As you guys have been nailing us on social media and the web, I thought I'd float this idea for discussion...
LinkedIn (facebook for professionals) is something that intrigues me although I'm not convinced it's a great marketing tool. But what do you guys think of this sleazy (I'm being facetious) tactic:
We get an advisor colleague of M3's to post a question about tax management so John can answer it? Perhaps dialogue ensues and reporters may stumble on it as well.
We could also create a Tax Managmenet Group and invite anyone to join -- not sure this does more than what our current communications accomplish with John's personal network (called a CRM, Customer Relations Management, which is a virtual rolodex system).
The challenges are time -- we don't have enough to do this right -- and presentation -- John has not yet utilized LinkedIn personally, so we'd need to blow out his profile.
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9 comments:
I think this is a great idea. Currently, the company I am interning with is doing the same thing with multiple social networking sites (one being LinkedIn). I am in charge of the Meadowlands New Jersey account for all social networking sites and blogs. You can easily have someone such as an intern do this as well. From experience it is not that difficult, time consuming, and I think it gets the word out efficiently. Technology is taking over and it is important to stay on top of this new medium.
2 Things:
1) Facebook/LinkedIn groups is an emerging method of acquiring free ad-space. When the group makes an announcement, it will appear on the member's newsfeed when they first log in. Not a bad little advertising spot.
2) Although you're weary of blogs, a LinkedIn group message board is rather similar. I highly recommend posting on Yahoo Finance/Business forums. Not a bad way to increase your Google search results. Just don't end up like Whole Foods CEO John Mackey. His anonymous criticism of Whole Food's competitors on Yahoo Finance forums nearly landed him in jail. Check out the article for more information.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/19/BUGNPR2QFA1.DTL
I definitely agree that some type of blog/social networking would work well. Feeding John questions would give him a way to get his ideas out there but still make it appear as though the audience is interested in hearing what he has to say.
Using the resources that already exists is a great way to further the marketing strategy for M3. Starting a dialogue is a great idea yet I would go about it carefully. You do not want this to seem fake. You want to get everyone thinking about M3 and how it can be useful. Make sure that the first question is one that makes everyone think and want to reply to it as well as John.
Jason makes really good points in his comment. It's all about drawing the focus to M3, not about pointing out the negative aspects of competitors.
I don't think this is a good idea, because not everyone is a fan of blogging or going on these social networks. It takes a lot of time and effort to put out a response online oppose you settling this idea/discussion/agenda face-to-face in a meeting where you can get it out in the open and hear everyone's opinions around you.
Blogging is definitely becoming an integral part of marketing and advertising for today's businesses. However, I think one of the things you should consider other than the fact that its great a channel to distribute messages about M3, is that the channel can just as easily be overlooked as it is utilized. I know from experience on Facebook and other sites that offer similar "groups" or "communities" you can join by being an active member, that once you join these sites they are never really revisited. So, once your invitation goes out for people to become part of the M3 experience on Linked-In, you are definitely going to have to assign someone specifically to maintain the group site as well as send out frequent messages to its members so that it doesn't quickly get forgotten about.
I agree with BDePalma that someone will have to keep posting new things on the group website. I personally do not even know/remember what groups I belong to on Facebook until I receive some sort of notification from them updating me on their status. As long as someone is posting new information on there such as news articles and links to interviews with John, I think that it coule be successful in a small way.
I think this would be a good way to get M3 out there. However, if the time contraint will result in you just throwing something together and posting it just to say okay, Linked-In is covered, I would wait until there is enough time to put together something worthwhile. The number of professionals using Linked-In will only increase so perhaps it is smarter to wait, create the perfect approach and reach as many individuals as possible.
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