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Is cutting-and-pasting social media “best practices” the path toward better, tangible results?  Or should we instead use good, proven processes that “work” — applying them within our context to create more sales and happier customers?  Let’s take a quick, critical look at why chasing best practices might be a waste of valuable time.

The whole idea of a best practice implies an absolute — that there is something better than everything else out there.  But in life there aren’t many “for sure” things.  Especially in a business world where how things are done is always shifting.  Nor are absolutes very practical.

For instance, let’s say you asked a trusted, respected peer, “How can I use social media to create more leads and sales?” they’d be foolish to suggest, “Just read Jeff’s blog.”  Or any book or blog for that matter!  Just the same, it would be disingenuous of them to say, “You should apply (aka. mimic) a case study” within a given book or blog.

Here’s what I’m proposing: Those process that are effective should be borrowed from.  These are where the gold lies.  Because social media marketing processes themselves are good idea-generators.  But when presented in the forms of a “best practice” they’re almost never a full solution.  Not practically speaking.

Fly high: Making social produce outcomes

For instance, the United States Air Force’s public affairs office has a simple yet effective social media decision-making system that serves their strategic needs.  Believe it or not, the Air Force offers a good example of an organization your business might borrow basic concepts from.

The Air Force employs 33,000 communicators.  Their mission is to use social media tools to discover, analyze and respond to comments about the Air Force.  And to do so in ways that support its overall mission.  In particular, they support recruitment of airmen and airwomen through use of new digital tools.  And they do this through a well-designed system.

The Air Force’s process is focused on creating and responding to purposeful conversations about itself within social media.  It’s looking at (and selectively participating in) dialogues with outcomes in mind.  Of course, they’re dabbling in all the usual tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and across a variety of internal networks like The Pentagon Channel.   So let’s take a look at the purposeful business processes below.  How might you apply them (individually) in ways to improve social media outcomes at your office?

Discover, analyze, respond

The Air Force is using a discover-analyze-respond method.

First, it’s discovering. An inter-disciplinary team finds and organizes what other entities and people are publicly saying about the Air Force. They monitor discussions mentioning the Air Force across the Web using a variety of tools including free ones like Google Alerts.  Big corporations like Dell and PepsiCo (Gatorade) are setting up similar “command centers” that monitor various listening posts across the social Web.

The Air Force is also analyzing.  Team members constantly evaluate each of the discovered dialogues against qualifiers like validity and authenticity. They ask themselves questions like, “Is this a real person making the comment or question?” and if so, what’s that person’s credibility? “Does this person’s opinion matter in the grand scheme?” Decisions are made using a yes-no decision-tree style road map.

For instance, if a discussion or comment is discovered that portrays the organization in a negative light or presents information in an un-balanced fashion decisions are made to “monitor only” (no response but notify headquarters) or “fix the facts/restoration.” If the comment or discussion reflects positively and is balanced a choice is called for. That is, to concur publicly or simply let the post stand. These decisions are made based on pre-defined criteria.

And, of course, the Air Force is responding: Appropriate team members respond in a predetermined manner.  All based on “rules of engagement” that the Air Force has committed to as an organization.

Borrowing processes, not copying practices

Of course, this example by no means suggests running your organization like the U.S. Military.  In fact, I present it with the opposite in mind.  Might all of the Air Force’s processes apply to your competitive, product/service, customer or market context?  Sure.  In some cases.  But cutting-and-pasting these ideas “into your business” might do more harm than good.  Try applying the processes — discovering, analyzing and responding.

The Air Force is providing a very practical group of processes.  All with public relations in mind.  Ultimately, their goal is finding ways to improve recruitment of military personnel.  And that’s a very specific goal.  Sure, it may seem a lot like acquiring customers but it may not be at the “trench level.”

And the Air Force developed all the sub-processes within this system (PDF) through a learning process – not by copying a best practice.  Similar to how you might define a purpose-driven social media process on your own.  Learn.  Iterate.  Improve.

Without a doubt, the Air Force borrowed successful processes from others.  And you too can borrow from the Air Force — apply the broader processes within your business context.  But be careful about copying them in full.

“Our brains, contrary to what most people think, have been designed to learn much more from lessons learned… from what didn’t work; from conflicts; from situations that were everything but successful; from what would force us to re-think what we’ve just done and do it better, trying harder next time around,” says Luis Suarez, an IBM knowledge management consultant and blogger.

Indeed, what Suarez is getting at here is that it can actually be easier (more fun, rewarding?) to learn rather than struggle to copy-and-paste practices.

He goes on to note how concepts feeding into a best practice suggest static, fixed, unbeatable, perfect.  Yet those characteristics are not what learning is about.  Acquiring knowledge is dynamic, flexible, modifiable, flowing –- a continuous learning experience.  Its very nature is imperfect, according to Suarez.

Learn to love learning again

Of course, there are very successful businesses selling access to huge libraries of case studies.  They often call some of them best practices.  And that’s fine.  I even recommend you subscribe to a few.  But the good people at companies like eConsultancy, MarketingSherpa/Marketing Experiments and MarketingProfs will tell you the same.  There’s no silver bullet.  Success is earned, not copied.

Suarez prefers to use the term “good practice.”  Because, “There is always room for improvement.  Always!  And that’s exactly where best practices fail to deliver time and time again.”

It’s common.  It’s understandable.  It’s human nature.  But it’s foolish to look for one, singular “right answer” that’s better than all the rest.  Seeking out best practices won’t serve your business very well.  Because the means to understand “what’s right” for your business involves discovery and iterative improvement.  Learning.  No shortcuts.
That’s why successful businesses are borrowing effective processes from remarkable companies who share them.  And applying them within their own context to thrive.

Go get em!

Why are we so busy selling executive leaders on the value of social media’s marketing prowess? We forget that the most effective way to get noticed, if not promoted, is when we prove the value of social media first and then ask for permission.  Let’s put an end to the glut of “Top X Ways to Sell Social Media to Your Boss” articles. You don’t need “executive buy in” to prove the value of your strategy. It’s a myth that’s delaying your successful use of social marketing.

#1: You Don’t Need To

Practically speaking, you don’t need to have everybody supporting your strategy to move forward. What you do need are guts, resources, and a plan. At the risk of dating myself, think Rambo.

Now I’m not suggesting you run out there like a social media maniac. I’m saying you need a plan.  Sure, Rambo had some issues with his past. He acted a bit radically, and it seemed erratic. In the end he always had a bold plan.

For instance, let’s say a marketing pro named Albert is working at a small service business. He’s selling rafting expeditions focused on adventure travel. Albert decides to begin a content marketing campaign. He starts using a blog. On one side of his content (in the sidebar), he makes clear calls-to-action.  Here, he deftly uses a sweepstakes to take the pulse of adventure-seeking leads.

The sweepstakes is his ethical bribe to gain access to potential customers’ state-of-need for what he sells. He simply asks the prospect to identify themselves (e.g., email) and select when they’re looking to travel (e.g., immediately, in 2-3 months, later this year, or never).

Albert’s plan is good, and he nets eight leads within three months. Three of his leads convert to bookings service contracts. In other words, Albert generated measurable results with his plan.

Albert then walks into his boss’s office.  Brent, the boss of this travel business, doesn’t care for social media. He believes it’s a waste of time, so he banned Facebook at the office. But Albert arrives with a smile.

“Brent, I’ve got some good news,” says Albert.  “I started a new lead generation program 90 days ago, and it generated more leads than our other programs, considering the costs involved and the outcome.  I netted eight good leads and got three bookings. The best part is I’m seeing measurable signs that I’ve barely scratched the surface on the potential of this plan.”

Brent looks up from his desk, “Tell me more.”

“I boot-strapped the whole thing,” says Albert. ” I invested a lot of my personal time after hours and at home on weekends. I also created a ‘free trip’ give-away promotion without getting permission from you. That’s the bad news.”

Albert had a plan. Yes, he took some risks, and things could have gone wrong. More often than not smart bosses will realize their reluctance to explore social media comes from a lack of practical experience with it. Show them initiative and measurable results. You’ll often find their reluctance will evaporate.

#2: Winners Don’t Ask for Permission to Succeed

Why would we wait around for permission to be successful? Think about it in a practical sense. The tools we have at our disposal beg us to take action, often by making a low risk bet, but you also can’t be afraid of failing. The key question to ask is whether you’re confident what you want to do can happen without shipwrecking your brand or business.

For decades, traditional marketers have been taught to plan carefully. We’re told that we must get it right because it’s too expensive to change later. Now we can do in hours what previously took days. One can see if something is working or not relatively soon. We can stop doing more of what doesn’t work and try something new faster than ever before.

In essence, we can develop a plan, experiment with it, and improve it. IBM’s Mike Moran (now at Converseon) wrote a book on the subject called Do it Wrong Quickly: How The Web Changes The Old Marketing Rules.  His main thesis focuses on the reality that we no longer need to ask for permission to succeed. Because the tools we have to work with are dramatically improved and built for faster learning we can fail, pick up the pieces, and try again. Practicing these steps fosters innovation and, yes, more frequent success.

#3: Waiting Costs You Sales

Maybe you’re not waiting. Maybe you’re planning. Everything’s lined up and ready to go. You have a few case studies that back up your point, highlighting best practices that you’ll try to emulate. You’re planning on making your case to someone at some point.

Reality check. You’re waiting. You’re not doing. You’re missing out on leads and sales.  I recently read an article that claimed that the “selling” of upper management was the hard work. Really? In my opinion the hard work is making social media sell not convincing people to allow you to do what you’ve been hired to do!

You don’t need to convince upper management to support your foray into social media marketing. Winners don’t ask for permission to succeed, and waiting is costing you sales. Could waiting be putting your job at risk? It’s time to start doing.

Banks have a problem. In fact, it’s the same issue tormenting most service-based businesses.  Increasingly, customers need help making complex decisions, and banks have the expertise to guide them. However, their target market does not habitually turn to them for advice. From managing finances during a divorce to applying for a small business loan, most of us don’t think about banks as trusted advisers.

“The problem is breadth,” says Stewart Rose, CEO of Truebridge Financial Marketing. ”Banks are seen too narrowly, as the place to go for deposits and loans… a place to go to transact.”

Most of us view banks as places to make routine transactions. We rarely look to banks to get advice on pressing personal or business needs. We turn to personal relationships, professional financial advisers or a variety of online resources like BankRate.com. Many service providers have this same problem.

A Unique Solution

Financial services companies are leading the service industry and taking action. They aren’t sitting around debating how to measure ROI of social media and mobile apps. If you’re a service-based marketer it makes sense to follow their lead.

Banking is a tough business. In spite of increased regulation and skeptical customers, exceptional banks are increasing what they call “share-of-wallet” or the percentage of a customer’s expenses that the bank’s products/services have earned. At the same time they’re boosting referrals and leads, too, by applying the idea of being useful.

Smart banks are using social media and mobile to listen to customers. They’re also making product benefits tangible when and where customers display a need for them. They’re finding ways to take action on what customers are telling them through their behavior. Most remarkably, they’re finding new ways to prompt customers to do what they’re quite inclined to do anyway: buying more products or services like retirement, business banking, or college savings products.

Take Spain’s BBVA Bank, for instance. They’re proving that “being useful” to customers will make mobile applications pay real dividends.

BBVA’s Useful Media

While most banks are trying to convince customers to view them differently in social and mobile spaces, innovators like BBVA are busy showing them. Success with “useful media” is all about changing behavior, not viewpoints.

Spain’s BBVA, one of the world’s largest retail banks, is offering its customers Tú cuentas (“you count”). A personal finance tool, Tú cuentas offers the usual back functionality of a web and mobile app. But it goes further than transfers and balance checking. It allows customers  to manage their personal finances better. Tú cuentas offers analysis tools so customers can better understand and improve their own spending and savings habits.

The “Just for Me” feature uses collective intelligence to offer a selection of personalized suggestions.  The bank is acting more like a financial planner.

BBVA’s mobile app also provides free content that teaches customers practical things like how to prepare your finances in case of divorce, apply for a small business grant or plan for retirement. It also offers “Amazon-like” suggestions, all based on customers’ preference settings, specific financial objectives, and actual behavior.

In other words, it’s usefulness is driven by how customers interact with the application, their bank accounts, and other financial institutions.

In return for offering customers personalized suggestions on financial and non-financial products, the mobile application helps BBVA’s banking staff better understand individual customers’ evolving needs.

The mobile application is useful for BBVA and its customers. It’s what customers need: answers to their most pressing financial questions. It’s what BBVA needs: a way to coach customers toward products that can best serve their evolving needs.

Why It Works

BBVA is using mobile technology to offer relevant, practical information that serves the need of the customer and the bank. This “useful media” works because it’s functioning within the ever-changing lives of its customers. BBVA isn’t just “entering the conversation” or “buzzing” or building “social graphs.”  It’s being useful and serving its own interests and those of its customers.

Next Steps

The “big opportunity” for banks and other service-based businesses is to answer skeptical, angry consumers with:

• Utilities that foster trust and reliability that can be experienced
• Free services that leverage existing strengths like critical thinking, and market or risk interpretation
• Contextually relevant information in place of memorable or entertaining ads
• Better customer service or self service

While your competitors are busy “humanizing” themselves with social media and mobile tools you can be qualitatively improving customers’ lives with them. You can help customers lead themselves “down the sales funnel” toward your products and services. And you can do it by being useful to customers.
Take action.  Don’t focus on the technical aspects of mobile applications.  First, ask yourself and/or your social team:

• Can a mobile application help us improve our ability to be more relevant to customers, more often?
• How can we start being useful in ways that translate customers’ evolving needs?
• When are we in the best position to “consultatively sell” with customers off the Web?
• How can we replicate that context online, guiding customers toward answers that connect with our services?

A Parting Thought

Maybe now we can see why small business Goliath, Intuit acquired Mint.com, a very similar financial service. Intuit’s small business customer base can certainly use the same kind of financial and investment recommendations. Mint.com was a struggling business,  but a fabulous application.

Connecting Mint.com to its core products provides Intuit with an immediate way to always stay relevant, in context, and positioned to sell.  Sure, Intuit could be focusing on creating desire, positive sentiment, buzz, attention or aspiration with social and mobile media.  Or it could invest in “useful media” like Mint.com to become useful to existing customers in ways that create leads for its other products. Because Mint.com becomes an automated product recommendation engine, it’s a way to start discovering latent, hidden demand among customers and capturing it.

What’s your “Mint.com?”

Using social media as part of our business strategy requires us to change our expectation about tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Today I’ll focus on making social media serve a critical goal: generating leads and sales. To start; let’s try acting on your instincts more often.

You Already Have the Answers

What if social media is not a game changer? What if social media marketing was a potential game enhancer that you can figure out on your own, maybe even better than the experts? Even more radical, what if you already have the ability to stretch each social media budget dollar farther? Like IBM’s Mike Moran preaches in his book, you simply need to do it wrong quickly and be fearless learners, trusting and acting on your instincts.

Let’s start with a look at real estate. In the early 1990s, the web was posed to make realtors obsolete. Remember disintermediation? The middle man no longer fit in the middle. It was all coming to an end. Now, Trulia.com and Zillow.com are still around, but so are realtors.  As it turns out, data provided to home buyers isn’t terribly valuable by itself. People who can interpret that data are valuable.

In real estate, opinion and knowledge sharing on the web ( e.g., the wisdom of crowds) is helpful, but not always trusted or valued. Buyers and sellers still appreciate working with the knowledgeable, credentialed people of the industry, realtors. After all the hype and spin, trust and critical thinking matters more to people. Who’da thunk?

Think about it this way: realtors clearly have the social business know-how. Consider their historic expertise in facilitating conversations that lead to consumer trust. In this light, realtors simply need to learn how to best choose and apply an array of new digital marketing tools.

Jeff Turner of Zeek Interactive says it best:

“[Realtors] may have strong positions in numerous social media sites, but they have one or a small number of hubs around which all of their social media efforts revolve.”

Realtors are in the ideal power position for leveraging social media, perhaps more than any other business industry. Realtors aren’t blogging about blogging. They’re not tools of the shiny new tools. They’re social commerce experts.

In a true, non-tech social context, who better to apply marketing constructs within budding social media than realtors? They already have proven (effective) strategies that power the tactics. They have the social business skills needed to succeed.  In many ways, realtors should be schooling digital experts when it comes to creating more profits using social media technologies.

How is your business any different?

Ethical Bribes Work

What sells better: awareness or a quality experience?  Think about your own experience with brands, products, and services.

Consider the last time a vacation timeshare marketer offered you the ethical bribe of a free vacation. These marketers have used free vacations to lure the most likely prospects for years. Then they engage customers in real time, but they go far beyond simple engagement. They assess prospects one-on-one to understand where the customer is at in the purchase process and then set the hook with clever sales techniques.

With the web and social media, we have new opportunities, but not under revolutionary terms. Nearly everyone can replicate this model, not just supposed experts.  Why? Because we already have marketing expertise and NOT because everyone has access to social media!

We need to pick the best tools to earn customers’ participation. Jeff Turner reminds us that we don’t want to become tools of the tools in the process. After we’ve chosen our tools, it’s time to interact, and to deliver customer satisfaction though a qualitative experience. Ultimately we’re reaching beyond creating mere attention and awareness.

Never Forget the Fundamentals

Have the fundamental business rules changed because of social media? Or has the environment simply changed by speeding up and becoming more connected? Customers are hyper-connected, but the hype of social media spinsters hasn’t changed the fundamentals of business. The digital revolution is exciting and filled with opportunity. Capitalizing on it requires you to trust your instincts, to question your consultants, and to take bold action to improve digital marketing returns.

Here’s an idea. Suggest  to your marketing team that Twittering is just aimless chitchat without organizational design, purpose, or expected outcomes set  from the start. The same can be said for all social tactics. Empower your team to take action on the declaration based on these fundamentals. Trust your instincts, and act on them.

As Seth Godin is now saying with his new, Poke the Box movement:

“From the age of 5 we’re sort of trained not to poke.  We’re sort of trained not to push the envelope.  Because we’ve discovered that if we do that we might get punished…we might get pushed back…and the answer is to reassure yourself.  The answer is to feed yourself a steady diet of reassuring, inspirational, insightful, work—that maybe, just maybe, helps you find the guts to do the work you know you need to do.”

More often than not, business folks I meet already have the answers, they just need to be reassured and inspired into taking action. I’m hopeful that my new book will help smart people find the guts to take action.

Jim Kukral wants to know why we both love and hate gurus. I think I know why—and what gurus (self-appointed or not) can do about it. Part of the issue is that Brian Clark, aka @copyblogger, got it right when he tweeted, “A person who calls himself a guru does so because he cannot spell charlatan.” We’re seeing this in action with the reputation problem developing around “web marketing experts.”

A colleague described the problem this way. “Have you ever noticed… sooner rather than later, web marketing gurus start talking themselves out of what they’ve behaved themselves into?” Allan Dick, CMO of Vintage Tub and Bath, offered this thoughtful insight to the problem:

Every time there is a sizable shift in the way businesses communicate with consumers, there are always a cadre of “experts”… people that advise that a new business paradigm has arrived. One in which traditional theories of running a business get thrown out the door. What these experts miss is that the theories remain the same – it’s the way you execute those theories that change.

If you think about it, digital gurus are just part of a long line of self-appointed know-it-alls! Beyond being know-it-alls, gurus can also be very vague about the potential results of taking their advice. (Photo credit, right: kraetzsche)

Here are some questions you should be asking yourself:

• Who honestly expects a business-minded person to place more value on “traffic” than loyal customers?
• How could a CEO be satisfied with earning “social currency” rather than a clear return on financial investment?
• Why would one believe Twitter tweets, positive buzz and Facebook friends carry more weight than sales, subscribers or leads?

If you have never asked yourself these questions, I’d be surprised if your boss didn’t. Allan also added this perspective:

Remember the whole “just get eyeballs to your Web site and the profits will come” mania? Common sense took another holiday. Here’s a perfect example. In 1916, long before the digital age was even an idea, Leon L. Bean posted this notice on the front door of his store: “I do not consider a sale completed until goods are worn out and the customer is still satisfied.”

Brilliant in its simplicity.

The advent of radio, television, mass media, Internet is only a new way to make certain that the customer is still satisfied. It is not a replacement or alternative to taking care of the customer and standing behind your products.

It is not some great mystery that requires self-anointed pundits to climb the magic mountain to gain some new nugget of wisdom and bestow it upon unenlightened businesses.

Taking Allan’s cue, I think it’s time to tell the truth, for all gurus to come clean. My Chicago-based colleague, Gunnar Branson says, “One should be honest, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is the most effective way to persuade.” He goes on to state that, “Accentuating the positive has become a fundamental faith in communications. When it comes time to pitch an idea, a business or a product, few would be brash enough to break with this convention and declare their own limitations.”

Mr. Branson gives specific examples of this brash honesty:

• Irvs, a men’s clothing store in Chicago, proudly describes itself as “inconveniently located.”
• Southwest Airlines boasts that they only give their passengers peanuts for meals, but it remains the most profitable airline.

His point rings true. Addressing negative truths is one of the most overlooked and yet most powerful marketing technique available. Could honesty differentiate to the extent that it creates instant credibility?  Consider our current environment.  Most exaggerate, obfuscate, or spin.  Being brutally honest attracts serious attention.

I’ll start:

Social marketing is a chance to quantitatively and qualitatively improve what we’re already doing for customers—and how we’re doing it.  But we social media gurus (aka consultants) have been too busy issuing new edicts, claiming up is the new down, and convincing otherwise smart marketers to take their eyes off-the-ball.

The truth, as I see it, is simple:

1. Social media marketing is a servant to business—not the other way around.
2. Successful social marketers are translators of need—not clever advertisers of clever messages.
3. Attention is not the end—it’s the beginning of earning the lead/sale.

What do you think?  I believe this can open a useful dialogue about making the above truths actionable.

Jim Kukral wants to know why we both love and hate gurus. I think I know why—and what gurus (self-appointed or not) can do about it. Part of the issue is that Brian Clark, aka @copyblogger, got it right when he tweeted, “A person who calls himself a guru does so because he cannot spell charlatan.” We’re seeing this in action with the reputation problem developing around “web marketing experts.”

A colleague described the problem this way. “Have you ever noticed… sooner rather than later, web marketing gurus start talking themselves out of what they’ve behaved themselves into?” Allan Dick, CMO of Vintage Tub and Bath, offered this thoughtful insight to the problem:

Every time there is a sizable shift in the way businesses communicate with consumers, there are always a cadre of “experts”… people that advise that a new business paradigm has arrived. One in which traditional theories of running a business get thrown out the door. What these experts miss is that the theories remain the same – it’s the way you execute those theories that change.

If you think about it, digital gurus are just part of a long line of self-appointed know-it-alls! Beyond being know-it-alls, gurus can also be very vague about the potential results of taking their advice. (Photo credit, right: kraetzsche)

Here are some questions you should be asking yourself:

• Who honestly expects a business-minded person to place more value on “traffic” than loyal customers?
• How could a CEO be satisfied with earning “social currency” rather than a clear return on financial investment?
• Why would one believe Twitter tweets, positive buzz and Facebook friends carry more weight than sales, subscribers or leads?

If you have never asked yourself these questions, I’d be surprised if your boss didn’t. Allan also added this perspective:

Remember the whole “just get eyeballs to your Web site and the profits will come” mania? Common sense took another holiday. Here’s a perfect example. In 1916, long before the digital age was even an idea, Leon L. Bean posted this notice on the front door of his store: “I do not consider a sale completed until goods are worn out and the customer is still satisfied.”

Brilliant in its simplicity.

The advent of radio, television, mass media, Internet is only a new way to make certain that the customer is still satisfied. It is not a replacement or alternative to taking care of the customer and standing behind your products.

It is not some great mystery that requires self-anointed pundits to climb the magic mountain to gain some new nugget of wisdom and bestow it upon unenlightened businesses.

Taking Allan’s cue, I think it’s time to tell the truth, for all gurus to come clean. My Chicago-based colleague, Gunnar Branson says, “One should be honest, not because it’s the right thing to do, but because it is the most effective way to persuade.” He goes on to state that, “Accentuating the positive has become a fundamental faith in communications. When it comes time to pitch an idea, a business or a product, few would be brash enough to break with this convention and declare their own limitations.”

Mr. Branson gives specific examples of this brash honesty:

• Irvs, a men’s clothing store in Chicago, proudly describes itself as “inconveniently located.”
• Southwest Airlines boasts that they only give their passengers peanuts for meals, but it remains the most profitable airline.

His point rings true. Addressing negative truths is one of the most overlooked and yet most powerful marketing technique available. Could honesty differentiate to the extent that it creates instant credibility?  Consider our current environment.  Most exaggerate, obfuscate, or spin.  Being brutally honest attracts serious attention.

I’ll start:

Social marketing is a chance to quantitatively and qualitatively improve what we’re already doing for customers—and how we’re doing it.  But we social media gurus (aka consultants) have been too busy issuing new edicts, claiming up is the new down, and convincing otherwise smart marketers to take their eyes off-the-ball.

The truth, as I see it, is simple:

1. Social media marketing is a servant to business—not the other way around.
2. Successful social marketers are translators of need—not clever advertisers of clever messages.
3. Attention is not the end—it’s the beginning of earning the lead/sale.

What do you think?  I believe this can open a useful dialogue about making the above truths actionable.

It’s a critical thought explosion here at ReveNews.  Hot on the heels of Alan Mitchell’s analysis of how the pay-per-click affiliate model is flawed I’m back with the final 5 “hidden dangers of affiliate marketing.”

Affiliate Marketing Legend Wayne Porter‘s idea to present the world with a book titled 15 Hidden Dangers of Affiliate Programs for Merchants was a dandy one.  And reviewing his guidance serves advertisers well today.  It also shows us how we’ve dealt with the tough issues over the last 7 years — or not.

So far we have:

1) Control over brand experience
2) Control of marketing messages
3) Competition in pure SEO environments
4) Competition in the paid search market
5) Discount or coupon “stacking”
6) Cross-channel promotion confluence
7) Training customers to discount
8 ) Transfer of loyalty to cash-back or other incentive sites
9) Escalation in retail costs to compete in ultra-competitive markets
10) Sales concentration risks

All of which we discussed in our earlier article.  Here are the remainder of Wayne’s warnings.

11 & 12) Control of partnerships — who owns them?  And “exclusive” contracts.

Aaah, yes.  The age-old “exclusivity” concern.  Ever since affiliate networks were born out of the minds of young business folk (and lawyers like LinkShare’s Steven Messer) there has been a constant fear of replacement.  In the end, affiliates are middle-men.  But affiliate networks are middlemen controlling the middlemen.  Of course, that makes “CPA networks” middlemen of middlemen of middlemen.  But that’s another article.

Affiliate networks have always tried to prevent advertisers from arriving, discovering the best affiliates in their network and running for the hills — removing affiliates from the network by brokering direct deals with them.  Networks have created “exclusivity clauses” legally attempting to prevent advertisers from “going direct” with affiliates.

These agreements disallow “working around the network.”  There will be no pushing, no shoving and no removing affiliates an advertiser discovers through network — no taking them to another network.  Which, of course, is fairly ridiculous since most affiliates work with all networks.  But it also bans “one-off” (direct, non-networked) tracking and reporting of referrals and commissions.

I vividly recall the first time the issue was publicly discussed.  The practice was labeled commonplace by Marty Fahncke who was, at the time, running Thane International’s affiliate program.  Fahncke got everyone’s attention while on an Affiliate Summit cruise when he revealed that he actually got away with the trick… discussing why and how he did it.  People actually gasped.  Wayne Porter and I were actually leaving the room and we sat back down in a hurry!

Perhaps most entertaining was my discussion with a network executive in 2002 where I learned of a classic form of circumvention.  The affiliate network I once worked for had merely signed NDAs with a competing network’s customers — advertisers restricted to whom they could work with and where. This is a version of “go ahead and ask but I cannot legally tell” that infuriated the Chief Executive I was chatting with.

Here’s how it works:  If the restricting network were to accuse the offending advertiser of pilfering affiliates or, worse, engaging another affiliate network at the same time the accused advertiser simply replied, “I cannot confirm or deny that with you because I cannot legally discuss it without breaking an agreement.”

But Wayne was also concerned over an advertiser’s ability to negotiate separate, free-standing terms with the affiliate.  And to this day the industry hasn’t much worked out the affiliate ownership issue.  Most affiliate networks are not litigious — nor are they in the position to be.  Of course in the early 2000′s that was quite different with LinkShare because of their corporate environment.  But even then it was far more bark than bite.

If you want to extract relationships from affiliate networks it’s entirely possible to accomplish.  Then and now.  And if advertisers want to negotiate affiliate terms (and vice versa) outside of the affiliate network’s standard legalese that is also possible.  And commonplace.

13) Fraud and its many forms

It’s difficult to remember (especially for aging guys like me) the days where advertisers were called marketers because, well, most didn’t advertise.  You needed to have seven figures to do that.  And AOL was the king of the hill.  You were a marketer and you were waiting for affiliate marketing to come along.  “Performance based marketing” we called it.  And you could pay per click or per “action” — per sales transaction (commission) or per lead (bounty).

Yes, per click.  Affiliate programs came out of the gate selling clicks.  And boy did that go over poorly.  Pay-per-click was rampant with click fraud.  Most programs lasted mere months — some less.  This also further delayed marketer’s eventual entry into pay-per-click search advertising — to the dismay of GO Network/Overture (now Yahoo Search) and, of course, Google.  Marketers were soured to pay-per-click advertising by affiliates.

Slight tangent: Yes, affiliates rushed in to buy pay-per-click ads in the absence of marketers.  Born were Goliath affiliates like CouponMountain, credited with being the first to buy the word “coupon” for pennies on the dollar; and “arbitrage affiliates” (so-called DTM or “direct to merchant”) who act as pure performance-based, outsourced search marketing guns-for-hire.  Do not miss Alan’s write-up and outstanding comments contributions in this week’s post.  Alan is spot-on in terms of where we’re at today.

Of course, cost-per-action (CPA) fraud also made its way onto the scene.  This realm runs the gamut from illegal activity to affiliate “cookie-stuffing” (earning undue commissions without making legitimate referrals).  Today, fraud is an accepted cost of doing business — and that includes doing business with Google (Adwords/Adsense).  It’s a managed reality.

Which is not to imply we are dealing with trivial amounts of fraud. If the lawsuit against Digital Point Solutions, Kessler’s Flying Circus, Thunderwood Holdings and BrianDunning.com, and subsequent indictment of Shawn Hogan and Brian Dunning for allegedly committing over $20 million dollars in cookie-stuffing fraud shows anything it is how significant fraud can be when no one is paying attention.

14) Parasitic software and long-term effects on affiliate force

It seemed like this subject was one that would never go away.  But somehow it has gotten a bit quieter.   And Kellie Stevens is quick to help ReveNews readers keep up on all the details.

Adware, spyware and the like have long been a source of aggravation for advertisers.  The “parasites” (as affiliates prefer to call them) are businesses ranging from very visible affiliates like iGive, eBates and Upromise to relatively invisible affiliates, scam artists and assorted “scumware.”  All an affiliate need do to be included in this jolly assortment is set an affiliate referral cookie in a legitimate or illegitimate manner.

And boy, defining legitimate took a long time and, even today is not clearly defined.  Yet I think this obstacle seems cleared for affiliate marketing as an industry.   I don’t see advertisers abandoning affiliate marketing over the risks, just adjusting expectations.  And occasionally adjusting their affiliate base.

Some affiliates are clear “bad actors” while others use tool bars, or other software devices, to aid their shoppers/members in earning loyalty points/cash back/miles.  They place cookies in browsers of shoppers as a convenience, so as to avoid needing to go to an affiliate’s site and click to earn their reward.

Mind you, all nefarious activity comes at the benefit of affiliate networks.  And, again, I can state this definitively.  Anyone who’s worked at an affiliate network can.  Why? Because networks get a cut of everything. The more sales commissions — duly or unduly earned — the better for the affiliate network.  Years ago, all affiliate networks reluctantly set up “network quality” departments and tools to monitor for these pesky affiliates.  Well, pesky to the advertisers at least.

And I would be crazy to not cite Ben Edelman‘s work in this area as groundbreaking, if not fascinating.  But again, the issue seems to be deemed “under control” by advertisers who buy affiliate marketing services/leads/sales.

15) “Fox guarding the hen-house syndrome”

Yes, these were Wayne’s exact words.  And what he’s describing is what I just began describing.  Affiliate marketing, then and to a large degree today, remains very much like letting a fox loose in your hen-house.  If you’re not careful affiliates will, under the not-so-always-mindful-watch of an affiliate network, engage in dozens of acts that will bring harm to your brand or your budget.  I’m not being “glass half full.”  I’m being realistic.

And as Wayne said, “Most networks are not given incentive to control these issues.” Of course networks like Commission Junction have instituted programs where advertisers can pay $5,000 a month to have the network’s compliance team “actively” monitor an advertiser’s program for compliance and fraud issues. Think of it as sort of a “protection racket.”

But, again, for the most part it seems to have settled down these days.  Affiliate programs have been so cut back by large brands that networks and affiliates seem content with what they have to work with.  Gone are the days of most brand-based affiliate marketing arbitrage (where affiliates merely shuttle navigation-based Google traffic for pennies on the dollar).

Affiliate marketing co-exists with all the other Web marketing strategies.  And affiliate networks seem to have earned the respect and continued investment of advertisers.

Well there you have them.  The 15 Hidden Dangers of Affiliate Programs for Merchants.  Thanks Wayne!

Blogging, engaging, listening to customers on Facebook or Twitter are all a necessary component of being online.  But doing these things won’t help you actually make sales using social media.  The idea of following customers into social spaces is incomplete because the customer is there to be social, not to necessarily shop.  Without a reliable means to capture their attention you cannot profit.  This week, I’m providing quick tips on getting the job done.

Here’s my advice on making each social media marketing budget dollar go further in 2011.

Ignore conventional “wisdom”

You cannot control your customers anymore. Enter “the conversation” with them — or risk becoming irrelevant.  And when you start “engaging” you must be transparent and “humanize yourself”.  It’s imperative to assess the sentiment of your fans and detractors on the Web –- constantly take the pulse of your brand image.   It’s time to map customers’ “social graphs” and architect “personas” to keep them engaged.

Rather than look at these typical Web 2.0 statements as valid let’s temporarily invalidate them.   No, you haven’t lost control of your customers.  No, “the conversation” they’re having about you isn’t new, it’s just amplified and expedited by the Web.  Your brand is “human” and you are honest with customers.

My point is to demonstrate how popular statements  made by social media gurus don’t just sound ridiculous.  They are.  They signal a disconnect with your core business objectives. They’re not in sync with your version of reality.

My colleague Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite Group, pokes fun at “gurus” with his Seven Annoying Habits of Social Media Gurus:

1. Preach. If you can’t use the word “must” (or its substitute “have to”) in every other sentence you speak or write, you’ll never make it as a social media guru.

2. Bloviate. This is not the same as preaching. Bloviating is getting up on one’s soapbox, lecturing, haranguing. You’ll need examples of firms’ bad customer service so you can bloviate about how social media made the situation 10 times worse for the good-for-nothing firm that dared to screw up.

3. Cheerlead.

4. Misattribute results. This requires some work, and really separates the amateur gurus from the really good ones. If a firm with a social media effort produces good results — anywhere in their business — you have to find a way to attribute that success to their social media effort.

5. Ignore scale. A 1000% ROI is better than a 23% ROI, right? Of course it is! As a social media guru, you don’t have to worry about the fact that most CEOs would rather invest $100 million and get a 23% ROI, than invest $10k and get a 1000% ROI.

6. Overstate. Declare everything about social media to be a “new breakthrough.”  To be a really good social media guru, you have to know exactly when to drop the “fundamental shift” clause or use the “new paradigm” label.

7. Create lists. Really now, is there anything more annoying than the endless lists of what to do to succeed in social media?

Funny stuff for sure.  But in each habit Ron makes fun of he’s making a very serious point.

Question your consultants

Overzealous “digital rock star gurus” say The Social Web has revolutionized everything.  And getting attention is the answer.  We’re told to listen first.  Then “engage” customers.  But what about selling to them?  As David Ogilvy reminds us, “we sell or else!”

And one of the most effective ways to sell is using direct response marketing concepts — the stuff we already know works on the Web.  And the stuff we already have reliable measurement tools for.  We don’t need to measure “engagement” or other relatively meaningless concepts in quantitative terms.  Friend and follower count?  Pffft!

We simply need to use existing direct response metrics like cost-per-order and use tactics like calls-to-action when uploading a video to YouTube or updating your Facebook Fan page.  We sell or else.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Asking the Experts the Difficult Questions

So I ask you… what if “the experts” are wrong?  What if they’re actually not supporting your ability to generate more leads and sales with social media marketing?  What if they’re actually blocking you?  It’s time to ask difficult questions of our employees and consultants.

For instance, ever find yourself in a meeting asking, “I need to sell more products – how can social media help?”  Good question.

But all too often, the digital consultant across the table answers.  But with a question, “Okay, are you engaging customers on Facebook?” or “Sure, sure… we’ll talk about that in a minute.  What’s your follower count on Twitter?  Let’s examine how we can get it higher.  Then we have something to work with… and can talk about the other details.”

Somehow your consultant’s questions and burning issues become more relevant and urgent.   Hmm.  Are you out of touch?  Your sense of reality is challenged.  The subject definitely has changed.

Many of us, understandably, adopt these questions (this alternate reality) as our own.   Suddenly we’re playing catch-up.  You may believe your brand isn’t “in control.”  You may even rush into the digital jungle with new-found guides at your side –- buzzing, posting and tweeting.

But eventually you wonder why your objectives aren’t met.   The buzz, posts, tweets are great but what about sales and leads?

Action item: Question your consultants and improve

Press your consultants and agency reps to answer business questions first and without using words like traffic, engagement or buzz.   Make them squirm!  Then turn the guns on yourself.

Ask yourself:  “Are we hiring employees and vendors based on tactical skills rather than ability to create strategic results (think and act critically)?  Do they ask the right questions or avoid ours?  Might we already have many of the answers we’re seeking in the so-called experts”

The answers may surprise you and prompt bold actions.

As an example, in a staff/vendor meeting make a point to understand if you’re using the Social Web to interact with customers intimately –- or if you’re “blasting” and tweeting into the ether.

If you’re interacting is it organized?  Or do tactics work apart from (or compete with) each other?   What actionable information does each interaction produce and where does that information go?  What’s done with it (or not)?  Do interactions even produce actionable information?

Finally, ask yourself if there’s room for each social strategy to cooperatively push customers down the sales funnel… like a musical symphony…  using the collected information?  Task your team to organize around logical customer behaviors and prompts.

Next up I’ll cover ways to act on instincts to sell more with social media… leveraging what we already know works to increase returns.  And I’ll leave you with an awesome quote from Avinash Kaushik, analytics expert and author of Occam’s Razor blog:

“Engagement is not a metric that anyone understands and even when used it rarely drives the action / improvement on the website. Why? Because it is not really a metric, it is an excuse. An excuse for an unwillingness to sit down and identify why a site exists.”