In January of this year, my collaborator Tom Lowery read an article about Ted Rubin, one of the “big fish” in the murky social media marketing pond. (Tom notes that some of those fish are flakier than others–nice one, Tom!) Rubin is Chief Social Marketing Officer of Collective Bias, a Social Shopper Media Company that drives retail sales through the coordinated creation of social media stories. He was also taking on the role of CHO (Chief Hugs Officer), as he described it, an “extension of our culture and my philosophy of Return on Relationship–always finding opportunities to metaphorically hug/embrace customers.” Hmmm. “Return on Relationship” when it comes to marketing makes sense. We were intrigued. Fast forward six months and Tom sat down to interview Ted in person in June. A walking platform for #RonR, as he calls it, Ted is an individual who knows the effort it takes to build valuable, sustainable relationships works for all concerned–not just between friends and loved ones, but in the world of business dollars and “sense” (common sense). “Many of us get caught up in the lingo of the times,” says Rubin. “We forget we’ve got to sell to senior executives who don’t have a clue what we’re talking about. When someone asks ‘what is the ROI of Social’ I ask back…‘what’s the ROI of Loyalty, what’s the ROI of Trust?’ In order to sell the concept, you’ve got to talk in a language they’ll understand.” According to Rubin, #RonR is common sense: Awareness equates to revenues. Differentiators drive margins. Authenticity maps to loyalty and advocacy. Each of these attributes is measurable and leads to increased sales and profit, which is measurable as well. Any bean-counter can get their heads around that concept, and should. Not Just Talk A stream of continuous, quality content is what’s required for successful social engagement. Like it or not, social media has revolutionized the way people share and connect. Experts and editors no longer curate the majority of media; shoppers do. Rubin’s company Collective Bias has built a powerful community of social media bloggers. Called Social Fabric, they’re a highly qualified, invitation-only network of authentic, micro-publishers who produce high quality, engaging content about their everyday experiences. The Social Fabric community has an average of 40,000 followers per member and an aggregate multichannel reach of more than 50 million per month. And consumers are listening: · Last year’s Neilsen Global Trust Survey showed that ninety-two percent of consumers around the world say they trust earned media (word-of-mouth, friends and family) above all other forms of advertising—an 18% increase since 2007. · Leadtail’s recent survey during the second quarter of 2013 found that marketers use mainstream media sites most (45%), followed by industry sites (35%) and finally, user-generated sites (17%) for content sharing. As the Neilsen Survey suggests, shoppers trust recommendations from “people they know,” and due to their frank, sincere style of communication, it’s bloggers who’ve become their most influential sources of information. User-generated sites like …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
