Introducing the PESH model

The idea with this model, is to help brands think through their social media presence. We’ve all seen brands enter into social media venues, whether opening a virtual office in Second Life, creating a fanpage on Facebook or taking steps to build a community of their own.  What’s been surprising to note though, is the lack of focus and long term thinking in many of these initiatives. Twitter channels are created around events, then left to wither and die. Campaigns are launched, but only have a lifespan of a few months. More deep engagement and commitment is needed.

The PESH model

Depending on the nature of the company, certain engagement methods work better than others. I’ve taken a stab at defining them below:

Participant

This is very much about mapping the venues and initiatives that give a face to the brand. It’s not so much about what the brand says, but what it actually does.  Involving consumers to different initiatives, creating time during which consumers can immerse themselves in a positive brand experience. It’s not about pushing the hard sell , but more about raising brand awareness and driving increase in measures such as net promoter score. Burger King’s Whopper Sacrifice on was a quite nice tie in to using an existing community in a manner that raised overall interest about the brand.

Enabler

Some brands are great in connecting people through their services or technology. The brand itself isn’t at the forefront of the dialogue, but acts more as the enabler of the experience for the community. Nokia has done this quite nicely with Royal Artist Club. In essence, Nokia technology is utilized by the bands, to create their mobile blogs while on the go. Fans can get exclusive backstage footage of their favourite band and have the chance to comment and engage in conversations on a more personal level. There’s no money exchanging hands, it’s just about “giving love, to get love” in this case. These initiatives are more driven by generating sign ups to your enabling platform.

Supplier

In the end, each brand needs a business model that brings a positive cash flow, in order to keep the wheels rolling. Thinking about where and how you want to go for the “direct sell” is just as important as mapping out where you do not want to do this. RSS feeds or Twitter channels that are specifically skewed towards communicating the latest offers are dimensions that need to be clearly defined before launching. There’s a lot of dialogue about how brands should “sell” within social media. My take is that all dimensions on the PESH model will generate sales, but they all do it in their own manner. In the “supplier” initiatives, brands should identify the best venues for driving their performance driven sales initiatives and be open about the purpose of the initiative. Transparency and openness.

Helper

Social media and care walk very much hand in hand. In many companies, the social media teams are part of the care organization, as it is so closely tied to the ongoing online monitoring and need for reactive actions. Social media provides great venues for listening, but at the same time, these need to be clearly identified and utilized in a way that helps consumers find help when they need it and not a call to action to participate in the latest marketing campaign.

In essence, this model is not meant to be a black & white chart, where activities need to be “locked” into a particular compartment. Many of the activities (for example participant) will include other dimensions (supplier / helper), but this model should help plan and differentiate the primary brand initiatives within the space and allows better focus both internally and externally.

Watch out for the analog people

Hi world. Was thinking about an attention grabbing title for my first post on this blog and this seemed like a pretty good one to capture the essence of what i wanted to say.

To give some context to this title, the term “analog people” is a reference that we have used at work, for troops within the sales and marketing industry as a whole, that refuse to get used to the fact that the industry has evolved beyond the 30 sec TVC and the print ad. I work in sales and marketing myself and a lot of the topics i will be writing about, will focus on digital marketing in particular and the interesting scenarios that technology disruptions cause within the work environment.

However, this title also has a deeper meaning and refers to a stereotypical person that is a victim of their own previous success and resists change from the norm. In today’s business environment, these challenges emerge from the inevitable disruptions within the industry.

We all know that the web has been transforming the way that people consume, share, organize and search for data. What has also become evident, is that the sheer novelty of this channel has generated a “generation mind gap” between the staff inside any company. Nokia’s Anssi Vanjoki has often made references to Internet Immigrants (people who had to “learn” the internet) and Internet Natives (people who have grown up with it always being around) within his speeches. This gap between two generations is one that is having a larger impact on corporations than many would have originally thought.

With the emergence of the internet (both fixed and mobile) as the new mass medium, analog channel expertise has become less relevant and the digital channel understanding is often in the heads of young professionals that have not had the 15 years of experience to climb up the corporate ladder. What this causes, is a disruption to the status quo in which smart companies embrace change and empower people inside the company to become change agents, while ignorant ones stick to their old ways and resist change.

This is not a new phenomena. My grandfather used to work in a Finnish saw mill during the early part of this century. At this time, the first wave of punch card technology was hitting the industry and he was pushing to have this technology reviewed by the board of directors as an alternative and much more effective solution for managing the overall demand supply network. The topic was eventually covered by the board and the conclusions were to keep investigating this emerging technology, but no larger investments would be made until the chairman has retired (and will not have to deal with the hassle) … Go figure

We too often tend to become slaves to our old habits and refuse to change as times change. I work at Nokia, where the speed of change is one that seems to give heart attacks. Combining the fastest paced consumer electronics industry with the overall service industry on the internet, means that there’s no time to keep an ego and think that you know everything. That’s also what i love about Web 2.0. People connecting with other people and sharing, learning and achieving together. Nobody can claim to be the ultimate guru in this field, but we’re all allowed to participate and learn. That’s why i wanted to start this blog. To participate and share some humble thoughts that have come to mind across this journey.