Thinking Ahead Is Key To Business Success

The fourth annual We Media Conference hosted at the University of Miami offered a peek into the future of media. The common thread from Tuesday’s mind-meld was not the same old “newspapers are dead” theme that so many of these conferences run into the ground. Instead, the focus was on the changing media landscape — an evolution that ultimately leads to a completely social and interactive media. If true, companies will need to focus on social engagement, placing higher expectations on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and in some ways blurring the lines between businesses and non-profits.

This point was driven home again last night as I chatted over dinner with Alan Webber, founder and former CEO of Fast Company. Alan posed the question, “Why MUST we categorize everything as either for profit or non-profit?” He then answered himself, “This is stupid. It makes no sense. Why can’t we make money and make a difference simultaneously? The future of every business will include a foundation or non-profit arm that backs every prosperous company.”

The changes to the business model as we know it offer far more opportunity than challenges. But — and this is a big “but” here — these grand opportunities only exist for the companies that recognize them and adapt quickly.

The most prized benefit from quick adaption is increased revenue and corporate sustainability. And, by the way, you will also be doing the right thing, which will undoubtedly make your mother (and your shareholders) proud.

In most cases, the more you responsibly give back and are able to tell that story the more your company will grow. That’s the advantage of being socially engaged. Your company’s reputation will create public trust and customer brand loyalty, improve investor relations, support employee recruitment and build partnership opportunities. The key is that you must have a strong CSR media strategy which will highlight your efforts in your overall business model.

Earlier this year, Pepsi made a bold move when they opted out of buying Super Bowl ads for the first time. Pepsi is already on to the game — they saw an opportunity to gain social credibility using the would-be ad money to launch their Refresh Everything Project. The project calls for 1,000 idea submissions per month from people, businesses and non-profits to promote positive change. Ideas are judged on their merits and the prize money ranges from $5,000 to $250,000. Pepsi’s strong CSR media plan allowed them not only to capture news buzz around the Super Bowl, but it allowed them to also space out good-will news throughout the year, achieving many of the goals outlined above.

Pepsi seized an opportunity. What opportunities is your company missing? You can lead the way forward today, but need to think differently. Don’t create a strategy around the model where business and media find themselves today — think ahead.

Where will business and media be tomorrow?

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Thinking Ahead Is Key To Business Success

The fourth annual We Media Conference hosted at the University of Miami offered a peek into the future of media. The common thread from Tuesday’s mind-meld was not the same old “newspapers are dead” theme that so many of these conferences run into the ground. Instead, the focus was on the changing media landscape — an evolution that ultimately leads to a completely social and interactive media. If true, companies will need to focus on social engagement, placing higher expectations on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and in some ways blurring the lines between businesses and non-profits.

This point was driven home again last night as I chatted over dinner with Alan Webber, founder and former CEO of Fast Company. Alan posed the question, “Why MUST we categorize everything as either for profit or non-profit?” He then answered himself, “This is stupid. It makes no sense. Why can’t we make money and make a difference simultaneously? The future of every business will include a foundation or non-profit arm that backs every prosperous company.”

The changes to the business model as we know it offer far more opportunity than challenges. But — and this is a big “but” here — these grand opportunities only exist for the companies that recognize them and adapt quickly.

The most prized benefit from quick adaption is increased revenue and corporate sustainability. And, by the way, you will also be doing the right thing, which will undoubtedly make your mother (and your shareholders) proud.

In most cases, the more you responsibly give back and are able to tell that story the more your company will grow. That’s the advantage of being socially engaged. Your company’s reputation will create public trust and customer brand loyalty, improve investor relations, support employee recruitment and build partnership opportunities. The key is that you must have a strong CSR media strategy which will highlight your efforts in your overall business model.

Earlier this year, Pepsi made a bold move when they opted out of buying Super Bowl ads for the first time. Pepsi is already on to the game — they saw an opportunity to gain social credibility using the would-be ad money to launch their Refresh Everything Project. The project calls for 1,000 idea submissions per month from people, businesses and non-profits to promote positive change. Ideas are judged on their merits and the prize money ranges from $5,000 to $250,000. Pepsi’s strong CSR media plan allowed them not only to capture news buzz around the Super Bowl, but it allowed them to also space out good-will news throughout the year, achieving many of the goals outlined above.

Pepsi seized an opportunity. What opportunities is your company missing? You can lead the way forward today, but need to think differently. Don’t create a strategy around the model where business and media find themselves today — think ahead.

Where will business and media be tomorrow?

Comments

173 Million Internet Users Watched Online Video In January

• The top video ad networks in terms of their actual reach delivered were: BrightRoll Video Network with 27.2 percent penetration of online video viewers, SpotXchange Video Ad Network with 19.8 percent, and Tremor Media Video Network with 16.6 percent.
• 135.4 million viewers watched 12.7 billion videos on YouTube.com (93.4 videos per viewer).
• The average Hulu viewer watched 23.5 videos, totaling 2.3 hours of videos per viewer.
• The duration of the average online video was 4.1 minutes.

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Academics Endorse Social Media Marketing At OMS

It's an unfortunate fact that the speakers at some conferences can be self-serving; few people are going to go onstage and not promote their own company, never mind admit its faults.  However, when it comes to social media, it's hard to accuse the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania of bias, and so an OMS keynote on the subject run by two Wharton representatives was rather informative.

(Coverage of the Online Marketing Summit 2010 continues at WebProNews Videos.  Keep an eye on WebProNews for more notes and videos from the event this week.)

Researchers at Wharton recently studied user-generated content and social networks.  Eric Bradlow, Vice-Dean and Director of the Wharton Doctoral Programs, and Steve Ennen, Director of the Wharton Interactive Media Initiative, then used the findings to create a presentation called "Wharton Dispels Myths of Social, Viral and Online Marketing through Cold Hard Research."

Here's one detail that shouldn't be buried: the academics agreed there's value in social media marketing.  They're not advocating that advertisers stay away from Facebook, Twitter, and the like.

Indeed, a main point the two men made was that social media behavior can be indicative of buying behavior.  Put another way, this means that heavy social network users are often also heavy buyers.  And this correlation opens the door to an effective - if sneaky - marketing tactic, since businesses can give a lower price to their first customer and then exploit their second customer.

The theory is that as one person engages in an activity, their peers are more inclined to want to play.  So an optimal approach to making iPhone apps, for example, would be to give them away until they become popular, and then start charging.

Then one other interesting thing Ennen and Bradlow had to say related to the practice of crowdsourcing.  They suggested that the "wisdom of crowds" isn't worth much, instead qualifying as an inconsistent method of producing useful ideas.  Businesses might still use crowdsourcing as a sort of marketing ploy, of course, but the academics asserted that it'd be smart not to depend on it for good product concepts.

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