With social media at its height of popularity, there are tons of books that talk about ways to use social media to marketing your business.
The book, The On-Demand Brand 10 Rules for Digital Marketing Success in an Anytime, Everywhere World by Rick Mathieson, is no different. The book takes you through 10 rules for success. Each chapter delves into a rule. For example, Rule #1 is “Insight comes before Inspiration” meaning that when you pursue a social media campaign, understand the wants and needs of your customers first. Rick Mathieson writes, “it’s not about understanding technology it’s about understanding your customer and then capitalizing on the insight across the digital platforms that make sense for your audience….”
Rule #3 is “Don’t Just Join the Conversation – Spark it.” Subsequently, Rick Mathieson discusses into various campaigns, like Procter & Gamble’s “2x Ultra Tide” detergent and discusses what the company did on their Facebook Like page. He also talks about Reebok’s “GoRunEasy” web site where more than 20,000 runners can share information with each other. One of the most important things to remember is that as a brand, you need to listen to your audience, not just tell them things.
Rule #6 is “It’s Good to Play Games with Your Customers.” The chapter focuses on what other large companies have done to entice and engage their audience. In this chapter he discusses how various brands actually engage their customers through virtual games.
Another rule focuses on Mobile marketing. With more than 3 billion Internet based mobile phones out there, it’s a wonder why more companies aren’t involved in this untouched market. Mr. Mathieson talks about the Porsche campaign, fast food brands and their use of coupons via mobile web and apps for Fanta and other brands which allow consumers to talk with one another.
Mr. Mathieson did his homework and it shows. He talks about almost every large brand and what they have done through social media and what has been effective. The one complaint that I had about the book was that there was too much information. Each chapter is packed with case study after case study and I think it was a lot to consume.
What I did find interesting was that after every chapter, he interviews a brand executive on the topic of the chapter. Some of the key people he interviews include: Adrian Si of Toyota’s Scion brand, Laura Klauberg of Unilever, and Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network.
The book goes from a chock full of information discussing various campaigns to one on one interviews with the author and a company representative.
I didn’t learn anything new or revolutionary when I read the book, but I did learn more about what larger brands are doing in the space. The book has so much information that if a reader doesn’t walk away with a few ideas for his/her brand than I don’t know what will…
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This blog was first published in Blogcritics.org.
