Marketing (&) Mischief

The Finnish Government (or to be precise the Prime Minister’s Office) just hopped on the crowdsourcing bandwagon with their ideoikasvua.fi -site that aims to crowdsource ideas for sustainable economic growth. Cool, right? Wrong. Unfortunately.

It’s a nice step to the right direction I’ll give them that but why won’t you go all the way and do it right? Why have a two month submission window with a very strict step-by-step Q&A structure that will put most people off at the start? And if you want to start a dialogue like you claim why force visitors to submit their answers to your questions before letting them view the thoughts other people have submitted?

While you are at it why not create something more open and inviting that would get us non-academics hyped and excited as well about helping our dear country take the next step beyond Nokia-land? An environment that would facilitate an ongoing open and inspiring dialogue between the people running the country and the folks down in the trenches. From now ’til we reach that great new future and beyond.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying this is not a great step to the right direction. I just hate it when the opportunity for something ground-braking is wasted because of the paralyzing fear that dramatic change inflicts in people. The fear of leaving your comfort zone and just boldly going where no man has been before.

Bottom line: They are looking for game changing ideas but are afraid to lead the way. I just feel sad for all the crazy interesting ideas we could have shared that will now never see the light of day.

A friend of mine (props to Misko Iho) created a small Christmas miracle during his surfing trip to Africa. By using just Facebook, email and SMS’s he rallied his friends (and their friends) to donate a small amount each to help get backbags, pens, rulers and other basic school equipment for the kids of the local school. Result: 8384 items packed into 470 backpacks ready for school = 470 lives changed.

What Misko and his friends did got me thinking. Why aren’t the big charities more active in social media?

I’ve worked with some of the biggest charity organizations on the planet. We’ve talked about social media and it’s impact on what they do and tried to figure out ways for them to embrace this clearly potent new way of sharing information more efficiently and also recruiting more people to their “cause”.

The interesting thing is that they do see the obvious potential but are for some reason unable to embrace it.

Let’s take Unicef for example. They are the biggest and the most powerful. They do a lot of good BUT admit that they are having trouble convincing their beneficiaries that their money is indeed used in the most efficient and beneficial way all around the globe.

How to do this then when armed with Social Media? Should be pretty self-evident: Let your audience choose where their money is spent and show the concrete results of the work (like Misko did by posting pictures on Facebook) = Give them a social object that they can share with their friends (“this is the village I’m supporting”) and the tools to share the message easily all throughout the web.

Simple, eh? Not for Unicef.

Their argument is that they need to be able to direct the flow of support / funds themselves as they know best where the help is needed. I see the point but I’d argue it will also be a fundamental issue for them in the future if they indeed want to engage a broader more internet-savvy audience that is used to being actively involved and is not content by buying the Unicef desk calendar for Xmas.

The change needed will not be easy as it means rethinking some of the fundamentals of how the big charities work but it is inevitable as people want more control and will therefore flock to smaller grass-roots charities that operate more transparently, are more agile and thrive on user involvement.

They will flock to look for alternatives in the Long Tail of Charity. That’s where I found Misko’s project. And I have yet to buy a Unicef desk calendar.

Reading Scott Berkun’s post on Calling bullshit on Social Media made me think more about my concept of Social Media Ethos. In my original post I was only applying it to brands and companies but after reading Scott’s post I think it actually should apply to everyone who is in some way involved in Social Media. From agencies and experts to us individuals.

So we all should follow the principles of Social Media Ethos
(first crack – send me your thoughts!)

• Be unselfish: “Give love to get love”.
• Be transparent, open and honest.
• Don’t pretend you know best. You don’t and people will call your bluff.
• Respect others: Listen instead of just talking.
• Admit when you are wrong, apologize and make up for your mistakes.
• Follow the Golden Rule (Like Scott said: This one might be impossible as history has shown but let’s at least give it a try)

Following (on Twitter), talking with and reading posts from smart guys in the industry (like @jussipekka, @dagood & @Britopian) has made me think really hard about the new nut we marketers are all trying to crack: marketing in Social Media. And the more I think about it I keep on coming back to the same questions: Is there such a thing? Can you really market in Social Media? Can you really approach something as profoundly revolutionary with just your marketer hat on?

My answer is that you can’t.

Let me explain.

What is Social Media? It’s all about give love to get love. I help you and you’ll help me. We all come together to share experiences and thinking in a way never before possible (thanks to ze Interweb). It’s based on very basic human behaviour and at the same time it is very liberating and empowering. We are no longer reliant on what the powers that be (governments, media, marketers) want to feed us. We are in control of the most powerful media ever created. That changes the game and that’s why brands and marketers are worried. They can’t hide crappy products and services behind great advertising anymore. Like a very special FBI agent once said: The truth is out there.

The result of this change? Clueless and scared marketing managers turn to the equally clueless and scared advertising agencies around the world posing THE question: How do we tackle this new monster messing our well oiled screw the consumer -machine? And the answer that the (at this point scared shitless) agencies have come up with? Social Media Marketing!! Don’t worry guys. It’s just another media we can control. We’ll just create a Facebook app and a brand Twitter-account for you and you are all set. We can then push all the same messages to this new “media” and keep your campaigns nicely integrated. You know, 360.

But it does not work that way. Social Media is not a media in the traditional sense of the word. You can’t control it. It’s an environment where true, transparent and honest interaction and involvement pays off. And if you are not ready for that not just a brand but as a company then don’t bother.

So let’s stop talking about Social Media Marketing and start hammering in the idea of Social Media Ethos. Something that touches everything a company does. A new way of behaving. A set of rules by which a company conducts it’s business in a way that is truly taking into account the needs of their audience. From R&D through Comms to Sales. Everything.

I know it’s scary and I get tired of even thinking about all the headaches and frustration it will cause but THAT is the real challenge we all need to overcome.

I just attended a half-day workshop / seminar held by the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) aka the “Finnish BBC”. The topic of the day was their fairly new company strategy: “YLE Enabler Strategy”. I had not really dug into what they mean when they say “enabler” before attending so it was a nice surprise to notice that it actually means what I hoped it would mean: That these guys actually get it.

I’ve been ranting and raving about how businesses need to embrace the change by engaging their audience through being more transparent and focusing on true end-user benefits and needs and here I was sitting and listening in amazement when my speech was delivered to me by Mikael Jungner, the CEO of YLE.

Hold on a minute.

The CEO of the monolithical remnant of the 50’s and 60’s talking about openness, wanting to be the enabler of new business models and being the platform for new and better ways of creating and distributing great content.

Did not see that one coming.

So what is YLE doing right?

1. They’ve already made their sites “social media compatible”
2. They are already sharing their content archives (limited only by the pre-historic copyright laws): Elävä Arkisto / Tehosto / Areena
3. They see the opportunity, not the threat. And they see it high enough in the organization to really make things happen.
4. They’ve got the right people, with the right mind-set working on their services – with the backing & blessing of the CEO
5. They don’t claim they have all the answers: They want us / you to help them.

Lesson for everyone: If YLE can adopt this new approach then there is NO excuse for any other company / entity to not follow in their footsteps.

YLE troops: You’ve got a new fan. Thanks for a great day and keep up the great work!