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The distributed grassroots marketing team: letting your community, advocates, evangelists, and fans do the heavy lifting
Time:
Tuesday, 1:45
Room:
Caymus
Speakers:
Session Highlights:
Description:
People have been trying to harnass the power of the successful viral marketing campaign by encouraging people to spread the message themselves. This technique was served to great effect for environmental causes with the (anti) Chevy Tahoe campaign, which generated a lot of buzz to the effect that environmentalists had turned Chevy's marketing on itself. However, it's an open question as to who took advantage of whom. Did Chevy's marketers actually expect this to happen? How could they not anticipate it? And who gets the last laugh? Surely, more people heard about the Chevy Tahoe thanks to the environmentalists, just like you're reading about it right here and now. And one might argue that the environmentalist community was never going to buy Tahoes anyway, so nothing lost there for Tahoe, but by getting their ad campaign in the general press, the environmentalists ended up selling a bunch of SUVs. Moral: A virus is not only hard to control but hard to understand in terms of unintended consequences.
Two recent campaigns that certainly did not backfire were SpreadFirefox and the outreach for the first BlogHer conference. These efforts reached large audiences, without expending large advertising budgets. According to the Pinko Marketing Manifesto, you have to believe in your product or message, and then let those with the passion go spread the word for you. Give the power of communication away, don't try to control it.
Can this work in the social change world? Are the words "marketing" and "advocacy" compatible? What are the best techniques for spreading the word via online tools? How do you encourage those who believe in your work to spread the word for you, and how can you make it easier for them to do that? Finally, what can you do when people adapt your virus to their own purposes?
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Pinko Marketing and Non-Profits: the perfect marriage
Funny you should mention Chevy Tahoe. Personally, I think it was a clever co-optation of the Cluetrain thinking. I don't know if we can really determine whether or not Chevy actually sold SUVs because of it (the next quarter results will show this), but, yes, they did get some unpaid for exposure. But how does this help them in the long run? Have they built a trusting, loyal community out of this? Did it result in long-term warm and fuzzy Chevy Tahoe feelings for years to come?
I don't know. What we measure as 'successful' campaigns is a bit wacked. Attention and short term boosts in buzz and even profit don't add up to much in my mind. My favourite success stories are those who build and sustain long-term love, community and steady sales.
And I think this is what works best for non-profits. To really become able to achieve their goals, non-profits have to build long-term relationships with their communities, donors and the general public. Sensationalist, flash in the pan and/or shock tactics aren't going to achieve this.
I look forward to discussing Spread Firefox, Barcamp, Blogher, and other similar grassroots movements that have proven that community building is, in the longterm, way more effective than the quick marketing grab.
Viral efforts have to be accompanied by strategic outreach
Hi Bob-great question. You're right that sometimes you have to give viral or grassroots (not synonymous BTW) marketing a little nudge. Who or what group do you want to reach outside your choir? You need to proactively reach out to at least one representative of that group. Otherwise you end up with a bunch of advocates who all look exactly like you. Which is great, but limited.
Proactive culture mashups
I think that sticking within one viral group is a common problem but is actually fairly easy to break out of if you choose to. Net Squared is an example of this, as is WineCamp. Finding avenues of egress for authentic messages is key to broadening the dialogue; breaking down language barriers is one key element of facilitation -- and I'd be very interested to hear other ways of cross-polinating messages from one community to another while maintaining a high degree of fidelity...
Barriers ....
First, I can't believe I'm back here for more. I JUST got home from 14 hours of cancelled flights and waiting on runways. But here I am at 10:23 back for my NetSquared fix. Sigh. Marnie's a pusher. :)
I was disappointed that there wasn't more discussion in many of the sessions. This one in particular. So I'll take it online! How's that?
I think, Chris, you're right if you mean that translating our messages for many audiences is the only way to give legs to our message. But when we're talking about viral marketing (and I really believe "viral" and "grassroots" are the same) then we have to target a very wide audience with a very basic message. Pinko Marketing doesn't serve that end too well. At least not yet. (I'm not talking about broadcasting, old-school, top-down marketing; but even Gonzo Marketing hung on a key group large enough to have an impact.)
Yes. Mashups are awesome. But this game just started. We are far a head of most niches, and I fear we are way too narcissistic.
Do you think that is a real fear or typical caution from "one of them.?"
;-)
How cool is that
I am looking forward to attending y'all's session. This is the foundation of any reasoning behind participating in social networks as organization. We will be talking about this a bit at our session, as well.