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Actions Speak Louder Than Words
Though we often rely on marketing efforts to send a message and present a certain image, sometimes the best way to accomplish this is through actions rather than advertising—particularly if you’re BP in the midst of a major oil spill crisis.

A June 6th CNBC article reports that BP’s recent advertisements, in which CEO Tony Hayward apologizes and promises to fix the damage caused by the oil, has been met with much criticism. From Gulf Coast residents to President Obama, viewers of the ads have called them insincere and a waste of money that should be going toward cleanup and compensation.

It can be tempting, in the midst of such a disaster, to jump into image repair strategies. But consumers aren’t dumb. They understand the purpose of marketing, and trying to assure them that everything is ok when clearly everything is not ok will be seen for what it really is: a desperate attempt to sell an image.

From a reputation standpoint, a situation like this demands action. In the case of BP, consumers want results, not promises. The company’s best chance at restoring the world’s faith is by actively working to fix—and ideally, actually fixing—the problem they’ve created. As Grover Robinson IV, chairman of the Escambia County, Florida, Commission states in the CNBC article, “All you've got to do is do your job, and that's going to be plenty of good advertising.”

Keep It Consistent
With the growing presence of online marketing, keeping up with the various social channels can get tricky. Making the connection between email marketing and social media can add to the confusion. But as Neil Berman states in a recent Email Insider blog, “Social media is a natural partner for email marketing. It gives marketers the opportunity to listen to customers, instead of simply talking to them.”

It also gives customers a chance to further listen to us when they so choose. The email recipient may be inspired to engage in conversation with us via Twitter, and a social media friend may want more regular information delivered through email.

Therefore, the key to establishing a strong connection between email and social marketing is consistency: emails should provide links to social media sites, and social media posts should include email opt-in links. Continually linking between the two marketing avenues will help maximize their potential and strengthen relationships with customers.

New Social Media Assessment Venture
With the relative newness of social marketing, we often wonder about its relevance. Questions often arise concerning how best to use this marketing method and what effect it really has on businesses.

Perhaps Nielsen Company and McKinsey & Co. will be better able to answer these questions with their newly announced NM Incite, a joint venture intended to study social media’s impact on companies. According to MediaDailyNews, Nielsen CEO David Calhoun stated that NM Incite’s purpose is to “extend our ability to help clients answer one of the central questions facing CEO's, how to unleash the promise of social media.”

Beginning this fall, we may start to see answers to some pertinent questions regarding social marketing, as the “initial areas of focus are measuring and improving marketing effectiveness, product launch optimization and customer service experience.” It will be interesting to learn what they find.

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April W. Boone             April@GMStheBest.biz
John Boone                  John@GMStheBest.biz
Laura McGill                Laura@GMStheBest.biz