In the good old days every company and every salesman had a card index file of contacts.  Rolodex ruled and nobody's desk was complete without one.  As the electronic database grew, the complexity of fields increased – I remember my first database [run on Smart integrated software, sigh...] when I wanted to introduce a new field, I had to copy the entire database to a floppy disc, create a new field on the computer and then merge the data back in.  I loved that database.

Now I have been thinking about the increasing numbers of people I have on my database stored in a 'catch-all' category which I started calling "Blogger" or "Freelancer"/.  There are nearly 60 people who don't work for an organisation, who I connect with regularly and who are beginning not to fit into the data fields provided.  These lead withorganisation as the principal field.  No organisation = create a fake one (Blogger) = not really representing this person accurately as there isn't an organisation called that and these people don't all work together for that organisation.

And that's just the start.  What about the people with whom I correspond via social media platforms?  It's pretty easy to add in a field called "Twitter ID" or "Facebook profile link".  But what's the point?

1. I can't mail / contact them in a traditional-style mass mailout
2. I can't contact them using links from inside my database
3. The style of contact in social media doesn't enable a mass mailout approach, if you're following me you'll see my message

I am thinking that the days of a single customer database aggregated from across the organisation is dying.  

Welcome to the interim new world of a distributed contact database and the world of aggregators to enable cross-platform viewing.

[note this is interim as the market moves towards the day when consumers hold their own information and companies build trust in order to access it = VRM]

So how might it all work?

Social media has some key attributes that are very different from old-world corporate marketing communications:

• Sharing and discovery
• Real-time information
• Feedback and re-iteration

Now that hardly works with a traditional 'campaign nor with database marketing techniques.

And so we'll need to change the nature of our "campaigns".  Of course they will continue to be called campaigns but that will become a mis-nomer.  Conversations will have to become the norm. There's a spectrum of information from broadcast (fixed point in time and not editable) to one-to-one conversations (infinitely editable, fast-moving and continuing over time).  Campaigns of the future may start in the broadcast mode but will need to move through the middle ground where peer-to-peer conversations and social media sharing is the broadcast medium and then move back to the organisation on an individual conversation business as the moment of transaction gets closer.  

 I think there's still a role for a database and some direct communications in this scenario – but its influence will be different.  It'll be a "conversational stimulant" not just a marketing message.

The anatomy of a "conversational campaign"

1. Each will be more time-co-ordinated: judged to be delivered, developed and amended in real time
2. Starting with some broadcast channels and including easy sharable content for social media
3. On-the-fly improvements and changes with several possible directions will be needed as the peer-to-peer messaging happens
4. Tracking and measuring must flow through all three parts : broadcast / peer to peer / direct conversation with the brand organisation
5. The customer contact team (?call centre) will work as part of the delivery team at the conversational end to close the marketing loop and fulfil the transaction

Unresolved issues and changing behaviours

In no particular order:

• We will still segment our audiences.  But by behaviours not demographics.  How to define?  Sales cycle stages?
• How do you send a message out only to the parts ofyour SM profile and followers that you want?  Multiple online profiles / rss?
• How to get an overall view of a multiplicity of sites with your brand / organisation profile and the differing audiences and conversations?  Aggregation and tracking tools needed.
• What to do with your company database as its utility slowly dies.  Maintain stasis?
• Stop worrying about collecting customer data via social media- they will come and go.  Track numbers but don't try to record them until near the point of transaction.
• Anticipate the rise of customers holding their own data and feeding it out to brands / organisations on a trusted basis.  Privacy intermediaries may control this?

What to do now

 Transitions take a long time to happen.  We're all going to be running parallel systems of old-databases plus new social media contacts held on third party platforms for a while.

1. Get a presence on SM platforms
2. Sign up to an aggregation platform like Friendfeed
3. Track changes in numbers of subscribers
4. Run old campaigns with a SM link-in so that the broadcast elements can migrate into peer to peer social media with ease
5. Run new campaigns on SM with direct conversational opportunities back to the brand / organisation
6. Continue to try to link 4 and 5 ever closer
7. Practice good database marketing but track customers who are on both SM and old database.  This will give clues about % take-up and when you'll be able to switch off the database
8. Stop buying data lists.

 

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4. Brands in Social Media
5. ICA leads social media sharing for Shirky speech

Posted in: 2 Marketing Communications, 5 Relationship Development, Biz Dev.