Adoption Marketing

Information Overload
Originally uploaded by DeaPeaJay

By Richard Dalke

In a technology environment that is ever changing, social media is extremely dynamic in providing various marketing solutions. However because of the various channels importance has to be placed on marketing efficiently. If you do not market correctly on the internet you message will just become lost in ‘media noise’.

The adoption process is a widely known model to show the different types of ways people adopt a new product. The five categories are:
1. Innovators
2. Early Adopters
3. Middle Majority
4. Late Adopters
5. Laggards

I am going to look at the characteristics each of the categories as described by Silverman (2001) and attempt to look at how social media can be used to market effectively to that adopter.

Innovators: Innovators want to the first to hear about a product they don’t care if it has faults they are interested in the concept of it. These adopters are described as “where the adoption process stems from” and traditionally were very easy to market to, however because of the internet making cutting edge information easier to come by these innovators will struggle to be the first with information. To combat this companies would be advised to:
• Invite these innovators into the company and let them try the product before it is ready (under the companies confidentiality)
• When a product is launched they are the first to have a review and will be recognised for being the first to use a product.

Early Adopters: these adopters want to be one of the first people to try a product but not the first. They will want to hear about technology before most people. These adopters want to hear about products from innovators and companies and one of the quickest ways to do this is using communities with quick access such as:
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Myspace
• Blogs

Middle majority: These groups require reassurance that products are ready for the ‘Prime-Time’. They want to know the product is ready for the ‘Prime-Time’ and want to hear other users experiences the best place for this to be done will be:
• Forums
• Comparison websites
• Tutorial Videos

Late adopters/Laggards: These people will only consider your product when it is the standard and have no other choice but to adopt it. These people are very keen to hear about the problems it has encountered and how they have been resolved so that it is unlikely it will encounter anymore. These are considered some of the hardest people to market to because of their risk aversion. This group are probably late to use the internet as well. The best way to reach these people will be:
• Referrals from popular sites, search engines and the first places you encounter on the internet will attract them,
• then using referrals to company owned website display a timeline of the product history showing the products problems and developments
• Any accreditations that it has received should also be displayed.

Because of the amount of spam and the plethora of information available via these different platforms it is easy to be dismissed, so an effective strategy should be tailored to the individuals needs as best as it can to make sure the message you want to portray is heard.

Silverman, D. (2001) "The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing"

Two-Way Communication

17/365 Talk To Me
Originally uploaded by Pascale PirateChickan

By Richard Dalke

Looking at the evolution of communication and the development of interaction between brands and their consumers, two-way communication has been made easier with the rise in social media and it appears in a report by Coporate eye is showing that very few companies are taking advantage of this.

Not only can brands convey their message to consumers via social media but consumers can convey their message, and interpretations of, back to the brand. This can be a major advantage to advertising products/services or building brands. Research has shown The importance of communication in maintaining profitable stakeholder relationships, attracting and keeping customers and building brand value, Duncan and Moriarty (1998, p,10).

With the amount of information available online and some of the heavy influence that consumers now have thanks to the voice supplied by social media ,companies should talk to these opinion leaders to find out if there is anything going on in the market that they are unaware of.

Companies are quick to monitor the ‘buzz’ or what people are saying about a brand online but interaction with consumers can not only lead interested parties to have enduring involvement with a brand but this can lead them to becoming innovators and become more persuasive in the information that they supply to other consumers.

I think this concept is explained well in the video below:



References:

Duncan, T. Moriarty, S. (1998)"A Communication-Based Marketing Model for Managing Relationships", The Journal of Marketing, 62, 2.

Return on Investment for Social Media

people before profits
Originally uploaded by papagoiaba

By Richard Dalke

A recent report that I have read from Dell this week has shown that they have made $3 million dollars from twitter referrals. This is an impressive statistic due to the fact that twitter is not very labour intensive. There are similar successes reported by various other businesses as well, but is it really that easy to measure the benefits of participating in social media activities?

Companies seem to be quick to look at sales figures but the relationship benefits of social networks should gain as much advertisement when trying to explore the benefits to business of integrating social media marketing into their business processes. If you just focus on sales does this not turn social media into just an advertising tool?

There is a presentation created by Mzinga that shows some benefits of social media participation for business:
- Extend brand visibility
- Increase revenues and drive efficiencies
- Elevate customer satisfaction
- Increase productivity
- Manage risk
- Speed time to market
- Gain direct access to business research

These are some of the benefits of social media that will over time create a financial advantage but will not be instant. You can therefore also make the point that social media is a great deal more than sales tool to generate profit and should possibly not be thought of in terms of ROI but instead be thought of as a way that companies can become more efficient in their collaboration with customers and their objectives.

Companies should be clear about what they would like to achieve from their participation in such social media networks and then measure their success over a longer period of time as their brand develops and not ignore the fact that participation in such networks might not just increase you sales but develop your brand and adding value to it over a greater time scale.

What works well in a blog?

Day 26: Shout Out Loud
Originally uploaded by *boheme*

By Richard Dalke

It is amazing that in our busy lifestyles we have managed to add to our own workload. Reading comments posted about the many blogs on the internet bring to light the many different reasons that we do this: Money, career, or just trying to better ones self. Whatever the reason for people partaking in ‘blogging’, it displays obvious benefits. However how do we know what we are writing is going to be of interest to other people? We don’t know who reads the blogs so, how do we know what works in a blog?

As a first time blogger I was keen to understand to find out what the makings of a popular blog are. Surely we all want our blogs to have a cult following and the benefits associated with this. An important article on Socialmedia.biz displays some key ideas that Tim Ferris increases Traffic to his site:

These Ideas can be seen here: socialmedia.biz

Reading comments about blogs it seems apparent that people will judge you know matter what you say so just write! Don’t worry about the judgements. Blogging is about sharing ideas with other people who have the ability and knowledge to criticise or praise your work to increase you own understanding. There are ways to increase traffic to your site but make sure that these tools don’t distract you from the reason that you started blogging in the first place.