As Toby mentioned in her last post, McNeil/J&J got wind of a controversy brewing on Twitter which ultimately escalated into mainstream media.  For better or worse, this type of digital consumer uprising rarely happens.  However, the lesson that all marketers can learn here is that listening and being prepared are key

 

On a related note, the "Motrin Moms" controversy reached a boiling point on a Sunday, i.e. an atypical "work" day.  Proof that social media will also require the concept of work/life balance to apply over seven days a week, not five vs. two.

Being prepared and digital "listening" require effective measurement of online conversation.  And as physicist Lord Kelvin said centuries ago, "if you can measure it, then you can manage it."

Measuring social media consists of five related factors, whether it's your campaign or an external meme you are following:

1. Attention.  The amount of traffic that content receives over a specific period of time.
2. Participation.  The level of user participation with content, e.g. comments, trackbacks, and bookmarks.
3. Authority.  The number of inbound links pointing to content.
4. Influence.  The size of user base subscribed to content for regular updates.
5. Sentiment.  The net positive and negative attitudes being expressed about the content.
6. Velocity. The rate at which metrics are rising or falling.  

This framework can be applied to a blog post, online video, or even a hashtagged term.  It'd be a smart idea to establish dashboards for your brand keywords and topics relevant to your market.

Peter is currently working with a stealth-mode startup, building an enterprise social services + technology company. He was previously a Forrester Research analyst, and prior to that, was in charge of PUMA's global interactive marketing, internal creative agency, and marketing finance. He also held strategy consulting positions at Razorfish and Coopers & Lybrand. He blogs regularly at Being Peter Kim and tweets once in a while as well.

This Sunday the social media "mom" community impacted the marketing direction of a Fortune 500 company. What began with a tweet ended in McNeil Consumer Health, a divison of Johnson & Johnson, putting the brakes on a multiple channel strategy. Motrin: We Feel Your Pain was a campagin that targeted baby sling wearing moms.

While I am sure that the brand team at Motrin meant no disrespect, the moms (and a few dads) found the "wearing your baby video" passionately disturbing. Within hours there were thousands of tweets flying in cyberspace and blog posts offering expanded commentary. But as usually happens, the buzz did not stay online but moved offline courtesy of the social media community.

"I know this thing has been viral but I have been using the phone to "tell a friend" and they are out raged too." - @cutiebootycakes
"I emailed MSNBC and the New Orleans local channels and newspapers." @KatjaPresnal. Katja also created her own video which went viral in a flash.

The influence of "just" a few thousand people resulted in the Mortin.com website being taken down and plans made to pull print ads from distribution. Note: the video, of course, found its way to YouTube. However, those tweets and blogs and the subsequent actions taken from McNeil Consumer Health may have saved the company some hefty dollars in terms of the ultimate goodwill and stopped the ooze of brand erosion before it could spread further online and off.

An ironic twist of the story is the Johnson & Johnson spent months and months researching social media including talking to bloggers before it launched its JNJBTW blog (I was invited to a sponsored dinner for the purpose of helpling J&J understand social media.) and bought the mummy community Baby Center. In the too frequently silo-ed world of business learnings are often not shared. Big mistake this time.

McNeil Consumer Healthcare has been changed by the influence of the bigger conversation. The lesson learned is that Not stepping into social media especially when a significant, vocal, powerful segment of your market .. IS stepping into social media. What that ultimately looks like for McNeil Consumer Health remains to be seen. If they take their lead from Dell it could be something spectacular.

What should be the next steps that Morin marketing brand team takes next?

Toby Bloomberg is the president of Atlanta-based Bloomberg Marketing and also writes for her blog, Diva Marketing. A national speaker and facilitator of social media marketing and traditional marketing topics for organizations like the American Marketing Association, the Olympic Organizing Committee and SCORE, Toby has over 15 years experience. In addition to co-hosting the Mplanet blog, Toby will be speaking at Mplanet's Digital Marketing Lab in January 2009.

On Friday, Oct. 7, in New York City, I had the pleasure of attending my first 2008 AMA Hot Topic session entitled "Digital-Centered Marketing."  The facilitators were Toby Bloomberg, president of Bloomberg Marketing/Diva Marketing (and a blogger here), and Bill Flitter, CEO and founder of Pheedo, Inc.

Both Toby and Bill are skilled presenters who move the subject along based on the feedback of the group and understanding of the topic.  If you want to find a way to dive into social media, this is a great starting point.  The participants had the opportunity to talk about their own issues, problems and opportunities and everyone can learn from examples.  If you want to update your knowledge, there's a lot here for you too. 

As you can imagine, tackling a topic like "Moving Your Marketing Into The Digital Future" as this was subtitled, is a daunting task.  I was so very impressed with the depth of knowledge presented and the way case studies were woven in.  They practice what they preach.  There was very effective story-telling, tracking of successful cases and lots of sincere interest in each participant. You also come away with a copy of all the information presented and a companion website that is chock full of supporting information.

If you have a chance to attend a future presentation, don't hesitate.  It's well worth it. A similar session is scheduled for Dec. 5 in Seattle.

Stephanie Diamond writes The Marketing Message Blog and is the founder of Digital Media Works, Inc. She is a seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional with experience building profits in a broad range of product and services businesses. In addition to writing for the Mplanet blog, Stephanie will be speaking at Mplanet's Digital Marketing Lab in January 2009.

Mplanet 2009 speaker Mary Dillon, EVP and global CMO for McDonald’s, was in the news recently as she announced new packaging for McDonald offerings. The new designs, which feature pictures of the food inside as well as nutrition information, are designed to put more emphasis on the food inside. Packaging will contain taglines that might be interpreted as calls to action for consumers. The new Big Mac box, for example, will say “There is only one.”

Coverage of the announcement reminded me of the important role that packaging plays in the marketing mix for the food and beverage industries. When I was covering the brewery world in the mid 1990s (a fun beat if ever there was one), bottle and tap design often were the two main marketing identifiers for the flood of craft brews hitting the market. Those also were the days when Coke rolled out its retro-looking plastic bottle, a major marketing hit for that iconic brand. These days, rival Pepsi is in the midst of a new logo rollout.

I would think that, in this economy, packaging will become an even more important part of the consumer goods marketing mix. Catching the eye of wary consumers and communicating important brand attributes through packaging would seem essential when shoppers are tightly holding onto every penny.

If you’ve recently redone packaging for your product, I’d love to hear how you approached it and what impact its had on your marketing and sales; feel free to comment here. Or stop by the Discovery Center at Mplanet where I’ll be interviewing conference speakers at Studio Mplanet, a stage in the middle of the exhibit area, and we can chat then.

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.

 

At this point in the year I think we need to take a look at how we've integrated Social Media as part of our overall strategy. Along the social media marketing continuum I believe we are at the point where 'Web 2.0' and 'social networks' are no longer apart from the net as a whole.

All social media channels open a line of communication between you, your audience, colleagues and friends. When you are creating a marketing strategy, you need to think about the response of all of these constituencies across channels. There are people who will see you across blogs, FB, Twitter, etc. All your branding and content needs to be consistent. Everything works together (or it doesn't).

Here are three questions you should address when assessing your strategy:

1. What can I contribute that will be of real value?

2. How can I share what I'm doing without a 'hard sell' ?

3. Is this channel a place I am connecting with colleagues, friends or customers or some mix? How can I make sure all these constituencies are served?

Stephanie Diamond writes The Marketing Message Blog and is the founder of Digital Media Works, Inc. She is a seasoned 25+ year management/marketing professional with experience building profits in a broad range of product and services businesses. In addition to writing for the Mplanet blog, Stephanie will be speaking at Mplanet's Digital Marketing Lab in January 2009.

Marketing News Radio this Wednesday at 11 a.m. central time, noon on the East Coast, will be featuring speakers (including me) discussing Mplanet 2009.

Visit AMA’s Marketpower.com to listen live or download the hour-long show and listen to it later. Scheduled speakers are: Patricia Goodrich, Jack Holfelder and me of the AMA.

Each of us will  discuss various aspects of the program and sessions, keynote speakers, events in the Discovery Center and the pre-conference Digital Marketing Lab, among other topics. John Aiello, Mplanet 2009’s presenting sponsor, also will being interviewed.

Veteran business journalist John N. Frank is editorial director of AMA’s Marketing News, Marketing Management, Marketing Health Services and Marketing Research.  He has also started or relaunched a variety of magazines, newsletters, and Web sites in his more than 30 years in journalism.