Social Media: The Five-Year Forecast

In a recent interview published in destinationCRM.com

Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang talks about Social Media and the future of the Social Web. His "Future of the Social Web" report says that, with the growing influence of social networks marketers will have to change their strategies.

According to the report, the Social Web evolution can be devided into 5 eras:

• Mid 1990's: The era of social relationships: The beginnings of the Social web. People connecting with their friends to share information
• Present era: The era of social functionality: More than a "firenship" platform, but inclusion of what Owyang calls "Social Interactive Applications"
• Late 2009: The era of social colonization: Integration between Social and Regular Sites
• 2010: The era of social context: Social networks will become the "base of operation for everyone's online experiences."
• 2011+: The era of social commerce: Social networks more powerful than corporate Web sites and CRM systems. Brands will serve community interests.

The Demand Center - A new approach to B2B Marketing?

In a very interesting article, Sirius Decisions, proposes the concept of the Demand Center, a Shared Services concept (insourced or outsourced), that provides the services (Marketing Infrastructure, Marketing Services, and Tele Services) needed for new generation campaigns that depart from the traditional, linear approach to B2B Marketing: Generate a Lead, Qualify the Lead, Pass the Lead to Sales, but align the Demand Generation process to the customer process and purchasing cycle.

This Demand Center allows for the leverage (through centralization!) of: (1) Best Practices in Campaign Creation, (2) Specialized Skills, not necessarily present in all B2B Marketing Organizations, and (3) IT Infrastructure needed to run increasingly complex systems for the Management of Marketing.

On the other hand, the implementation of the Demand Center, will certainly bring controversy. The global, centralized approach, usually misses the mark in terms of providing the necessary localization - and I am not only talking about language translation, for effective marketing campaigns in different geographies.

However, this is a concept worth exploring, in two directions: One, in terms of providing a hybrid infrastructure that centralizes some of the marketing assets in a hub, while providing the required autonomy in country for some of the activities. The other is in using the Demand Center at the Latin America level. In my experience, localization is often minimal when providing marketing assets to different countries in the region, and most of the times it can be limited to translation!

The demand center is a central or regional hub of shared marketing services, infrastructure and process that enables organizations to bring programs to market by leveraging key corporate assets and best practices. It is a hybrid structure between centralization and decentralization, leaning toward a pragmatic “center of excellence” approach.

B-to-b marketing has evolved dramatically in recent years, with field marketing leading the pack in terms of both performance and budget (typically 40 percent to 60 percent of overall marketing spend). What seems to be most frequently missing, however, is a go-to-market model that enables consistent field marketing performance across disparate geographies or lines of business. At the heart of this requirement are four key factors, including:

The Latin America Economy: Signs of Resilience?

According to the International Monetary Fund, the economic outlook of the Latin America region, although impacted by the current global financial crisis, does look better than most geographies (compare to the decrease in GDP in the US posted yesterday

• Main 11 Latin American economies expect GDP growth of 4.8% in 2009(p) vs. 2008(e), growing to US $5.837 trillion in 2009(p)
• In spite of current economic conditions 8 out of 11 main Latin American economies expected to grow 5% or more in 2009(p) vs. 2008(e)
• Main Latin American economies able to sustain a 6.8% GDP growth in 2008(e) vs. 2007, losing only 1.6% percentage points, in spite of global economic turmoil

Of course, let's not forget that these data is still based on projections for the remainder of 2009, and that there is still a long time to go. Also, some of the economies have been badly battered by the current economic situation, while others, particularly Brazil and Chile, are showing interest signs of resilience. As an example Chile, and specially Brazil (a long time ago, major borrower to the IMF), are becoming creditors for the International Monetary Fund.

... some data to think about ...

Is Social Media Ready for B2B Marketing in Latin America?

I was last week attending Forrester Research Marketing Forum 2009 in Orlando. The main topic of the forum was the impact of Social Media in both B2C and B2B Marketing. There were many examples of uses of Social Media in B2C, where the value of communities in brand reputation, consumer feedback, etc., is increasingly recognized. One of the examples was the use of Facebook's Fans of XXX as the best way to get feedback in aspects such as new packaging from very loyal users.

In B2B, although less of a buzz, social media is gaining ground very rapidly. Some of the examples presented, showed the transformation of User Groups into Peer Communities, with a life of their own, that could be leveraged for marketing. A word of caution: Vendor Marketing should be a member of the community, bringing true value, and avoiding imposing any pretended leadership on the community. Lots of information that I will be discussing in this blog in days to come.

As for Latin America, there are many sources indicating that Social Media has taken a hold of our communities. After the US, the second largest geography in Facebook is Latin America. Also, 7% of all worldwide Twitter accounts are in Brazil.

With these numbers it is clear the potential of Social Media. However, how much of these potential can be tapped into B2B and even into B2C Marketing in Latin America is not clear. There is in my view, a lack of data that can back up any assumption we make. One of the reasons I am writing this blog is to establish a forum of discussion where data can be shared to leverage these new media into our marketing mix. I welcome your ideas, and I will be expanding these thoughts and topics. Of course, whenever I find precious data, I will share it with you