Badvocacy Op-Art
13th June 2008 by Josh Gilbert
A perfect way to sum up what we’ve been calling Badvocacy.
Thanks to Pete Blackshaw, Nielsen BuzzMetric’s CMO, for this upcomig book due out in July. We’re looking forward to reading it.
Now that you’re blogging, don’t forget face-to-face
10th June 2008 by Josh Gilbert
As we’ve been discussing here, more and more companies are getting their online efforts on track these days with smart blogging and social media strategies. That’s good, since individuals are not only increasingly looking to online sources for news and information about companies, products and brands and everything under the “sunflowers,” they are also contributing mightily to that content as well. Chief among these contributors are the top bloggers, those with high “authority,” as defined by Technorati, or numbers of other blogs linking to them.
That makes these top bloggers influential, right? The answer is yes and no. They are certainly influencing other bloggers. And any media relations professional worth their salt knows that a juicy story that starts on the blogosphere can become front page news soon after. Just ask Bill Clinton and Barack Obama about the stories the Huffington Post broke during the recent Democratic primary campaign.
There’s sometimes so much focus on bloggers today that the larger truth, and opportunity, can get missed: bloggers as an emerging source of authority are not highly trusted overall–not yet anyway. In fact, research shows that people–consumers, customers, people like you and me–have headed in the opposite direction to date. We are reserving our trust for the people we know in what we call our day-to-day hub, the inner circle of friends, family members, colleagues and others we know well and regularly communicate with.
Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester recently did something of a research summary on this issue on his blog post, “Who do people trust? (It ain’t bloggers).” It’s certainly not the only reference point out there (my colleague at Jack Morton, Liz Bigham, did a nice summary last fall on the Jack Morton 360 blog). But it’s an updated discussion (with 94 comments) that drew my attention to a study published in April by Canadian research firm Pollara which had the following finding: social media is still more a channel for sharing opinions and learning about products, services, organizations, and brands than it is a channel for influencing people’s ultimate decision-making.
One possible explanation is that the “mode” of how people seek advice and recommendations is still largely face-to-face and offline. But the interesting thing is that Pollara’s findings apply to social media users themselves, as summarized by this write up:
“According to a new study from Canadian research firm Pollara, self-described social media users put far more trust in friends and family online than in popular bloggers, or strangers with 10,000 MySpace ‘friends.’
Of more than 1,100 adults polled in December, nearly 80% said they were very or somewhat more likely to consider buying products recommended by real-world friends and family, while only 23% reported being very or somewhat likely to consider a product pushed by ‘well-known bloggers.’
‘This shows that popularity doesn’t always equate to credibility,’ said Robert Hutton, executive vice president and general manager at Pollara. ‘Marketers might have to reconsider who the real influencers are out there.’
…Overall, social media remains chiefly a mode of communication and personal expression, rather than a source of credible information.”
Some active social media users will strongly disagree (I know from reading the comments on Jeremiah Owyang’s post). But I think it’s a good reminder for agencies and marketers alike to not miss the forest for the trees when developing campaigns or simply communicating and building relationships. Yes, by all means, engage in the blogosphere and other social media. Case in point: I found Jeremiah’s blog post by following him on Twitter and then to friendfeed. By all means, harness social media to listen to your audiences, build a dialogue, and spark word-of-mouth conversations in the offline world, one of the key roles online plays in the marketing mix in diverse categories from banking to technology according to research.
But don’t overlook the larger opportunity to engage influencers and identify advocates in the real world where the lion’s share of word-of-mouth discussions are taking place, and where traditional sources of expertise and influence still matter and need to be in the mix. The biggest impact we can make will undoubtedly be when we bring the best of the online and offline worlds together in compelling and authentic ways, including those who are influential among bloggers and have large social media followings but also the people who truly influence customer and consumer decision-making when push comes to shove: the people in their day-to-day hubs.
Image source: Digital vision, Getty images
Prescription: Advocacy
23rd May 2008 by Josh Gilbert
Just back from our healthcare conference in Madrid to find this very relevant and timely article on smoking cessation in the New York Times yesterday. Covered is a study to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine that finds there is a significant social factor at work in kicking the habit. It follows an earlier paper by the same authors that determined there was also a big social factor in weight loss.
The research points to the enormous opportunity in healthcare communications–discussed in my previous blog post and at our Madrid conference–to more and more create programs that defeat isolation, encourage participation, build community, and don’t just educate patients about treatment therapies but help improve health outcomes through facilitating advocacy.
It also shows how insightful social network mapping and analysis can be, a capability we’ve incorporated into our healthcare and other practices areas through our work with Myra Norton and her colleagues at Community Analytics. Myra — Posting the social network map from the study here in your honor! Let us know what you think.
Dox populi
16th May 2008 by Josh Gilbert
Have been getting ready this week for Weber Shandwick’s global healthcare summit in Madrid, where advocacy will be a key topic. This gave me a good excuse to refresh my understanding of how far advocacy has come in healthcare, a category I don’t get to look at every day.
Here was the question: Like in other product and service categories, are individuals increasingly looking to each other for advice and information about health and disease? That would certainly track with how, in recent years, Americans have had to increasingly rely on themselves to manage their own health and even chronic conditions (a different but related question and debate). Or, on the other hand, does healthcare remain something of a sequestered category where a singular reliance on the “all-knowing” doctor, concerns about privacy, and a subject matter that often times, let’s be honest, makes us too squeamish to want to talk about it put up natural barriers for advocacy to be a go to source?
A few interesting facts (I’m sure there are plenty others):
* Word-of-mouth from friends and family is the main source of information today for US adult internet users when it comes to making decisions about physicians (65%) and hospitals (57%). (Lumin Collaborative 2007)
* 34% of adults in the US rank word-of-mouth as their first choice for information when it comes to making medical decisions. (USC Annenberg 2006)
* 42% of US adult Internet users say they get their information about healthcare companies and products from word-of-mouth sources, as compared to 30% who say the Internet, and 28% who say traditional media such as broadcast and cable TV, newspapers, magazines, radio, etc. (Lumin Collaborative 2007)
* 48% of health information seekers say their quest for information was undertaken on behalf of someone else, not themselves. (Pew Internet & American Life Project 2007)
* 75% of e-patients with chronic conditions say the information they found in their last online search affected a decision about how to treat an illness or condition; 69% say the information led them to ask a doctor new questions or to get a second opinion from another doctor; 57% say the information changed the way they cope with a chronic condition or manage pain; and 61% say they changed their overall approach to maintaining their health. (Pew Internet & American Life Project 2007)
* Also, worth noting: there’s a high degree of “badvocacy” among consumers when it comes to health and healthcare. The category gets one of the lowest Net Advocacy scores in the Keller Fay Group’s TalkTrak index, which measures weekly WOM in the US.
* On the other hand, TalkTrak also shows that there are a high degree of people who regularly give advice and make recommendations to others when it comes to health and healthcare (Ed Keller and Brad Fay have labeled these advocates “ConversationCatalysts”).
So when we look at the healthcare landscape and advocacy today, the trend, if not the answer, seems clear. Are we still reliant on doctors? Is healthcare still too private and too sensitive? Are we still too squeamish? As Amy Winehouse might sing: no, no, no. What we see here is that advocacy is playing a very important role in consumer decision-making about healthcare. That there is extensive engagement and openness. And a significant shift from the way things used to be not very long ago. Upshot: this has a major affect on the way we need to communicate in healthcare today. We have to pay attention to the vox populi, or ”dox” as it were, of the consumer who increasingly looks to others like themselves for doctoring and to the Web for medical advice and information — and acts on it.
Now, maybe that seems like an old hat no-brainer when it was so many years ago that Bob Dole first came into our living rooms to talk about ED (if you don’t know what that it is look it up; I’m not even comfortable writing it). But it’s new, according to experts like Weber Shandwick’s global head of healthcare Laura Schoen. The point she’s made to me is that the rise of advocacy in healthcare is really a revolution taking place, and at a time of high distrust and controversy for the industry (note the badvocacy bullet above).
Laura also helped me see how there’s a much bigger point to all this, one that goes beyond the hard facts and figures. Chronic disease and deadly disorders disempower people. They isolate and take away all hope. And complex treatments can often be as daunting as the diagnosis. Advocacy — the act of connecting with other individuals, being part of a community, socially interacting with others who understand “me,” helping others based on your own experience – is critically important to rebuilding patients’ self-esteem and restoring hope. It goes well beyond just talk in healthcare; it can be a critical equalizer and key ingredient in recovery.
With insights and a sense of purpose like this, the summit in Madrid promises to be a very interesting. I am looking forward to it.
When does the beguine begin?
25th April 2008 by Josh Gilbert
I was in a meeting on the West coast this week. The topic was advocacy (why are you not surprised?). When the question was posed.
OK, not exactly in the way this blog post’s title suggests. And, no, there was no rousing Cole Porter-styled big-band score you’d expect to go with it. Or any fancy footwork a la Fred Astaire. Just the bland illumination of ubiquitious PowerPoint. And a spilled cup of H20.
The question was pretty straightforward in fact, and you don’t have to be a fan of the American Songbook to appreciate it: When does advocacy really start?
Here’s what was at issue. Is advocacy, as the classic purchase funnel has it, the desired end state a marketer strives to achieve with a customer after she’s been acquired and has experienced the brand? Is it about, then, creating programs that enlist customers to help sell to other ones? So brand loyalty, ambassador and “friends and family” type programs. This was essentially the POV of the questioner, and perhaps represents the view of other veteran marketers as, in effect, this is in large part the way advocacy programs have been created heretofore.
The on-the-other-hand was this. Why not also see advocacy as not solely an end but a means? For spreading postive word-of-mouth and recommendations on the path to purchase. When consumers turn to colleagues, friends and family for information and advice as they form opinions and make decisions about what to buy or not to as the case may be.
This school of thought is rooted in some of the big shifts we’ve seen taking place in communications. How individuals are increasingly looking to each other for advice and recommendations about products, services and brands, and less to traditional institutions and authorities as a result. How they tend to make decisions faster. And how some, who are highly connected to others, are highly influential. In some cases more so than traditional opinion leaders or influentials. Full disclosure: yes, this is our POV at Weber Shandwick, and what we’ve seen in our research and work. But we’re hardly a choir of one here.
So back to the question: When does and should the beguine–that spirited dance (which is what a beguine apparently is according to wikipedia) between brand and consumer–really begin when it comes to advocacy?
You should decide for yourself (naturally). But there’s room enough for both views these days, if not the POV that there’s now a continuum of advocacy activities that are happening from the outset of the purchase cycle, and that we should be seeking to understand and harness. Social networking research makes clear that you don’t have to be a customer to be an effective advocate, just someone whose advice your audience seeks out and trusts. In fact, the most valuable customers are no longer necessarily the ones who buy the most, according to Kumar, Petersen, and Leone. Writing last year in their HBR piece entitled “How Valuable is Word of Mouth?” they showed how consumers who don’t buy much at all can be some of the strongest marketers for your brand.
Others, like Forrester, have observed that the purchase funnel itself is fundamantally broken, and a new marketing model based on engagement is needed. Our views on advocacy and the role it plays–and how harnessing it should start earlier today–are more in line with this kind of thinking.
But perhaps there’s only so much the data can tell us about a topic we know really comes down to passion. And who better than the crafty composer himself to shed some light on the subject.
So in the words of Cole Porter (click here for the full lyrics)…
When they begin
the beguine
it brings back the sound
of music so tender
it brings back a night
of tropical splendor
it brings back a memory of green
And as for the steps that go along with this tricky ryhme, nobody could make it look easier than Fred Astaire. Forget making marketing moves so smoothly. How about just dressing that cool?
Blog and Pony Show
16th April 2008 by Josh Gilbert
As a follow up to my last post about what it takes to be the world’s top mom blogger, here’s a recent piece from Brandweek about the flip side that caught our attention: what major companies are doing to court social media moms. Featured are Johnson & Johnson’s campbaby.com and P&G’s vocalpoint (pictured above) and the strategies each is pursuing to reach this ultra connected and influential community of advocates.
Be sure to read what Brandweek reports about the 3-day conference J&J recently hosted for 56 influential mothers / bloggers. And check out some of the stats quoted about vocalpoint: that up to a 30% increase in sales is witnessed after the site’s 350,000 members chatter about products on the site or off it. That certainly meets our definition of advocacy!
Mom as the Truman Show
10th April 2008 by Josh Gilbert
Want to know what it takes to be a professional advocate online? Check out today’s article (and discussion) about 32-year old Heather Armstrong (pictured above), the hip often outrageous but always influential mom and author of the 59th most popular blog going on the Web: Dooce.com. As the reigning top blogger on all matters parenting and mom, she is one of the new faces of influence today.
Always on the lookout for clues to what makes an advocate truly an advocate, this look into Heather’s life, and the toll it can take, caught our attention. Knowledge, passion, committment, openness, a unique POV and voice, and willingness to flout convention. These qualities and more of a parent advocate, some suprising (like her penchant for vulgarity) some not, are on full display on dooce.com, along with quirky items like a daily photo of her “SuperMutt,” Chuck. See what is outshining the 200,000 plus other parenting bloggers in the world today and generating a whopping 4 million page views a month. Plus advertising from the likes of BMW and Verizon.
Peter Weir, director of “The Truman Show,” commenting on how the 1998 movie starring Jim Carrey predicted the rise of reality television once said: “This was a dangerous film to make because it couldn’t happen. How ironic.” Heather’s story, and bouts with mental illness, need for therapy, lack of privacy, show that it is indeed no cake walk.
Truman, in a quest for freedom, walks off the make-believe set at the end of the movie and into a life (a happier one we hope) out of the 24/7 public eye. How will Heather’s own life-as-movie end online? After seven years of blogging, it’s not clear it will or even has to.
Unexpectedly big
21st March 2008 by Josh Gilbert
Sometimes it’s the advocacy of individuals that matters most. Other times it’s the unexpected that delivers the big boost: the endorsement from someone important you hadn’t counted on.
New Mexico Governor Richardson’s endorsement of Senator Barak Obama today? Not just big… gigantamente grande. Not just unexpected… una sorpresa total.
Sure, maybe too little too late for the upcoming Pennsylvania primary (then again, maybe not). But think of the impact his support, as a former Clinton adminstration cabinet secretary and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and our country’s highest-ranking Hispanic elected official, will have on the insider super-delegates. And it will have positive ripple effects not to mention the needed switch to some positive word of mouth for the Obama campaign.
Say what you will about the intensity and length of the democratic primary, and whether that does more harm than good. But it certainly is a historically rivoting contest. What possibly will be next?
Why do they run?
20th March 2008 by Josh Gilbert
When the bulls run in Pamplona every July, who gets gored–and dozens always do, some fatally–is indiscriminate. Herd of terrified animals… stampeding for their lives… stay clear. Got it.
It’s harder to fathom the herd panic this past week of the most sophisticated investors in the world, Wall Street sharpies, which led to the unprecedented Fed-backed “controlled demolition” of Bear Stearns. Perhaps better than bankruptcy, perhaps not.
So why did they run? Was it a wild implosion of confidence as one opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal put it today?: ”As rumors of Bear’s troubles started early last week, counterparties stopped trading with Bear seemingly as quickly and carelessly as they had traded with it before.” Or was it a more rational response to temporary market failure, as another opinon piece in the same paper suggests?: ”Bear Stearns made the error in these skittish times of relying on short-term borrowing, in the form of of overnight repo agreements, to finance its holdings of mortgage-related secuirities.” You can read the full pieces here (if you subscribe).
There’s a stampede of opinions out there. And we’re interested to hear what you think. By the way, for a great review of the overal credit crisis and how we got here read David Leonhardt’s ”Can’t Grasp the Credit Crisis? Join the Club”
Having spent some time in Spain myself (as a younger, more foolish man), and seen a charging toro or two up close, you won’t have to guess where I stand. There’s nothing rational about a locomotive of panic. Or the shockwave of badvocacy that sent counterparties, creditors and even loyal Bear customers running for the exit doors a few short days ago, and vaporized billions in wealth. This was madness and mayhem like on the streets of Pamplona during San Fermin. People got trampled.
Here’s hoping Fed Chariman Bernake proves to be one helluva a matador. He appears to be for now anyway. One thing’s for sure: volatility will continue to be the norm as will huge tilts in word-of-mouth and confidence.
What’s also clear is that aggressive communications responses, like the one led by Richard Fuld at Lehman last week, will be required. But that’s a topic for another post.
Death Star Alive and Well
12th February 2008 by Josh Gilbert
The Death Star is alive and well… At least, that was my take away from this NPR Morning Edition piece about the impact of cutomer reviews on Amazon.com.
These days, it’s hard to remember a time when online customer reviews were not a mainstay of the way we go about buying everything — from entertainment to travel to fashion to food to books. The impact of the reviews is huge. And of some individual reviewers it turns out. Try to fathom the draw dropping number of books Amazon’s top reviewer, Harriet Klausner, has read and rated: 15,000 books and counting to date, according to the newstory. Now where can I get me some of that kind of productivity?!?
But do these ratings, which tend to be overwhelmingly positive (4 or 5 stars on Amazon’s 5 point scale), do any good? You bet was the upshot of a 2005 study by two Yale School of Management professors (Judith Chevalier and Dina Mayzlin), who put the business impact of customer reviews at Amazon.com and BN.com to the test. They found that an improvement in a book’s reviews leads to an increase in relative sales for the book on the sites.
And what about the 1-star reviews, you ask? What impact do they have? As Mayzlin explains on air, the “bad stuff hurts you more.” They found that the relative impact of the few 1-star reviews is greater than the impact of the entire galaxy of 5-star reviews.
While it’s tempting to think about these 1-ratings as Death Stars, that’s likely so much hyperspace. But one thing seems clear from the research. When it comes to buying online, or not buying as the case may be, it’s advocacy buy the book… badvocacy not. Yet another interesting data point to add to the growing body of research on why we should beware of badvocacy. Along with the Sith…
