CMO’s Get Your SAP SMM Budget Line Item!

Most CMO’s are massively tapping into social media marketing. They all want that golden social media marketing strategy for 2009. Well, have I got a great tip for you?

Since you are all creating your 2009 budgets now, make sure to create a social media marketing budget line item in your SAP systems asap! Without it, you probably can’t spend budget on SMM and having a SMM strategy or roadmap for 2009 will not be possible.

And then you’ll miss the needed mediation between your brand and consumers within the so important social spaces in 2009. Do you think competitors will wait for you?

Small free trip: to create a social media marketing strategy in 8 steps for 2009, with a full year program, top-up your SAP budget line item for SMM with $ 1.000.000.

It will probably take about 4-6 weeks to get that done within your company?

Where to get this SMM budget from? From your offline media budget. Or from your departments: PR, Market Research, Display, Search, Branding, Communications, Marketing, Sales, Care, Innovation, Product Development or CRM.

Maybe even from other internal stakeholders that hold budgets. Social media marketing means an integrated approach and goes through all your silo departments. That might be the second challenge, but the SAP submission will be your first challenge.

If you don’t do it now, you’ll be entitled to 1 or 2 small seeding campaigns in 2009. And probably you want guaranteed reach when you buy natural seeding (do you do so at your PR agency?) so it will not be earning attention but buying attention.

And that my dear CMO’s is:

1. not natural seeding but paid seeding or social media advertising

2. what we like to call that buying attention, not earning attention through great creativity (need to have if you want viral spread for almost free)

3. why buying attention will cost you more budget than getting viral spread through natural seeding. No company in the world (not even your pr or media agency) can promise you guaranteed “reach” at natural seeding. It’s the same as your PR agency would promise you the front page of the New York Times or your SEO agency that promises you the first “organic” position in Google. It does not work like that: ever!

Without an allocated SMM budget line item, you will not be able to run 2009 programs like: a social media marketing brand assessment, a yearly conversational tracking program across your target markets, a “brand” new content and creativity strategy, identifying and inviting social influentials to your a brand ambassador community.

You would not want to miss out on other great consumer insights and knowledge about your target audience’s behavior. You probably need that knowledge, since your daily job is to influence consumers’ behavior, so they will buy your products.

Maybe you should try a little harder, just a little harder, to get to know your consumers. Pushing another shot of print or tv ads will not bring you much insights and learnings, right?

Maybe your traditional agency told you the internet is a controllable channel, build to interrupt people’s conversations with intrusive banner ads? Sorry, the internet is not a publishers or broadcasters controlled environment that was launched to push stupid or irrelevant banners.

The internet is also not a medium like you are used to. Internet is non linear so stop linear thinking.

The internet is also not only suited for digital direct marketing or direct sales (Google). The internet is a space where people meet, conversate, rate videos, review or buy products. Download music, watch movies, create stuff watch porno movies or sell things on eBay.

The internet is what we all want it to be. But make sure to step into the world of social media marketing. With 1% of your yearly media budget you’ll learn great things about your brand, products, sites and services. If you know brand equity, you’ll need to get into the trialogue.

Or you will miss out on the dialogs about your brand. Watch, listen start asking, start conversations. Be ready to improve yourself. And don’t worry, I’m not asking to waste your next flight GRP’s on the next product launch.

Since people will not buy bad products, that are rated negatively by their online peers or social influentials.

So get your head out of the sand. And stick it out of your boardroom window.

If you are not willing to listen what consumers have to say about your brand and products, you will at least get some fresh air.

Some extra oxygen might help you to refresh your mind.