddance. Bring on the crazies! It's time to kick some butt :)

Not ready to get naked online? Then don't do social

2012-01-15T14:41:00.002+01:00

Remember the old adage "don't do anything you wouldn't want your mom to read about in her morning paper"? You know, the kind of common sense knowledge sausage boy here apparently never possessed.

I call it the open kimono syndrome as it applies to businesses. Because any enterprise deciding to adopt social media needs a little self-reflection time before pulling the trigger. Here's why.

It's really difficult not to appear as yourself online. Matter of fact, I'd argue it's easier to fool people (if that's what you're into) in "real life" than on social media networks. I think the human race has had millions of years of training and learning on how to "deceive" socially for various reasons - some more legitimate than others. But nonetheless, it's ingrained in our DNA as anyone with kids will attest to.

Social media being a new medium for human expression and connection, it's a little harder to appear genuine on it when trying to deceive or build a fabricated image. We don't have the natural inborn aptitude to do so - just yet.

You can spot fakes and bullshit artists online way easier than in person. At least that's my experience. The way they use the networks, the language employed, the "flow" of their pitches just doesn't "click". It doesn't take that much experience on social networks to smell those folks a megabyte away.

The same holds true for businesses, and even more so in my opinion. Take this case, for example - a classic:

Yes, I know, it's in French, so let me explain for our Anglophone readers: this is a major telecommunications company in France telling a customer on its Facebook page to go take a hike if he's not happy with their service. Literally: "If you don't like it, the door is wide open". Take that, you pesky customer!

This is exactly what I mean about opening the kimono online. Chances are this company is truly like this internally - it's very DNA compels it to disrespect customers (they're an annoyance) and tell them off. They've probably behaved this way since day one. Being on social channels just makes it way more dangerous for them because now, the cat's out of the bag. If I were advising these folks, I'd tell them to get the hell out of social media dodge pronto! As my buddy Ron White used to say, "you can't fix stupid" - and you can't fix anti-customer DNA either. So why broadcast it to the world?

There's a couple of things you'll need to ensure you have before starting a social media journey - I don't care how large or small a business - please don't on-board social media channels unless:

#1 You really really love customers more than shareholders
I know, sounds tacky and everyone says they do, but all too often they lie (and they know it) or live in serious self-deception mode. Unless everyone from the CEO to the dude on your customer support lines genuinely live and breathe customers, don't do social. What does it mean to "live and breathe" customers? It means this. If you'd rather go home at 5PM sharp than finish resolving a hairy customer service issue, spend a weekend skying instead of fixing a major product defect, shut up rather than raise hell about an unfair policy, or stay in your corner office rather than fly out in person and bring a replacement part to a customer in trouble, you're not "living and breathing" customers.

#2 You have empowered employees
Unless customer-facing employees are wholly and fully empowered to fix and/or make things right for customers, don't do social. I'm talking about the ability to make immediate high-impact decisions for customers in real time. Without having to go up an endless chain of command. Like refunds, discounts, rewards, or policy exceptions - whatever it take in your particular business to enchant and wow customers. There should never an "authorization" path to customer satisfaction. Ever. If you feel your people might misuse or abuse this empowerment, you don't have the right people in place.

#3 You're willing to admit mistakes in public and fix them
"We can't make this right for the customer. If we did, it would be like admitting we were wrong."

Admitting you screwed up something for a customer is the most powerful humanizing PR you can do. Say what? Your policy is to never apologize in public? That's ok then. Just don't do social. Caveat: if you find yourself apologizing too often, then just stop screwing up :)

"If we were do to this for this guy, and people found out, everybody would start screaming for the same!"

If you were to do this for this guy guess what, he'd probably tell everyone and his mother. You might actually get more customers and increase positive sentiment. In any case, anyone starting to "scream" to get a hold of your product or service is probably a good thing isn't it? If not, don't do social.

#4 You're willing to appear naked online
There will be times when it gets nasty out there. Customers will rant and scream. Employees will screw up. You internal processes will be "outed" in public - for better or for worst. Your cohesion as a company, its strengths and weaknesses will quickly seep through for all to see. It will all be amplified and "recorded" on the web for posterity. You'll have no room for backtracking or bullshitting people. Internally or externally.

The world at large and your own employees will see the "real" you - no matter how you try and paint things. Everyone will see the good along with the bad. No matter how hard Corporate Communications and Marketing try to serve and protect, I can promise you every so often, the kimono is going to fly open and people are going to get an eyeful. And if that's a risk you can't afford to take, don't do social.

@AutodeskCare: The Doctor is In!

2011-12-11T15:59:00.001+01:00

Let me reassure - or maybe disappoint you - right off the bat: Autodesk will not be providing psychiatric help on its Customer Care Twitter channel :)

But in more ways than one, we are indeed embarked on a new way of looking at and providing customer service using social media. And there’s no turning back now. I had an opportunity over the past six months to help expand our Front Desk customer service offering onto Twitter. And it’s been one of the most interesting professional rides I’ve taken in a while.

A lot of what we experienced can be read in books dealing with social media on a grand global corporate scale. Olivier Blanchard's Social Media ROI would be my top pick. But it’s one thing to read about it, and quite another to actually “git ‘er dun”.

Now, truth be told, Autodesk already has mind-boggling social media presence. I can’t mention exact numbers, but suffice to say, when I started mapping and measuring our global social footprint using Radian6, my initial professional assessment was “holy crap!” :)

If you include Twitter, blogs, forums, Facebook, product and industry-focused communities, Google+, Youtube, etc you’re looking at one of the largest aggregated online communities on the planet. It just happened to be missing a “social” customer service angle. So we set out to create one.

I work on the Operations side for the Global Business Services division. Within that organization is a relatively new customer service group called Front Desk. Front Desk provides customer service for everything except technical product support. Anyone and everyone who needs help with business service issues - like licensing, registration, activation, or managing their subscription benefits - eventually ends up at our doorstep. With over 15 million customers, 160 products, a new cloud offering, millions of new consumer product users, 7,000 employees and a 24/7 global operating cycle, that’s a pretty tall order.

How do you scale support to something of that magnitude while building closer 1:1 relationships with millions of fans and customers? Why, social media, of course! And after much initial research, we picked Twitter as our first channel to exploit. Why? Because we saw a significant mass of customers on it. But more importantly, because Twitter is an “instant gratification” channel. And when customers get instant, “just-in-time” support, they get their work done faster. Which in turn makes them more productive, and exponentially happier. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.

Here are six highlights of this social media experience I thought might be worth sharing.

1. Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight
Setting up a social media presence for a large multi-million customer community requires serious tooling for both monitoring and engaging. Especially when multiple teams across three different geos must collaborate and provide round-the-clock support. All the listening and engagement work we did was using the Radian6 platform, a tool I had already used when working at Hublot. One of the most important things in selecting such a vendor is breadth of coverage (how many media types can they track), noise filtering, collaborative engagement features, CRM integration (SFDC now owns Radian6, and we use SFDC), and last but not least, support! On that last item especially, Radian6 has truly shined for us.

2. Don’t pull your weight, push it!
JIT (just-in-time) support - to use a term from my old software engineering days - requires fairly aggressive SLAs. It’s a totally different mindset than going out and “scanning” for issues (although we do that as well). In a JIT operation, information must be “pushed” in real time to support reps on multiple platforms as they happen. There’s a technology and philosophical mindset shift inherent in such an implementation. Both technology (alert-based) and training (reactive) must support that.

3. Tag, you’re it!
For lack of a better expression, this is the internal network map that allows you to immediately identify and communicate with the appropriate internal group or team to resolve a support issue. The larger the company, the more complex it gets to identify and “recruit” these touchpoints. And Autodesk is a very large place. People come and go. Folks are accessible via different channels. Some are more available than others. You need to create dynamic lists of contact points to route “incomings” as needed. Without this internal support map, customer experience can suffer. Put it online, let people edit it, establish buy-in, and manage expectations for every node.

4. From the classroom to the battlefield.
I initially underestimated the amount and type of training required. I also overestimated the effectiveness of “theoretical” or classroom training. In the end, we prioritized “live simulation training” over the rest - Creating dummy accounts and simulating customer interactions on Twitter. Everyone learns differently and at various rates, but nothing seems as useful as spending hours in a group pretending to be “out there”. There’s a certain heightened sense of pressure when doing these exercises that seems to enhance learning. In the end, nothing beats being “out there” on the battlefield. The worst enemy for a new social media field team is fear of mistakes. Minimizing this natural (and healthy!) apprehension is half the training challenge. The other half is enforcing consistency across tone, voice, and processes.

5. Social team synapse
In a global setting, social media teams need to constantly communicate with one another. Especially as various teams go on and off shift. Get this wrong, and the customer experience will suffer from inconsistency and confusion. Much like #3, you must never let what happens “behind the scenes” affect customer experience. Customers don’t give a hoot about changing shifts, vacations, illnesses, staff changes etc. Information and communication must flow naturally and centrally between all social team members. Special cases, heads-up on potential problems, cases in progress, delays, system outages, coverage “holes” - all these must be shared among team members in real time, and then logged in a database, so history (and accountability) can be tracked and measured.

6. Metrics moving parts
The “Bête noire” of social media is particularly tricky for us because we strive to go out and “occupy” existing social channels where customers “live” - and in so doing, we rarely own the channel - we’re essentially squatters - I like to think of it a bit more prestigiously as “Doctors without borders” as we fan out into the world where customers need us most :)

We took a similar approach with our own product and Cloud support forums. To succeed at this from a metrics standpoint, you need to quickly extract data and - if applicable - integrate it back into your CRM for analysis and reporting. This means you’ll be pulling from different internal feeds, analysis tools, platforms, and vendor databases or APIs - all in potentially different formats and varying levels of detail. This is a classic business intelligence ETL challenge applied to a real-time, unstructured, ad-hoc process. Solving it requires clear metrics requirements, good vendor relationships, programming skills, and a little help from your friends on the analytics team.

So what’s next?
We'll have to see how this new customer service channel works out for us. We went live on December 1st, so it is clearly very new. New for our team members, new for our customers. We wanted to start small, and grow the offering organically, slowly, and carefully. We'll be following a similar approach with other channels shortly. I'm really excited about the coming months!

A well-oiled social media customer service team doesn’t happen overnight. It takes good strategy, great people, technical resources, management support, and most importantly, team effort and flexibility. No rocket science there, except it’s often difficult at best to combine all these elements in a mammoth corporate entity.

I think we’ve managed to do this in the Front Desk group at Autodesk for a very simple reason: at the end of the day, everyone from the service reps to the CEO really truly cares about customer experience. It’s not just lip service. This alignment comes from the heart.

And as we move along growing and learning social media while strengthening the relationship we have with our millions of customers, I feel privileged to be part of this amazing social media project.

If you find yourself in a comfort zone...

2011-07-16T09:11:00.010+02:00

You know my creed by now: "If you find yourself in a comfort zone, you're probably parked illegally." - It mostly has to do with the power of growth through change, and the ability to adapt via experience and continuous learning. Stagnation is bad. Change is enriching. As scary as it is, it makes us better, tougher, and more valuable. And in this day and age, I believe this to be particularly pertinent. This is why I've decided to take on a new career challenge recently, and to return to my professional roots, namely the software industry.

No I'm not leaving social media. And no, I'm not leaving Switzerland. Those are changes I was not willing to make. Hell no! :) But I will be looking at the luxury watch industry from the consumer perspective from now on. Because I just started in my new position as Global Web Support Content Manager at a software company here called Autodesk. Autodesk sells design software and chances are, if you look around you, inside or outside, pretty much every object you see (and every movie for that matter) has been designed and or prototyped using one or more of their products. Including your watch!

I think it's interesting to look back on my past experience in the luxury watch industry - things happened so fast and furious since November 2009 that I never really took the time to retrospect on the overall experience.

Well first of all, truth be told, I had the opportunity to join the great horology family through the "back door", as they say. As anyone in this industry will tell you, people don't just waltz into this universe out of the blue. It's a closed, highly-sealed, jealously-protected world. I was one of the very rare folks who did, thanks to social media, and the foresight of a brand called Marvin Watches.

As such, I was also the first person do be doing social media full-time in the watch industry. Yes there were other forum or community managers, but I'm talking about someone 110% dedicated to everything and anything social media - and someone from outside the "family" - with free reign to try things out, experiment, make mistakes, and innovate. I was seen as some kind of UFO (especially hailing from California!) and was sometimes interviewed by the watch press about it.

In a short time, I identified most of the key industry influencers, and managed to learn enough about the industry to avoid screwing up too badly. In the process - and I didn't know this initially - I made some really good friends. I tried to pick up as much technical information as I could (thanks to J-F Ruchonnet, Elizabeth Doerr, and my buddy Ben at Hodinkee for a lot of it - to name a few), but that was the easy part. The political, cultural, and social intricacies of the industry came later, little by little.

I'd like to think we did really well with Marvin. When I first started out, you couldn't find the brand anywhere online. Zero mind share. No Twitter, no Facebook, no videos, no blog, no buzz, no press. Zilch. The 160 year old brand had completely vanished from the radar. Nobody had the remotest clue about it, and no one was covering it except of course for Ariel Adams, the human watch encyclopedia. Within six months we had a thriving community, strong presence on major social media channels, blogger interest and press (I think we did like 50 mentions in that time period), and industry recognition for being "on the edge" of this new horology frontier. And customers started realizing we were a different breed of watch company (heck, we actually talked to them!) - and they in turn started talking to others. The rest is history. We did a comparative analysis after six months on returns from traditional marketing/advertising vs. what we'd accomplished with a tiny social media budget (and I mean tiny). Social media won overwhelmingly hands down both in sales and mindshare.

Shortly thereafter, I had the opportunity to work directly for Jean-Claude Biver as Hublot's social media and web strategist. J-C, as many call him, is to the watch business what Steve Jobs is to the technology world. In other words, the giant of the industry. If you want to get to the top of the power ladder of horology, it doesn't get much better than this. And when you have the blessing and the ear of the industry's most powerful man on a daily basis, that's an experience you never forget. In a short time, we mapped a social media strategy for the company both for the Western world and China. We also launched Hublotista, their exclusive customer online community, brought Radian 6 in-house, built an editorial approach for a corporate blog, launched mobile apps, and a whole bunch of other behind-the-scenes projects I can't even talk about.

After all this I came up with the idea to create a web radio show called the "First live international web radio show about watches and the people who love them". Why? Well you can read the details here. In a little over six months, I interviewed virtually everyone who's anyone in the watch industry in short 30 minute segments live, uncut, and unedited. Why no one else in the industry ever thought of doing this in this format is beyond me - but I thought it was important to show the human sides of these people, and allow the public to access them one-on-one, no bullshit, up close and personal, and without the usual shielding from marketing, PR, and all the usual protective layers. I never had anyone blow me off or refuse an appearance. Well okay maybe two or three :) Thanks to the show, my audience and I met some truly amazing human beings. And if you want to really know and understand those who make this industry tick, then check out the replays. I promise you'll dig them.

In a fairly short while, I had a chance to evolve among a wide range of industry players - from the smallest shops to the largest corporate players of the industry. It was fast and furious. I made some really good friends in the process - bloggers, CEOs, watchmakers, journalists, photographers, agency people, PR folks, designers, and of course, fans and customers.

In the process, I hope (and think) I made some worthwhile contributions. No matter what happens, I can always say "I've been on the inside" - and that privilege is very, very rare, and very exclusive - believe me. It certainly gives you another perspective on life. Sometimes I think it's a little bit like being an astronaut. It's hard to truly describe it to "civilians" once you return to Earth - one of these things where "you just had to be there".

In light of my recent post about the Swiss watch industry's digital future, and facing an amazing opportunity at a software company called Autodesk ($8B market cap, 10M customers, 7,000 employees, 85% market share), I decided it would be wise and fulfilling to join their Global Content Strategy team. The company is on a major growth path (which, in these economic times, is truly impressive!), and pursuing an aggressive social media and customer relationship strategy on a worldwide scale that I'm very happy to be part of.

I'll keep on blogging here, obviously, about all things watches and social media - I'll be writing about the watch industry from the consumer side and perhaps contributing on other sites as well. Here's the first question I've been asking myself for the past several weeks: what the heck brand can I possibly buy for myself now that I know better? You'd have asked me two years ago, I would have said Rolex, like any other idiot. Having been on the inside certainly makes that decision a thousand times harder! :)

L'industrie horlogère suisse est-elle en train de rater la marche digitale?

2011-06-29T17:44:00.003+02:00

Je réflechis depuis lontemps sur ce qui se passe dans le digital et les réseaux sociaux du monde de l'horlogerie de luxe suisse. D'ailleurs je passe une bonne partie de ma vie à apprendre et à cogiter sur le sujet :) Vous vous souviendrez peut-être de quelques billets récent évoquant une certaine léthargie, la difficulté de convaincre certains clients, les nuances du digital appliqué au luxe. Et plus récemment, bien sur, mon blog sur les marques horlogères pour lesquelles il doit faire bon bosser (dans le domaine du digital bien sur), et puis l'étude récente de L2 sur les QI des marques de luxe horlogères sur Facebook (c'est pas brillant).

De plus, comme vous le savez, je viens de rentrer de la conférence ChinaConnect 2011 qui s'est déroulée à Paris récemment. J'y ai découvert et confirmé une masse impressionante d'informations sur le digital et les réseaux sociaux la bas - J'en ai retenu quelques points intéressants sur ce blog aussi.

Et finalement, ceux d'entre vous qui me suivent depuis un bout de temps savent bien que, quoique né à Paris, je viens des USA ou j'ai passé quasiment toute ma vie avant de venir savourer les plaisirs de la vie helvétique. Cela ne me permets certainement pas de me prononcer en tant qu'expert sur le marché américain, mais j'ai quand même une petite idée de comment fonctionne une societé entièrement vouée aux réseaux sociaux depuis leur création - puisque, de plus, le concept à été inventé la bas! :)

En combinant tout cela avec un an et demi d'évolution et d'expérience diverse dans le milieux du luxe horloger dans le coeur même de la bête, je pense pouvoir partager avec vous quelques réflections rapport au status des réseaux sociaux et du development digital dans cette industrie.

Un an et demi, c'est court, surtout en Suisse ou le temps coule un peu plus lentement qu'ailleurs. Mais dans le monde du digital et des réseaux, c'est presque une éternité. Et ce que je constate, c'est que notre industrie est toujours, dans de nombreux cas, encore en train de "réflechir" à si il faut ou non se lancer dans les réseaux sociaux, et comment. Le problème, à mon avis, c'est que le temps de cette réflection est révolu. Dans les grands marchés sourtout, comme les USA, le Japon, ou la Chine, par example, la question ne devrait même plus se poser car la réponse est dorénavant plus qu'évidente.

Les marques qui se demandent encore si elles devraient vraiment se lancer dans les réseaux sociaux, en l'occurence, on raté le métro et sont probablement en voie de disparition. Dans les marchés émergents comme la Chine, l'Inde, l'Afrique, et certains pays du Moyen Orient, ne pas avoir de volonté ou de strategie digitale est suicidaire. C'est tendre le cou au bourreau.

L'autre problème, ce sont les codes du luxe qui eux-mêmes sont en pleine mutation. Pas au niveau produit vraiment, mais surtout au niveau psychologique, voir intellectuel et socio-économique - la crise a contribué à cela bien sur, mais n'en est pas l'unique catalyseur. Ces changements accompagnent des fluctuations socio-politiques au niveau global. Vous souvenez-vous de la scène finale de Terminator 2? Voila ou nous en sommes.

Le luxe a des niveaux de maturité et d'acceptance différents selon les marchés et les populations - voire la Chine (un si grand marché que même à l'interne ces nuances regionales sont énormes) comparée à l"Europe ou les USA, par example. Le luxe ne s'exprime plus comme avant, devenant parfois politiquement incorrect dans nos societés occidentales qui virent à gauche (les fossés d'inéquité se creusant), alors que la Chine, qui y aurait cru, est en fait en train de nous ré-apprendre à faire du vrai Capitalisme!

Face à ces changements subtils et fondamentaux, l'industrie horlogère suisse a, pour la plupart, complêtement raté le coche. Au lieu de se plier à la vague, d'écouter, d'en tirer les conclusions qui s'imposent, et d'agir, ils se raccrochent à la sainte "tradition" dogmatique, se refugiant encore et toujours derrière le protectionisme périmé du label "Swiss-Made" - alors que l'industrie même vient de se castrer à ce sujet, ce qui n'est pas tombé dans les oreilles sourdes des investisseurs étrangers.

Les réseaux sociaux (dans le sens générique du terme, donc le relationnel digital) sont la seule et unique façon de faire face à ces vagues de changement mondiaux pour plusieurs raisons:

Question de vitesse
Les changements arrivent três forts et três rapidement. Les marchés peuvent changer de gout, de préférences (les trends), et d'influenceurs d'un jour a l'autre. Le bouche-à-oreille, c'est instantané. Les institutions et les gouvernements peuvent facilement changer en un coup de Facebook, et cela en quelques heures parfois, et non plus sur des années comme au paravant. Ce nouveau rythme de vie est trop rapide pour une industrie trop lente qui peine à suivre. De plus, les étalements de production, l'établissement de magasins physiques, tout cela représente des investissements énormes de temps et d'argent axés sur 3-5 ans - donc sur des cycles qui ne correspondent plus à une vitesse de reaction essentielle dans ce nouveau contexte. Il serait logique d'investir et de re-axer une bonne partie des chaines de distribution classiques sur le commerce digital d'ailleurs (e/f/m-commerce) mais la encore, l'industrie est trop réticente et a pris des années lumiêres de retard, comme pour tout ce qui est mobile (smartphone, tablette, etc).

Question d'envergure
Il n'est pas possible d'agir sur un marché global partout à la fois et en permanence sans les réseaux sociaux. Les clients (ou les interessés) sont à présent partout, à toute heure, sans conscience des changements de fuseau horaires, et animés par une culture basée sur la gratification immédiate. Justifié ou pas, c'est ce que le client demande. Il faut donc lui répondre en conséquence. Sinon, le concurrent va s'en charger - et le concurrent, il risque fort de ne pas être Suisse lui. Il est casiment impossible de couvrir la planète physiquement, même avec un CEO et du personnel qui passe sa vie en avion. Ces jours sont révolus.

Question de savoir
L'information arrive tellement vite et tellement furieusement de toutes les directions à la fois qu'il faut être en écoute permanente et partout, au risque de rater quelque bribe cruciale. Déja, il faudrait mieux écouter et consulter le personnel à pied d'oeuvre dans les marchés, ce qui ne se fait parfois pas assez, mais sans les moyens digitaux de mesurer et d'évaluer le changement constant en temps réel, une marque courre vite à sa perte. C'est pain bénit pour la concurrence.

Question d'humain
Comme dit mon ami et ex-mentor Robbie Coleman, "les réseaux sociaux, ca fonctionne bien seulement entre les mains de ceux qui eux mêmes comprennent les gens". Ca à l'air tout bête comme aphorisme, mais c'est pourtant le bon sens. Beaucoup de marques ne comprennent pas leur clients existants ou potentiels - ou ne s'en donnent pas la peine. Sans les réseaux sociaux, ils ne peuvent pas progresser la dessus, et écouter pleinement, anticiper les besoins à venir, les problèmes existants sur le terrain, les attentes des gens, et les changements relationnels dans les rapport humains qui influent sur le luxe et sa consommation. Conclusion: des clients peu satisfaits qui parlent à d'autres clients potentiels, qui eux s'addressent - vous l'aurez deviné - à la concurrence, sans même passer sur votre site web!

Notre industrie a décidement mis bien trop longtemps à s'adapter ne serait-ce qu'au concept du digital et à l'accepter comme étant incontournable. Bon, il y a des exceptions, c'est clair. Il y a un an, j'aurais dit que cela était normal - après tout, c'est neuf tout ca. C'est révolutionnaire, c'est mal maitrisé, difficilement mesurable en tableaux Excel. Bref, beaucoup de caractéristiques qui passent difficilement dans la culture suisse, il faut reconnaitre.

Mais à present, de ne pas se décider et ne pas y aller à fond, je trouve cela suicidaire et frôlant l'incompétence. C'est maintenant ou jamais. Et si on ne s'y met pas sérieusement, d'autres s'en chargeront aux USA, en Chine, et autre part, la ou l'on s'y attend le moins (c'est toujours comme ça). D'ailleurs, les investisseurs chinois ont déja ouvert la chasse à la marque suisse depuis quelques temps. Ils ne sont pas fous eux! :) Comme disait mon arrière grand-mère, par ici la bonne soupe! Rien ne dure éternellement.

L'industrie horlogère suisse a survécu à bien des intempesties, L'avènement du quartz dans les années 80, combiné avec une méchante crise financiére a bien failli en avoir raison. Dieu merci, dans ces moments difficiles, il y a eu des hommes comme Jean-Claude Biver et Nicolas Hayek qui ont su sauver la partie et éviter la catastrophe totale. Mais cette fois-ci, j'ai du mal à imaginer qui pourrait se poser en sauveur d'une industrie en crise digitale qui, j'ai bien peur, va aussi lui infliger beaucoup de dégats dans les années qui viennent. Et cela me fait beaucoup de soucis.

Is the Swiss Luxury Watch Industry in Social Media Meltdown?

2011-06-29T15:04:00.004+02:00

I've been thinking a lot about the state of social media in the luxury industry and, of course, specifically in the watch segment for obvious reasons. You might recalls some recent posts about this like the one about lethargy, dealing with clients, specific issues in luxury social media, and lately of course the one about cool "socially-inclined" brands, and watch brands with (or without) Facebook IQs.

Additionally, as you might know, I recently returned from the ChinaConnect 2011 Conference in Paris, France where I discovered (and confirmed) a boatload of information about social and digital in the world's largest market (read Part I, II and III of my feedback about it).

To top it off, those of you who have kindly followed me for a while know that, albeit French-born, I come from the USA, and that I spent my entire life there until recently. That doesn't make me a US market expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it does give me a little insight into how things should work in an optimal "social-mediatized" culture. Heck, social media was invented there! :)

Combine all this with eighteen months of learning and evolving in the Swiss luxury watch industry from the mothership, and I think all of the above combines to give me a pretty special (if not unusual) perspective on the whole matter of social media in tic-tock land.

Eighteen months is short by Swiss standards (by any standard for that matter) but almost an eternity in digital time. What I notice is that the industry is still "on the fence" in many cases - still trying to decide whether to go for it or not. Problem is, in my opinion, that the go/no-go decision point is way past the point of no return. In the largest luxury markets to date, namely the USA, Japan and China, the question of investing in "real" social media or not is beyond moot - the answer is quite obvious.

If you're wondering about engaging in social media at this point, you've missed the boat, and you are D.O.A. And in growing markets like China, India, Africa, some Middle East nations, and Brazil, to name a few, not having a social media strategy is just plain suicidal. You're giving your lunch away.

The other problem is that luxury codes themselves are mutating. Not products per say, but the intellectual and socio-economic factors affecting and defining luxury are shifting - and these changes accompany ongoing global socio-political fluctuations. Remember the ending scene from T2? We are there. Luxury has various levels of maturity and acceptability in different markets - namely Asia (China) versus Europe or the US, for example. Old codes are changing and evolving in a world where the consumers, not the brands, now hold power. Luxury is no longer expressed as it used to be - often politically-incorrect as the Western world is shifting liberal (in the US sense of the term) while China, of all places, is re-teaching us what Capitalism is all about!

The Swiss watch industry is for the most part completely missing the boat on this. Instead of riding the wave, listening, and drawing conclusions to drive longevity, they're paddling centuries of "tradition" dogmatism and safety in the comfort of the almighty "Swiss-Made" (which, incidentally, was recently castrated by the very own system it was designed to protect!).

Social media (in the generic sense) is the only possible way to "ride the wave" in the maelstrom we face. Why? Several reasons:

Velocity
Things move very fast. Markets change as do tastes, trends, and geographic power points. Institutions, opinions and governments now turn on a dime. Changes occur in days, not years. This new global life pace is way too fast for the Swiss watch industry to adapt adequately. Especially since production plans are etched out on 3-5 year periods, and physical retail locations represent huge investments. One obvious tactic would be to progressively re-route distribution to online channels (mobile or not) but the industry is far behind on e/f/m-commerce.

Reach
You cannot physically reach every corner of the world where something significant may or may not be happening, or where customers may or may not need support or an ear. Simply put, unless you are actively engaged in social media, you can no longer cover your markets effectively. No matter how many frequent-flyer miles your CEO might boast about. Period.

Intelligence
Information keeps coming in fast and furious from all directions. Unless you're listening broadly and continuously, you will inevitably miss vital pieces of intelligence. It's bad enough when brands don't listen to their own people in the field - which happens often enough - but not having the digital means to measure and evaluate ever-changing data is deadly in this new world (dis)order.

It's about people, stupid
As my friend and ex-mentor Robbie Coleman likes to say, "Social media only works at the hands of someone who understands people" - This apparent truism is often at the source of the industry's reluctance to fully embrace social media - in essence, most brands really don't understand people and, more dramatically, their own customers. Nor do they have the means to anticipate their future needs, aspirations or rewoven social fabrics.

Our industry has been slow - very slow - to fully embrace social. A year ago, I would have said this was understandable. Today, I believe it's suicidal and incompetent at best. The day of reckoning is here, and if we don't get our act together, believe you me others in the US and China soon will. In case you haven't noticed, Chinese investors have declared open season on Swiss watch brands in the past months. Nothing is eternal. Stay tuned...

The industry survived the economic crisis and Japanese quartz assault of the late 1970s and 1980s thanks in part to men like Jean-Claude Biver and Nicolas Hayek. But at the present time, I'm not seeing any such saviors for the digital crisis I believe will soon hit the Swiss watch industry - and that worries me.

Would the Smart Watch Brands on Facebook Please Standup? Hello? Anyone?

2011-06-27T07:22:00.002+02:00

L2's Facebook IQ Ranking for luxury brands recently came out, and obviously I was interested in looking at watch company rankings in the report as I've been tracking them myself on Mark Zuckerberg's platform for over a year now. Here's the "just-the-facts, mam" low-down (out of 100 companies):

#24, IQ = 126 (gifted) - Omega
#28, IQ = 123 (gifted) - IWC
#34, IQ = 115 (gifted) - TAG Heuer

#44, IQ = 106 (average) - Mont Blanc
#46, IQ = 104 (average) - Piaget
#54, IQ = 97 (average) - Hublot
#65, IQ = 90 (average) - Vacheron Constantin
#66, IQ = 90 (average) - Raymond Weil

#71, IQ = 85 (challenged) - Jaeger-LeCoultre
#72, IQ = 84 (challenged) - Movado
#74, IQ = 83 (challenged) - Bulgari
#75, IQ = 80 (challenged) - Chopard
#78, IQ = 78 (challenged) - Cartier

#91, IQ = 57 (feeble) - Harry Winston
#92, IQ = 54 (feeble) - Audemars Piguet
#94, IQ = 47 (feeble) - Rolex
#98, IQ = 30 (feeble) - Patek Philippe

Interesting you say? My though exactly. You can read the post and associated report to draw your own conclusions, but I think the following stands out:

First, notice there are only 17 brands included (I didn't count Ralph Lauren or LV as they are not watch companies per say) out of probably 600 or so luxury Swiss watch brands (and 120 or so on Facebook). Now truth be told, I'm not sure why brands like Beaume & Mercier (140,000 fans) or Frederique Constant (65,000 fans) were not included. Still, we're talking about a very small minority of watch brands (5.6%) - even supposing twice as many (34) might be significantly present on Facebook.

Conclusion: this industry is still dipping a toe in the social media waters at best. And yes, I do believe Facebook to be a bellwether of social media "juice" for watch companies. Even if you take the luxury industry as a whole, fashion and cosmetics are significantly more advanced than the watch segment. This is not only for Facebook mind you, but for every other digital endeavor not the least of which are e-commerce and mobile (there are no interesting branded mobile watch apps currently in existence, even if Zenith somehow made this list, and e/f/m-commerce are still taboo).

Second, the high-end legacy "heritage" flagship brands really suck at this. AP, Rolex, Cartier, Jaeger, and Patek are at or near the bottom of the barrel. Matter of fact, Rolex doesn't even have a branded Facebook page. This is surprising since clearly we're not talking budget issues here. I think the people at the top are simply not interested in doing social media. To me it's no longer a matter of ignorance, but a calculated decision to simply stay out of the fray for whatever reason. Or maybe just "pretend" to be playing in the sandbox. They could easily kick ass in the socio-digital world if they wanted to. They choose not to.

It's funny because, before reading this report, I would have told you about progress, and how nicely watch brands have advanced up the social media ladder in the last 18 months. I would have talked about hope, progress, catching up to other luxury segments, and new, forward-thinking leadership (especially in the independent brands). But in fact, I would simply have been fooling myself - that's the price one pays for having industry blinders on too long.

Because when you look at the big picture - compared to other industry segments or, God forbid, other industries altogether (think FMCG, high-tech, software, fashion), the watch industry's presence on social media networks is anemic at best. Is it better than several years ago? Sure - couldn't be much worse - but all things considered, given available budgets, emergence from the "crisis" everyone so happily touts to the press, and well-documented benefits of social media in this industry, it's a truly pathetic situation. This report only serves to point that out for Facebook, but it's the same in other channels, when not worse.

The upside exists for the few smart brands who might somehow wake up and realize the amazing competitive advantage this situation actually presents. But I said "smart brands"... As my ex boss Jean-Claude Biver used to say, "We are very lucky, because we're at the bottom of the barrel, and so the only way is up!"

Ten Watch Brands to Work for in Social Media

2011-06-23T08:06:00.002+02:00

No I didn't go out and take a survey, although I wish such a report would exist. But horology being a rather secretive world, it's never easy to get information about what it's like to be on the "inside" of watch companies. People clam up. I mean it's Switzerland for Christ's sake. Nobody opens their mouth here. Least of all in the tick tock world. And the few who have are swimming with the fishes on the bottom of Lake Geneva :)

No, what I'm talking about are the top ten brands I think (or know) might be cool to work for as far as social media is concerned. Mind you, this is based on my personal perception - Ok, and a little inside knowledge perhaps. Heck, I interviewed most of these people.

It's not easy doing social media work for any Swiss watch brand. Let's face it, most of them were dragged kicking and screaming into this new social thing. I think there are probably around 600 active Swiss watch brands, around half of which have a presence on Facebook - significantly less on Twitter or Youtube. And most of them still think social media is just conventional carpet-bombing marketing or PR applied to new improved digital channels.

Nonetheless, as we say in French, "Au pays des aveugles, les borgnes sont rois" (in a nation of blind men, one-eyed men rule - sounds better in French, trust me) and so there are, in my opinion, some more progressive "social" watch brands than others. Some brands who really "get it" - or at least strive to. But what might those be?

Here's a list I came up with (in no particular order) each with a 1 to 5 ranking for Product, People, and "Coolness" categories - all reasons (albeit not exclusive) to be doing social media work for a given watch company these days IMHO (note: I insert a question mark on the People scale when I'm not equipped to judge and a link to their interview when available).

#1. Bremont (Product: 4, People: 5, Coolness: 4)
Compelling history, British brand. Awesome owners, kick-ass product. Huge room for growth. [radio show]

#2. Linde Werdelin (Product: 5, People: 4, Coolness: 5)
Beautiful product, original, great Nordic design, smart owners, outside-the-box marketing. Genuine and personal customer-centric approach. [radio show].

#3. TAG Heuer (Product: 4, People: 3, Coolness: 3)
Only brand who can claim genuine watchmaking innovation in the past 400 years. Already very active online (enough so to score a 115 IQ on the L2 Facebook IQ report). Cool CEO who used to sell FMCG with a great pool overlooking Lake Geneva. I know this because I interviewed him a short while ago :)

#4. MB&F (Product: 4, People: 5, Coolness: 5)
Owner Max Busser is an industry legend in the world of independent brands. Progressive and original. UFO product. Powerful, intelligent and opportunistic marketing and communication approach. Max was also my first guest on the radio show.

#5. Maurice de Mauriac (Product: 3, People: 4, Coolness: 3)
Under-the-radar brand in Zurich with solid bespoke product. Exclusive niche market. Brilliant founder (also not from the industry) with an offbeat and very subtle humanized one-on-one marketing approach.

#6. Bell & Ross (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 5)

First brand to have an online boutique. Amazing product. Consistent and smart marketing guns. Customer-centric. Never met anyone there but clearly this brand "gets it" and has big guns.

#7. Xetum (Product: 3, People: 4, Coolness: 3)
Based in San Francisco. Unbelievably cool and humble founder (rare in this industry) Jeff Kuo (not from the watch industry) has an original, clean, simple and genuine product line. Big potential in key US and Chinese market segments IMHO. [radio show]

#8. IWC (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 3)
Iconic German brand founded by an American. With L&S, probably one of the most breathtaking watch products out there. Clean, crisp, and...German. Very active online and a solid based of rabid fans community. Their forum manager Michael Friedberg will be a guest on my show next week actually.

#9. Audemars Piguet (Product: 5, People: ?, Coolness: 2)
Too iconic a brand to even be cool anymore :) - AP is what most brands can only dream of one day becoming. They seemed to have gotten a good start on social media but then Hublot lured their employee away, and since then I'm not sure what's going on there. They had an ad out, which I applied to - but never even got an acknowledgement for. And their CEO never answered my request for an interview - Come to think of it, not sure why I'm including them in here... :) Oh, yes, it's Genta's Royal Oak, silly me! :)

#10. Jaeger-LeCoultre (Product: 5, People: 3, Coolness: 2)
Iconic brand. No marketing per say as the product itself is the "marketing message". CEO Jerome Lambert told me to take a hike when I asked him to appear on the show, which didn't really surprise me as this type of communication is not really in the brand's genes. Nonetheless the gal responsible for their social media initiatives is really cool and quite good IMHO (although not sure why she protects her Twitter account...)

ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part III

2011-06-22T14:17:00.002+02:00

In this exciting installment, we pick up on additional key points of the ChinaConnect 2011 conference in Paris last week (see Part I and Part II).

#11. Money
Following the money (or its sources rather) can be a little tricky in China. You have old money and new money, money made in the public sector (lots of corruption there) and money made in the private sector (natural resources and real estate being two of the biggest sources). Then you have people making the transition between public and private, and those benefiting from family connections (a huge booster in China). The Chinese culture is not a wealth flaunting one - discretion is prized in China. For every exuberant millionaire, there are two others hiding behind him.

#12. Cars, cars, cars
The Chinese market is gaga over cars. Cars are the most discussed topics online (blogs, BBS, etc) closely followed by mobile. Audi and Mercedes Benz got smart about the Chinese market years ago. Both went after civil servants and high-level government workers with Audi completely controlling low-end to mid-level managers and Benz basically owning the upper crust segment. Everyone in the Chinese government either owns a set of rings or a three-pointed star. Matter of fact, that's how you recognize them :)

#13. UGC
I knew this before the conference, but it was pointed out there again, and I think it's strategically important - Chinese people are very big on content creation - like 43% big versus our meager 23% in the West (namely the USA, Europe is lower). This means they are culturally a much more "engaged" audience than the US and clearly Europe.

#14. Avatars
Chinese people aren't huge fans of "self-branding" - They would much rather use an online avatar (cartoon self-representation) than an actual mugshot or picture. As a result, social media networks (like QQ) encourage users to "dress up" (customize) these avatars using products like eyewear, fashion, or makeup. And this can be brand-driven for the right price. The same can be said for application "skins" - People can customize their QQ apps with their favorite brand themes and colors. Of course brands pay through the nose for this priviledge. Katching.

#15. Micropayments
My understanding is they're way more mainstream in China that in the West. China has no credit cards but plenty of debit ones apparently. Gaming is huge in China and companies like Tencent are making a killing on micro-selling every object imaginable to digital players from farming tools to ustensils and clothing (which can also be branded - now you're collecting from the brands as well - katching).

ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part II

2011-06-21T07:42:00.001+02:00

Part II of my series of insightful tidbits on the Chinese market picked up during the ChinaConnect 2011 Conference in Paris last week (see Part I here).

#6. It's All About Video
There's no Youtube in China - as usual, there are several Chinese versions of online video like Youku or Tudou. Video watching and sharing is hugely popular over there - much more so than in the Western world. See what luxury brands are doing lately on Youku. These sites are used and function like cable TV. And posted videos are considerably longer than those we are used to on Youtube. This is partly due to the fact that Chinese TV tends to suck, notwithstanding its massive coverage (CCTV-1, the official State channel is most popular for, guess what, news!)

#7. C2C
"Copy to China" - It's what they call the Chinese concept of copying then adapting existing social networking platforms. For every SNS we have in the West there are several different Chinese versions of it. This results in a hugely complex and diffuse landscape of everything from MSN to Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube "clones" - some of which are regionalized or targeted at various age and/or cultural segments. Yes, it's complicated.

#8. Mobile Devices
Virtually everyone in China has a mobile device (smartphone mostly) with QQ running on it. There are close to a billion mobile devices in China. Do the math. Did you know people look at their smartphone on average 900 times a day? This is what Warwick Hill, 3rd Space CEO claimed during the conference. Mobile is an extension of the Chinese body - it's an inborn part and parcel of the Chinese netizen. Not having a mobile strategy for a brand in China is simply nuts.

#9. Beauty Codes
The Chinese have different beauty codes than we do in the West. Especially for women. White skin evokes death (heroin chic look? Don't even think about it). Haggard, distant looks are not appreciated. Seductive poses and any sexual suggestions are frowned upon. Lips should be small and red, not voluptuous. And a woman should always be smiling and looking you in the eyes in an ad. Slanted eyes with corners pointing up are caricatural (and insulting) at best. Why do many brands still violate these codes year after year in their advertising is a hard to understand.

#10. M, F and E-commerce
In lower-tier cities, there are few malls, stores, and retail outlets. Especially for luxury brands. People like to shop online by necessity. Additionally, the logistics of online commerce in China are extremely cost-effective, and much cheaper than brick & mortar investments. Why? Because shipping and delivery are virtually free for companies. It doesn't cost a fortune to maintain armies of bicycle-riding delivery people. China Post, on the other hand, has no notion of "bulk mailing". And forget about the convenience of tracking a parcel. Nonetheless, stuff does get to you, and if not, you don't have to pay!

ChinaConnect 2011 - Discovering the Chinese Consumer Part I

2011-06-20T09:36:00.001+02:00

Hanging out during a break

I've been pitching the first ever European conference on digital marketing to the high-end Chinese consumer for many weeks now. I thought I'd get a couple of good tips on this fascinating and remote market, but never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be coming home with such a treasure trove of insight. Short of actually spending a lot of time in China - the old "boots on the ground" approach - this conference was as close as I've come to a better understanding of the challenges at hand for brands who want to (1) enter the largest market in the world, and (2) not embarrass themselves in the process. In the next several posts, I'll do my best to share some of the highlights and salient points of the conference from my social media perspective.

#1 Market composition
Contrary to popular belief, China is not a homogeneous market. Rather, it behaves more like a regional federation of sorts with different areas, customs, languages, populations, and even cuisines. So when you talk about the 470,000,000 or so Chinese netizens, you're really talking about a fragmented and diverse population. And trying to market to the whole instead of carefully targeting on a sociao-regional basis is not an optimal strategy.

#2 Stereotypes
The Great Wall, the Forbidden City, past Emperors - all the classic Western geographic or political stereotypes applied to China do not speak to the new generation. Matter of fact, you might even be insulting them by applying such themes to your product - I'm thinking, for example, of luxury watch dials depicting the Forbidden City. It's "has-been" and says "I haven't bothered to learn about the new China".

#3 Age matters
Yes, China has an aging population, like much of Europe, and that in itself constitutes a major challenge to its future growth. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Chinese netizens are under 34. The ratio is even larger for mobile communities. The average QQ user is in the 17-25 age range. If you're not talking to a young, tech savvy, mobile-ingrained audience, you're not talking to China (unless you're Vacheron Constantin I suppose).

#4 Kids and the Cult of Family
Remember the one-kid policy? Guess what: it means that kids are at the center of Chinese life. If you figure four grandparents, two parents, and a housekeeper, that's seven people on average dedicated to serving each Chinese papoose. This, along with the cult of family, are two of the most powerful marketing levers in the Chinese market.

#5 Marketing Works. Sometimes.
How about a non-Chinese brand selling tea to an entire Chinese nation? Lipton was at the conference explaining that one. You see, Chinese people drink green tea. And they don't like black tea. That's right - and Lipton found out the hard way. Worse yet, they don't like or use tea bags. Bummer if your entire product line revolves around these two things. Nonetheless, Lipton was still able to overcome these great odds and penetrate the market by positioning their teas as strategically-timed "avant-garde" social experiences (and hiring the right bloggers). The "Lipton Moment" has now become hip in China with the younger professional crowd. Hey, everybody's doing it - maybe you should as well! Which comes to show that marketing does work sometimes, if not cheaply :)

Nathalie Omori on categorizing Chinese wealth

Interview sur le Community Management - 2ème Partie

2011-05-17T10:24:00.000+02:00

Voici la deuxième - et dernière, je vous rassure tout de suite :) - partie de mon interview pendant la conférence sur la gestion de communauté et des réseaux sociaux à Neuchatel le 18 avril dernier. Dans ce segment, je réponds aux questions suivantes de Contenu&Cie:

Comment gérer au mieux une crise de "badbuzz"
Que doit faire une marque pour se lancer sur les réseaux sociaux?
Quel interêt à être sur les réseaux sociaux pour les marques de luxe?
Le luxe et les réseaux sociaux sont-ils compatibles?
Quel est l'avenir du métier de community manager?

Voila, j'espère que cette petite tournée digitale (ainsi que sa première partie) aura pu répondre à certaines de vos questions, ou même en susciter d'autres, en quel cas vous savez ou me joindre - je suis tout ouie :)

My Mom on Social Media and Community Management

2011-05-14T06:28:00.001+02:00

I had a revealing moment recently I thought I'd share. It's pretty rare when I send my mom work-related stuff, but I thought she'd enjoy the two recent videos I posted from the Neuchatel conference and the ensuing interview last April 18th.

See, my mom, like most moms I suppose (except maybe Gary Vaynerchuk's), doesn't know or understand much about what I do for a living. She understood more when I was in the software industry than now. Most of the time we talk, she'll ask "how's the watch selling going?" - and I'll say to her again "Mom, I'm not in sales, I'm in community and communications." - and she'll typically come back with "well whatever, as long as your clients are happy and paying..." - My mom's a very practical woman :)

So I was a little surprised when she came back to me about the videos with this remark (translated from French):

"Well I'm not surprised to realize now that you prioritize human contact - but in fact, it's a sales technique with a new face, which is likely to succeed as so many people these days are feeling left out."

It turns out that, in the social media ROI polemic often taking place these days, my mom is more in tune with the Olivier Blanchard's no-nonsense, "show me the money" school of thought than Gary V's "show me the loving" more "emotional" approach. The optimal approach is probably a combination of the two.

More important to me was her remark about people feeling "left out". Especially in the context of the exchange I had on LinkedIn recently (Managers of Luxury Group):

Me:

I'd be interested to hear (read) what your perception of "real world experience of shopping" for luxury items might be?

Simon:

...Visually stimulating, everything about luxury caries with it stunning imagery in design, makes you feel important, loved, special and valued. I believe people need to feel that they have personal value. Some seek this through the association of items that are considered scarce and special. Entering a visually stimulating boutique and being cared for personally by a trained assistant who is focused totally on me...

Everything Simon describes has to do with self-worth and being "cared for" - Here's the deal: it's really not about the product! Luxury is in the human contact. We've become such self-contained, isolated pods in a mass-media world, that genuine and crafted interaction with our peers has become a luxury. This is why community has become so important again. And why "social media" is quickly replacing traditional push marketing - especially in the luxury segments. We're out there to sell love baby! :)

I know what you're thinking: "flower child". So let me rephrase: it is by "loving" and valuing people that we will end up selling to them - Not by bombarding them with "me, me, me" - even on pretty mobile channels. You need to start with the loving. And those who fixate on financial ROI from day one are putting the cart before the horse.

As the adage goes, no one does business with people they don't like. And people don't trust folks they don't like first. But a lot of brands still don't get that. Make your customers feel "important, loved, special and valued" - when's the last time that happened to you? I know it didn't happen to me last time I visited Louis Vuitton in Saltzburg Austria.

And sometimes, I think the men who hold high places in these companies would be well advised to get "closer to the heart" of their customers and fans.

Fire and Motion - How Swiss Watch Brands are Too Damn Slow

2011-05-11T12:41:00.003+02:00

I like militaristic metaphors. Perhaps it's a cultural trait. But I always end up drawing strategic and tactical parallels between business and warfare. For example, I like to call traditional mass-media marketing tactics "carpet bombing". A more modern version would be "shock and awe". It's a little bit of what some very major luxury brands do when backed by the proper financials. When I hear people complaining about being "bombarded" with advertising, it think about the reprise of the social media fallout shelters where conversation and "human" is supposed to replace incessant push marketing. Phew! There's a relief.

In that context, I recently re-read this 2002 article from Joel Spolsky, a guy I admire a lot because he's super smart, super focused, super ballsy, and takes no prisoners - not unusual for an ex Israeli paratrooper:

When I was an Israeli paratrooper a general stopped by to give us a little speech about strategy. In infantry battles, he told us, there is only one strategy: Fire and Motion. You move towards the enemy while firing your weapon. The firing forces him to keep his head down so he can't fire at you. The motion allows you to conquer territory and get closer to your enemy, where your shots are much more likely to hit their target. If you're not moving, the enemy gets to decide what happens, which is not a good thing. If you're not firing, the enemy will fire at you, pinning you down. I remembered this for a long time. I noticed how almost every kind of military strategy, from air force dogfights to large scale naval maneuvers, is based on the idea of Fire and Motion. It took me another fifteen years to realize that the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life.

Re-reading this also reminded me of a much more recent article by Bill James - another brainy social media dude. Bill's premise is simple: why are we spending so much time and effort trying to figure out a sales and revenue ROI model for social media, when in fact the real ROI at this transitional stage can only be gauged in terms of online market penetration? In other words, if brand X fails to engage customers where they predominantly interact, namely online, then brand Y will do so, and eat its lunch in the process. So the "R" in ROI is simply the privilege of not becoming obsolete. So simple a child can get it - why so few "experts" or CEOs do is beyond me.

If you follow that logic, we are once again looking at military metaphor - It's an advancing beachhead. Capture and control. A digital D-day all over again if you will. And Fire & Forget most definitely applies. Strangely enough, very few watch brands seem to get that - the exception being Hublot - I can tell you from personal experience Hublot lives and breathes Fire and Motion. Maybe not so much in the social media realm, but nonetheless effective, as Basel 2011 results have once again shown.

The other lacking tactical asset in the industry? Decision speed. There again, Hublot rules. Because decisions involving personnel, opportunities, and (typically) huge sums of money are made on the spot and in the field. By a single commander. This ability to react in real time, bypassing the usual bureaucratic nonsense, and to focus massive firepower on neuralgic issues is the very heart of Hublot's power and success. This is why they're unstoppable - To this day, I look around, and I still don't see any another brand operating this way. Including the smaller ones. What a shame.

Because this kind of speed and flexibility, when backed by solid (not necessarily huge either) finances, is in fact the only tactical asset a small brand can have in this industry. Ideas are good, execution is key, but speed (including response time) is everything. It's the world we live in, you snooze, you lose. Of course, Switzerland isn't known for speed - quite the contrary - and herein lies the rub. Swiss operating mode is not adapted to modern reality. Least of all in the horology sector. Watch brands don't necessarily do poorly because of poor product, poor strategy, or poor finances - they do poorly because they're too damn slow. If there are exceptions, I've only met one so far. If you know of another, I'd love to hear about them!

Interview sur le Community Management en 6 Minutes 28 Secondes.

2011-05-10T10:42:00.000+02:00

Avant de commencer la conférence sur la gestion de communauté dans le luxe (entre autres) le 18 avril dernier, l'equippe de Contenu & Cie en a profité pour ajouter a son excellente collection d'interviews "express" 6 minutes et 28 secondes de questions-réponses avec moi, ce qui etait tres sympa de leur part. Voici donc le résultat. N'hésitez pas a m'envoyer des commentaires, le feedback est important. Merci!

Things You Might Ask a Social Media/Community/Strategy Manager

2011-05-07T16:50:00.007+02:00

We still have significant confusion out there trying to differentiate between what community managers, social media managers, and social media strategists do for a living. Part of the problem is that a lot of us don't fit nice and tight into a specific "bucket" but tend to do a little bit of each in our daily work.

Nonetheless, I thought it might be interesting to list questions one might encounter in each segment. It might help frame each job a little better for some - or maybe confuse some (hope not!) - time will tell.

But often enough, in my opinion, questions reveal more than answers ) - So to give you a better understanding of the competencies for each category, I thought back hard about some of the questions I got when wearing each hat in the past. It's clearly not exhaustive but a good sampling I feel:

Things you might ask as a community manager

Should I build a custom community or just assemble one on Facebook?
Is it OK to let people create their own fan page using our brand name?
What are people saying about us on the web?
What happens if people bad-mouth my company online?
How many fans/followers should I expect being in the _________ industry?
Should we be active in this forum?
How can we generate community interest from live events?
What happens when our community grows beyond manageability by one person?
Do we use your personal name or a generic brand address (like community@brandname.com)
Should we setup a code of conduct for our community? If so what goes in there?
What can we do to boost our Facebook and Twitter fan numbers?
How do you measure the health of the community?
Why our members are leaving/not participating?
What editorial lines would be appropriate for our blog?

Things you might ask a social media manager

Should we be using Facebook applications? How about tabs?
Is it better to be on Youtube or Vimeo? How much video should we produce monthly?
What's the optimal length for a product video? How about an interview?
Should we connect our blog to Facebook and Twitter? How?
Will a Facebook ad campaign increase my fan count? How will I then keep them afterwards?
What's the best way to integrate social media networks into my existing website?
Do you know who the most influential bloggers are in the ____________ industry?
What's the best way to boost our SEO?
Should we experiment with location-based services? If so, how?
How will we police user-generated content as submissions increase?
Should I translate my side/page/blog into various languages?
How do we keep ahead of or in pace with the technology?

Things you might ask a social media strategist:

As a global enterprise, should we segment or centralize our Facebook presence?
What should my mobile strategy look like?
What should we be doing in China and how?
What's the most efficient way to monitor our brand online?
What approach should we take to selecting appropriate social networks to be in?
Should we be investing in mobile apps or mobile sites (or both)?
What are the best markets to build critical fan mass from initially?
How can we use social media to understand our customers better?
How do we source and manage content for our blog/page/community
Should we produce content or outsource it?
How do we tie in with existing PR/Marketing departments?
How can we best leverage internal resources to enhance our social media presence?
How can we beat competitor X at this game? What is he doing well and poorly?
Are we ready to do this given our internal resources? What will it take?
How do we scale up to millions of fans/followers?
Is Facebook really appropriate for a luxury brand like ours?
What kind of people with what skill sets should we be hiring?
How do we measure the ROI on our efforts?
What are the political ramifications of truly embracing social media?
How much does it cost to do this well?
What and how are the others doing?

Again, this isn't an exact science. I'd be interested to see what you guys think I should add, remove, or reshuffle from these lists.

Tarification des services de gestion de réseaux sociaux: à la carte ou menu prix fixe?

2011-05-06T08:20:00.004+02:00

Une des choses les plus difficiles à faire en tant que consultant indépendant dans les réseaux sociaux (ou qu'agence), c'est de déterminer la tarification de nos prestations.

Quand j'étais consultant en informatique, cet excercise était beaucoup plus facile. Parce que selon le moment de l'année, l'état du marché, et le genre de client, je pouvais facilement estimer le prix a facturer à 5% près. Je savais exactement ce que valais mes prestations dans chaque marché et j'ajustais donc mes prix en fonction.

De plus, je facturais toujours à l'heure (la facturation prix fixe par projet mieux vaut éviter), et j'arrivais toujours à estimer précisement le temps que ca me prendrait. Les clients comprenaient clairement ce qu'ils payaient, et ce qu'il allaient en tirer. Et puis le concept de la facturation à l'heure n'a rien de nouveau - les médecins, les avocats et les garagistes facturent de la même facon, et tout le monde comprend le concept. Malheureusement il n'en est pas ainsi dans les réseaux sociaux.

Pour les prestations de réseaux sociaux, cela fonctionne différemment. Tout d'abord, les gens ne comprennent pas bien ce que vous allez leur fournir (ou comment). Ensuite, ils ne saisissent pas bien quand on leur parle de facturer à la carte. Je m'explique: allez consulter ce billet de Mack Collier par example. C'est un article que j'ai souvent envoyé à des clients potentiels, car leur premiere question est toujours "Combien cela va-t-il me couter?" Mais en fait, je pense que cette démarche n'est pas judicieuse.

Dans son "menu", Mack inclut les composants classiques de la gestion des réseaux, à savoir un blog, une page Facebook, un compte Twitter, une stratégie et une feuille de route. Ensuite il indique un tarif horaire, et il inclut de la formation et de l'audit. Je pense que ses chiffres sont dans les normes (pour peu qu'il y en aient) et en tout cas en ligne avec ce que j'ai pu observer ici venant d'autres agences. Alors faisons un peu de maths, en prenant les moyennes de sa catégorie "Most Charge" (la plupart facturent):

Blog neuf avec contenu: $4,000/mois

Blog neuf avec contenu partiel: $2,750/mois

Amélioration d'un blog existant: $3,000/mois

Billet de blog: $250 par pièce.

Twitter case départ: $2,000/mois

Amélioration d'un compte Twitter existant: $1,750/mois

Formation sur un compte Twitter existant: $1,750/mois

Page Facebook avec gestion: $3,750/mois

Page Facebook simple: $3,000/mois

Stratégie réseaux sociaux: $5,500/mois

Stratégie réseaux sociaux (contenu limité): $4,500/mois

Audit réseaux sociaux: $3,500

Conseil réseaux sociaux: $137.50/heure

Formation réseaux sociaux: $535 - $875/heure

Prenons a présent quelques moyennes pour chaque activité - juste pour avoir une idee tres générale:

Blog: $3,000/mois

Twitter: $1,750/mois

Facebook: $3,000/mois

Strategy: $5,000 (par mois, mais un mois devrait suffire)

---------------------

Total: $12,750 le premier mois, puis $7,750 chaque mois suivant.

Postulons en plus (c'est plus un fait qu'un postulat) qu'une activité dans les réseaux sociaux ait besoin d'au moins une bonne année pour porter ses fruits. Sur un an, le cout se chiffrerait donc à $12,750 + 11 * $7,750 voir $98,000. Evidemment, il s'agit ici d'un minimum absolu, mais on est dans les eaux.

Bien sur, il y aura des couts supplémentaires. D'autres réseaux à exploiter selon la stratégie établie (Youtube, LinkedIn, etc), de l'évènementiel, une équipe de photo/vidéo, le référencement, les campagnes Facebook, la veille, les outils d'analyse, la génération de contenu, sans oublier le dévelopement mobile! Généralement, j'estime le cout total de base à $150,000 par an minimum. Et si vous faite le calcul, il s'agit en fait d'une masse salariale d'un employé à plein temps bien equippé, qui s'occuperait de tout ca à l'interne (et encore, pas avec un énorme salaire, donc peut-être un débutant).

Encore une fois, tout cela ne représente qu'une activité de base sur les réseaux. Et cela en supposant, naturellement, que votre stratégie se trouve inclure un blog, une page Facebook, et une présence Twitter - ce qui est habituel mais pas toujours nécessaire. Et bien sur, chaque client n'aura pas besoin de la "totale". Surtout si le client a déja une présence sur les réseaux - en quel cas il aura peut être simplement besoin d'un rajout, voir d'un coup de pouce sur une des plateformes déja mises en oeuvre. Mais généralement, selon mon expérience, le client typique part de zéro - il a peut être commencé à mettre l'orteil dans l'eau, mais à peine.

Et ce client, qui a du mal a saisir ce que sera le montant de son investissement, ne s'intéresse pas forcément aux couts individuels d'un blog, d'une page Facebook ou d'un compte Twitter. Il ne comprend même pas nécessairement la différence entre toutes ces plateformes. Le client, typiquement, a deux objectifs clairs: faire connaitre sa marque, et augmenter ses ventes. Et il veut une idée globale des couts, tout en sachant exactement ce qu'il devra débourser chaque mois pour sa trésorerie. Et puis il préfere aussi qu'on s'occupe de tout ca pour lui en un seul endroit, sans avoir a donner de la tête (et du temps!) à gauche ou à droite avec différents intervenants, et à gérer de multiples factures.

C'est pour ca qu'à mon avis, facturer à la carte (en essayant de justifier chaque tronçon) n'est pas une méthode judicieuse pour les indépendants de notre métier - et cela particulierement dans le luxe. Il est plus aisé de travailler de manière holistique, en mode "package". Non seulement la démarche est plus facile a comprendre (et à expliquer), mais elle correspond aussi mieux à une approche efficace sur les réseaux sociaux.

Car gérer une présence sociale ne se fait pas, a long terme, a coup d'essai par ci et par la, en faisant l'impasse sur un réseaux ce mois-ci, sur un autre le mois suivant. Il faut avoir une vision de haut, et une approche "clés en main". Tous les composants doivent etres présents, connectés, et fonctionnels ensemble de facon cohérente et continue.

Essayer d'économiser un peu d'argent en faisant juste un petit morceau par ci ou par la n'est pas une bonne stratégie a mon avis. C'est une perte d'argent dans une action vouée à l'echec. Il ne faut pas rentrer dans cet engrenage. C'est pour cela que, depuis peu, à moins que le projet soit extrement "chirurgical" et spécifique (analyse de réseaux existants, proposition de stratégie), je n'offre que des propositions de gestion "clés en main" dans lesquelles je m'occupe de tout de A à Z, quitte à faire entrer (en les gérant) des équippes d'appuis pour combler les compétences manquantes (web, video, mobile, etc). Quoiqu'il en soit, je m'occupe donc entièrement du bébé de la naissance à la majorité :)

Et vous, quelle a été votre expérience dans ce domaine? J'aimerais bien votre feedback.

Pricing Social Media Services - A la Carte or Prix Fixe Menu Sir?

2011-05-05T18:34:00.000+02:00

One of the hairiest challenges as an independent social media consultant (or an agency for that matter) is how to price social media services.

When I was a software consultant, that part was a lot easier. Why? Because given the time of year, the state of the market, and the type of client, I could pretty much pinpoint within 5% what the appropriate asking price might be. I knew exactly what software development went for on an hourly basis in my markets, and so I bid accordingly.

What's more, I always billed on an hourly basis (fixed cost billing is a dud), and I was always able to estimate time required to finish the job. The client typically understood what he was paying for, and what would be handed off at the end of the contract. Payment-wise, he also grasped the concept of hourly billing. Doctors, lawyers and mechanics bill that way - it's a fairly obvious concept. Unfortunately not so in the social media realm.

With social media, it's a whole different ball game. First, people don't readily understand what it is you can deliver (or how). Second, they don't understand when you price services "a la carte" - what do I mean by this? Well take a look at Mack Collier's How Much does Social Media cost companies in 2011? post here. It's a reference I always like to send prospects, as their first question often is: "How much is this gonna cost me?" - But now I'm thinking that's the wrong way to go about it.

Mack's menu comprises the "usual suspects" of a social media meal. Namely, a blog, associated content, Twitter, Facebook, and strategy/roadmap plan. Then he throws in an hourly rate window, training, and auditing. So far so good. I happen to think his numbers are actually on the money and consistent with what I've seen around here from agencies. So let do a little math now, taking averages on his "Most Charge" numbers:

Blog from scratch with content: $4,000/mo
Blog from scratch with some content: $2,750/mo
Existing blog enhancement: $3,000/mo
Blog posts: $250/post

Twitter from scratch: $2,000/mo
Existing Twitter enhancement: $1,750/mo
Existing Twitter coaching: $1,750/mo

Facebook page launch and management: $3,750/mo
Facebook page launch $3,000/mo

Social media strategy: $5,500/mo
Social media strategy (limited outsourcing): $4,500/mo

Social media strategy audit: $3,500

Social media consulting: $137.50/hr
Social media training: $535 - $875/hr

Now let's just take some averages for each activity - just to get a ballpark:
Blog: $3,000/mo
Twitter: $1,750/mo
Facebook: $3,000/mo
Strategy: $5,000 (per month, but one month per year should suffice)
---------------------
Total: $12,750 first month, then $7,750 each additional month.

Let's assume further (it's more a fact than an assumption) that a successful social media program needs to be continued for a period of at least one year to have the slightest chance of success. This brings your total basic yearly costs to $12,750 + 11 * $7,750 = $98,000 over the first twelve months. Naturally, this is a very basic estimate but it's in the ballpark if you ask me.

Yes, you'll have additional costs. Maybe other networks to leverage (Youtube, LinkedIn, etc) , probably some live eventing, photo/video work, SEO, Facebook campaigns, monitoring, analytical tools, content generation, and let's not forget mobile! All in all I typically estimate around $150,000/year minimum. Which, if you think about it, is around what you'd spend bare bones on a well-equipped full time employee doing everything internally (without a huge paycheck).

Remember now, this doesn't include more than the very basic stuff. It also assumes your strategy calls for a blog, Facebook and Twitter presence (typical, but not a sine qua non rule). Now, of course, not every client will need the full Monty. Especially if said client already has a social media presence - in which case he may just need an additional component, or some enhancements to an existing platform. But in my experience, those are the exception. The typical client I see is starting from scratch - with maybe a foot in the water, but barely.

And this client, struggling to price his total investment cost, doesn't particularly care what Blog, Facebook or Twitter management will cost him individually. Nor does he really understand (or care about) the difference between them. The client typically has a simple goal: build mindshare, increase sales. And he wants a "big picture" number. With a handle on his monthly costs. And typically, he also wants someone to handle all of this for him, without having to deal with Peter or Paul (and pay each separately) for various areas of work and/or expertise.

This is why, in my opinion, billing (and trying to justify) a la carte pricing is self-defeating for social media consultants - specifically in the luxury industry. It makes better sense to work with a holistic, "full package" approach. Not only is it simpler to grasp, but it also corresponds to what social media is all about. It's not a shot in the water here and there. A touch-up here, and an experiment there. A successful social media program (and consultant) needs to have a big picture approach. Holistic and turnkey. All the pieces must connect and work together seamlessly and coherently.

Trying to save some cash by doing "just a little piece" here and there is not a strategy, in my opinion. It's a waste of money with poor outcome probabilities. Not something you want to get involved in. This is why from now on, unless the project is very specific and focused or targeted (as in, an analysis of existing state, or a strategy proposal), I offer "turnkey" packages where I handle everything together in unity - bringing other teams and competencies in if required. But always "nurturing the baby" from a 360 perspective.

How about you? What's your experience been like? Inquiring minds want to know :)

Conférence sur le Community Management: Le Film est Sorti!

2011-05-03T17:57:00.002+02:00

Attention, ceci n'est pas vraiment un blog.

Non, il s'agit en fait simplement de partager avec vous la vidéo de cette soirée mémorable du community management mentionnée ici. Les professionels de Contenu & Cie on encore une fois bien fait leur travail et ont capturé les moments clés de la présentation. Comme on dit chez nous, enjoy the show! :)

Hiring Social Media Talent? Read This First

2011-04-21T15:16:00.000+02:00

Here's one that really caught my attention this morning. It's from a new social commerce company - a very hot trend indeed.

I first read about the company in a BOF article. As usual I immediately went to their website to create myself an account - because I'm just compulsive like that - I need to try out new "social" stuff out immediately. In the process, I noticed their We're Hiring section, and as I can usually tell a lot about a company based on its job listings, I clicked on it! Here's what it says:

"Svpply exists to reinvent retail online, and we're gunning for Amazon. Our users are dedicated, our team is tiny, and we’re looking to build this thing into a monster."

Right there and then, I didn't even bother reading further - I know these guys are going to kick ass or die trying. Why? Couple reasons:

1. They're targeting a well-identified mammoth. It's big, it's everywhere, it's easy to find, and it's slow.
2. They have the simplest goal statement - One sentence and everyone "gets it".
3. Mark Twain once said "They did not know it was impossible, so they did it!"

Which is really what it's all about in this business isn't it? Unfortunately it's so rare to find mission clarity these days. Most places you read about generate their mantras using this tool it seems. But Svpply's approach and spirit is precisely what evangelists live for and gravitate towards. It's contagious. And they're going to find the right people, trust me.

So if you want to hire among the best, you better be going after Amazon, Apple, or Rolex, or whatever is big, established, and seemingly invincible, and have a one-sentence mission statement. No matter what industry you happen to be in. What's the mission statement at the company you work for?

Conférence sur le Community Management: Questions Pertinentes

2011-04-19T13:59:00.002+02:00

C'est avec grand plaisir que j'ai discuté hier soir avec tout ceux et celles qui sont venu à Neuchatel pour cette conférence exo-Genevoise de la #SMCA_. Nous avons abordé pas mal de sujets pendant la partie Questions/Réponses qui ont engendré des questions de métier très pertinentes. Notemment:

Comment faire démarer une communauté?
Une question fut posée quant aux méthodes utilisées pour "ensemencer" la communauté Marvin au tout départ. J'ai répondu qu'on avait ciblé, trouvé et convaincu des influenceurs clé du web qui nous ont aidé à "répandre la bonne nouvelle" - donc évangeliser - le retour de la marque sur les marchés, et cela initialement sur les USA mais aussi sur la France et la Suisse.

J'ai aussi mentionné les forums horlogers, car multiples discussions sur Marvin existaient deja dessus depuis longtemps. Ce qui m'a permis de découvrir un reseau important de collectioneurs/amateurs Marvin aux USA, et en Europe. Rien d'étonnant pour une marque de 160 ans! Ces gens on eu un impact important sur la "renaissance" de la marque et le renflouement de nos communautés sur Facebook et Twitter. Et puis après cela, beaucoup de bouche à oreille, de presse officielle, et aussi des concours sur certains blogs horlogers et "lifestyle" très ciblés qui ont eu un succès quantitatif appréciable.

Infuser ou diffuser dans les reseaux?
Une autre problèmatique évoquée fut celle de la strategie "mono ou multi" dans la mise en place de pages Facebook (cela s'applique à Twitter et autres réseaux également). Pour de larges communautés, et les marques à envergure globale, faut-il mieux segmenter une présence digitale par marché, par continent, voir par langue, ou tout integrer dans un grand "melting pot" centralisé, quitte à engager des CM compétents dans (et conversants dans la langue de) chaque region? Pas de réponse "meilleures practiques" à mon avis, car sur le terrain, on voit les marques gérer cela de maniere differente (voir Air France vs. EasyJet par example, ou encore Swatch vs. Hublot). Chaque cas est particulier, et lié a la stratégie de base et à la "culture" ou a l'historique de la marque je pense. Je reste persuadé que l'important (comme toujours) est d'agir en fonction des besoins et demandes des fans/clients concernés - Pour cela, encore faut-il savoir ou et comment leur poser la question.

Le CM en tant qu'independant ou resource interne?
C'est une question qui se pose beaucoup en ce moment. Faut-il mieux "louer" un community manager dans une agence ou l'engager à plein temps au sein de la société? Je pense que la premiere chose à explorer, c'est l'existance d'une resource interne. Sans cette option disponible, il existe des avantages au recrutement direct aussi bien qu'au mandat avec une agence ou un(e) indépendant(e).

A l'interne: immersion totale dans la marque, investissement de formation justifiable, un seul maitre à servir.
A l'externe: bénéfice des connaissance de l'intervenant(e) dans d'autres domaines (donc pas d'oeillères liées à une industrie spécifique), voir chez les concurrents. Expérience riche et variée, contacts dans le business sur les compétences complementaires, et flexibilité dans les horaires et les déplacements si nécessaire.

Facebook en passe de devenir trop lourd et trop polué?
A force de croitre en taille et en puissance, la plateforme Facebook devient-elle trop bruyante et diluée pour servir d'outil idéal de communication de marque (et surtout dans le luxe)? Je pense que le risque est en effet réel, en tout cas pour certaines marques, et j'ai d'ailleurs écrit un billet à ce sujet récemment.

Voila - Il y a eu bien d'autres questions et discussions hier soir et si vous en avez d'autres aussi, n'hesitez pas a me contacter - je suis facile à trouver aussi 24/7 sur jerome.pineau@gmail.com :)

Conférence sur le Community Management de Luxe

2011-04-15T16:56:00.001+02:00

Pas besoin d'évoluer bien longtemps dans le monde du community management suisse avant de tomber sur Olivier Tripet, un gars hyper sympa. Olivier est aussi le fondateur d'une association qui se nomme Swiss Community Managers Association [#scma_].

Je crois qu'il était le premier à faire cela en Europe d'ailleurs. Ce groupe, qui ne cesse de croitre, rassemble un vrai palmarès de tous les community managers de Suisse romande pour discuter du métier entre professionels et partager de l'information pertinente avec le public avide d'information sur ce métier tout nouveau.

L'association organise souvent des conférences ou des professionels viennent s'exprimer. C'est ainsi qu'il y a quelques semaines, Olivier m'a demandé si je voulais bien participer en tant qu'intervenant pour discuter du community management dans le monde du luxe. Cela se passe lundi prochain le 18 avril au muséum d'histoire naturelle de Neuchatel [map]. J'ai tout de suite accepté avec grand enthousiasme, surtout que pour une fois, l'évènement se déroule à coté de chez moi sur Neuchatel - et non pas à Genève! :)

A vrai dire, je ne suis pas un adepte des présentations Powerpoint formelles- je préfère mille fois une vraie discussion interactive à une présentation unidirectionelle. Par conséquent, vous ne me verrez surement pas faire défiler des "diapos" durant la soirée. Je crois que je vais plutot faire une petite intro rapide, et puis répondre à des questions, parler aux gens, et surtout essayer d'écouter et d'apprendre quelque chose. Voici les sujets que nous aborderons:

Les origines et les objectifs de cette nouvelle profession
Comment debuter dans la carriere
Experience verticale ou horizontale - les avantages et les inconvénients
Comment se batir des competences dans une industrie inconnue
Défis et opportunités specifiques au monde du luxe

Et on verra bien ou tout cela nous mêne. Si vous êtes dans les parages, j'espère que vous vous joindrez à nous. C'est facile de se garer, l'auditorium sera rempli de gens brillants du métier, et je me suis laissé dire qu'on servait l'apéro et des amuse-bouche après le spectacle et rien que ça déja, ca vaut le déplacement non? :)