The Writings on the Wall.... or is it Timeline?

Teens are leaving Facebook! Teens are leaving Facebook! I repeat, Teens are leaving Facebook! If you spend any time reading social media news or studies on popular culture, you might think that this is the headline of 2014. The prophets are heralding the demise of a giant! According to some “experts”, brands should set sail today for better waters.

Breathe deep. Relax. It isn’t the apocalypse. Sure, there are signs showing that teens are becoming less interested in Facebook, but it is far from the end. We are simply seeing a shift in the way new generations think. Trust me, Facebook, will continue to be popular in the next few years. We now have people 40 years and up hooked on Facebook, and to them it moves at a speed that they are comfortable with. Don’t expect that age group to leave any time soon. In the horticultural industry, our main age group of customers is still discovering the social network and still remains highly active on Facebook. Yes, we have to worry about reaching younger audiences, but we also have to make sure we don’t alienate those customers that we already have. Don’t give up on Facebook just yet. Hopefully, with that your Social Media stress levels are coming back to normal.

However, that still leaves us to solve the other issue at hand. If all of these young people are leaving Facebook, where are they going and why are they leaving? It would be really easy to say that they’re leaving Facebook because social media was a fad. I know a few people that are still waiting around to hear that. Sorry, but that’s not the case. It’s not that people are leaving social media. People are evolving in how they use these platforms and which platforms they use. Back in 2005 we had two social sites: Facebook and Myspace. Those were the only two mainstream platforms you had to choose from (bloggers I’m leaving you out of this). Think about where we are 9 years later. We have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Snapchat, Vine, Pheed, Foursquare, and about a thousand other social networks.

Teens are leaving Facebook because they are finding better ways to connect. We, Millennials were the real proponents of Facebook and Myspace because we had this need to feel like we could access the entire world. We were the first generation to grow up as part of a true global community, and we had to break all the rules that were previously established.  For the generation that follows us, this is old news. Being able to connect across the globe is nothing new. They were born into a global system. The concept of social media connecting them to people in Japan and Africa is more of a “Duh” moment rather than the “A-ha!” Millennials had. They now see it as a means to connect based on specific interests or cliques. It’s about reaching others across the planet, but at the same time finding their niche. That’s why company websites that are working to create miniature social spaces within their own websites are actually succeeding in a lot of cases. They are able to create a space for people who identify with each other to discuss whatever they want. Social media is becoming integrated into teens daily lives everywhere they go so much that they don’t NEED Facebook like Generation Y did.

I predict that over time we will see a decrease in the use of the big social sites like Facebook and Twitter. However, some people will still want to congregate in those large “meeting spaces”. Also Facebook still acts as a major data storage site for people. Pictures and memories are now locked into Facebook’s care. I also predict that we will see an increase in the use of overall social media. People want to connect (well unless you’re Dexter), and this is what social media does for the world. It connects the masses, however big or small they want their groups to be.

Instagram is the new Facebook. #SWAT

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Generate This

What happens when they run out of letters? Just this morning I saw an article addressing the need to start marketing to “Generation Z”, which consists of everyone under the age of 18 or 19. Who is in charge of setting up these age ranges anyway? I do agree that we as the horticultural and agricultural industries should always be mindful of the youth, so that we have both future customers and future industry leaders.  I also agree that we should be getting a jump on reaching this demographic because we did a terrible job of reaching this age group when “Generation Y” was in their shoes. However, I also think we need to see what is directly in front of us. We still don’t have a clue how to reach Generation Y, the group of consumers who are rapidly gaining power within the economy. In order to even have a business to cater to the “Next, Next Generation”, we have to figure out what to do NOW.

As I mentioned in the last post, one of the reasons that we truly haven’t been successful in marketing to the Millennial Generation is that we spend a lot of our time trying to oversimplify them. We try to put the most diverse and dynamic subsets of people into one large bundle. Don’t be a bundler (isn’t that what the commercials say?).

I want to get you to step back and really start to see how different this generation really is, and how you are going to have to become diverse in your efforts and products to achieve success. I’m going to show you how, in America, this whole generation can be separated into three drastically different subgroups; however, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Generation Y could be and should be thought of in a thousand subsets not just three. This is merely an effort in division to get your gears going.

Let’s start off with Amber. She represents the first grouping of Generation Y in our story. Amber just celebrated her 30^th birthday by purchasing a new home with her husband Mark. They have a one year old daughter with another baby on the way. Amber and Mark both have steady jobs with good income. They really want to settle themselves into the stereotypical suburban setting. Mark is planning on building a garden in the backyard to raise tomatoes and hot peppers. Amber remembers her grandmother’s hydrangeas and decides that she needs to have beautiful flowers around their house. They don’t know a thing about plants, but they have the space, money, and time to experiment.

Amber is married, and financially stable. She also represents just about 1out of 3 millennials by owning a house as well. She doesn’t see plants as a gamble because she has the disposable income. She has space for them as well as the money to afford them, and her fond memories inspire her to buy.

Now let’s take a look at Reid. Reid is 28, has a pretty good job, and lives in an apartment with his roommate. Though Reid knows that he wants to settle down someday, he enjoys his freedom. He likes to travel and spends a lot of his free time on the go. From surfing, to hiking, to exploring city nightlife, Reid uses his time and money to adventure. He respects the environment, and wants the most for his money with every dollar he spends.

The plants that we are used to selling really don’t fit Reid’s lifestyle. He needs something that can fit his busy time schedule. He’s not home all the time which makes watering a challenge. Also, a Reid spends a lot of time researching his purchases and wants to buy from a company that he can stand behind. He goes out of his way to support good causes. However he also wants plants that have a function. Skip the boring with this guy, it just won’t work.

Last, let’s talk about Max. Max is 25. Times have been tough on Max. The economy dropped when he was in school, and he came into the job market at a really down time. Max just moved back in with his parents, and is paying rent and looking for better job. Max knows this isn’t the end for him, he just knows that it’s going to take time to get back on his feet. Until he saves up the money for his own place, he’s perfectly ok with the homemade meatloaf.

Max has almost no disposable income. Sadly this is an altogether too common feeling for many twenty-somethings in America. They have had to put big chunks of their lives on hold while they work up the ladders. We have nothing to sell to guys like Max. However we have to make sure that we still catch his interest, because some day Max is going to start the next Microsoft, and we need to be there to cash in with him. How do we keep Max’s interest while not actively trying to sell him something?

These three examples are just a few of thousands that could be used to describe Generation Y. We have to target our markets carefully or become so diverse as to reach them all. Grouping millions of people with different life situations together gets us nowhere. It’s about really figuring out who you want your customer to be, making sure they actually exist and then doing what you need to do to bring them in the door.

You can ALWAYS find me here:

www.twitter.com/mday55

and

mday55@gmail.com

annnnd

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mason-day/20/9aa/233

The Generation that Isn't

As the weather here begins to get colder, I get ready for another retail season. Sure, it’s not the retail season that I particularly care for. The only plants that get sold are Poinsettias and the occasional potted house plant. However, I’ve found that you can learn a lot about sales, marketing, trends, and culture in general by just observing what happens during the holiday season. If the upcoming retail season proves to be anything like the rest of 2013, we will see businesses pour millions of dollars into marketing geared to entice Generation Y. Some of that marketing will help to generate millions of dollars in holiday revenue while a most of those efforts will miss in some fashion. Companies will hope to break even, or possibly realize that those marketing efforts were costly risks.

It feels like every business magazine that I’ve flipped through in the past few months has at least 3 articles aimed at getting Generation Y involved. Everybody wants to get their hands on those Gen Y dollars! In the horticultural and agricultural industries it seems to be at a peak. We not only want to get these “Millennials” or Gen Y-ers to buy our products, but we are also looking for better ways to incorporate these people into our companies. There are THOUSANDS of articles out there offering what seem like miracle cures for the plague, and sure they have probably helped a lot of businesses make a few more dollars, but has anyone out there really hit the grand slam yet? Is anybody really bringing in this new demographic in astronomical numbers? The answer is: No.

This would be such a terrible post if I just ended it there. It’s like in college where the professor would hand you a test back marked with the questions you got wrong, but he refused to let you see the answer key to see what the right answers were. If no one’s truly getting it right, what is wrong? Are our industries just that unappealing to Gen Y-ers? Are plants irrelevant to society? Have we seen the last of the pretty flowers? I would say the exact opposite is the case. Plants are really freaking cool, and when done the right way, even young people think so! The problem lies in our assumptions of this mass of people. We have taken the most diverse generation ever and put them into one clump. Generation Y includes far too many different subsets to be placed into one group. It’s like putting all the kids in high school in one clique and trying to sell them the same c.d. We spend our marketing efforts trying to reach this general audience and it doesn’t always work. Even if the research suggests that it should work, sometimes we come out empty handed. How can we change that?

I’m sorry if you were hoping that this blog post would offer you a solution to your Generation Y conundrum. It will probably leave you with more questions than answers. However, in this case, I assure you, questions are better. The first step to taking a better look at this Generation Y is to take the image that you have of the typical Millennial and forget it. Start over. We no longer live in a society where one or two model citizens sum up an average generation. Your marketing campaigns can no longer target the whole of Generation Y. You have to dig deeper than that. You have to find your target demographic within that demographic, and if you want to reach multiple audiences, it might require you to develop different strategies.

Who are you trying to cater to? Stop thinking of what the average Millennial looks like, and think about what your Millennial customer looks like. Then once you’ve identified that target audience, make sure it is real! Do your homework! Does this idealized person even exist in the real world, or have stereotypes clouded your judgment? Only once you have found your realistic target segment can you begin to develop a strategy to expand your customer base into this Generation Y.

Don’t worry, I didn’t plan to leave you hanging for too long. If this concept of a multifaceted generation interests you, stay tuned for my next post highlighting some of the key faces of the generation.

As always I hope everyone is doing well! I’m all over the social media scene, you can find me anywhere from Pinterest to LinkedIn. Let’s connect!

You Are the One, Neo

Right now I’m guessing that about half of you that are reading this understand where the title comes from. To the other half, who have no idea what it means but figured they would click through to read the blog anyway, I ask that you please find time to watch The Matrix.  It will make you question everything around you. Ok now that we’ve established what you need to do this Sunday night, let’s get down to why I’ve gathered you all here today.

 

“Who do I need to hire to do this social media stuff?”

 

No matter where I go, or who I talk to, this is always one of the first questions that gets asked. It seems that everyone from garden centers, to massive corporations is searching for “the chosen one”. People always seem to think I’m going to have a short answer for them. I wish I did; however, the truth is that for each company that person is different. With social media it’s not about which school someone went to, or even what they studied. It’s not about hiring the first 20 something that applies for the job either.

 

The first thing I usually say when I get asked the question of who to hire is: I really hope you don’t have to hire anyone! In a lot of cases there are people already working in your organization that might be completely capable of handling your social media efforts. This is the best situation. That inside person already has one of the most valuable pieces to the social media puzzle. They (hopefully) know how your business works. Knowing how things work on the inside is crucial to social media success. When taking on the persona of a business, you really have to live as the business or brand.

 

I understand sometimes, hiring from the inside just isn’t an option. That’s ok. However, my suggestions on what to look for remain the same no matter where you pull your champion from. I’ve put together a quick list of my top three character traits to look for. Honestly a complete list of essential traits could go on for days.

 

-        The most important trait to me, without a doubt is LOYALTY. You have to be able to put complete trust in this person. They act as a gateway between your business and all of your fans/followers online. You cannot afford to hire someone that doesn’t care about your business to the maximum. You have to look for that “clingy ex-boyfriend/girlfriend” type. Even if you have to let them go, for any reason, you have to know that they will still care about your company enough not to ruin your fan base before you can remove their access.

 

-        The next trait on my list is PERSONALITY/CREATIVITY. This should be self-explanatory.  Social Media success comes through true creativity and out of the box thinking. Finally something a robot can’t do.

 

-        My last suggestion is that this person has a high level of AWARENESS. I mean that in every sense of the word. You have to know what is going on at all times; with you, your brand, your fans, your pages, and the world in general. The social media scene never stops. Nothing is going to stop someone from trashing your business on the web at 3am. I’m not saying you can’t sleep, but it has to be one of the first things you check when you wake up.

 

Like I said, that list could go on for days, but we’ll save that for some other time. In between posts you can always find me @mday55 on Twitter.

We Can't Stop....... Thinking About Social Media!

I wanted to use this blog post to discuss Miley Cyrus and her VMA performance……. Not! I don’t know if you feel like I do, but I’m ready to get back to real news and fresh ideas. Lately, I’ve been doing a lot of local traveling. I’ve learned that in the Chicagoland area you really don’t have to go very far to meet some interesting people with great ideas and loads of motivation. Last week I had the opportunity to travel into the city and attend the IGC Show (Independent Garden Center) on Navy Pier. Social Media guru Peter Shankman offered up some great advice during his keynote address. I then had the opportunity to elaborate on some of his ideas during one of the educational sessions in which I happened to be on a Panel discussing trends in media.

I came away from the show refreshed. For a while I was worrying that some of the excitement around social media was beginning to die down. I was worried that people in the industry were starting to second guess their social media efforts simply because it isn’t always something that can directly be traced back to a profit. A coupon can be tracked to a sale, but it’s hard for a business owner to know what sales were generated due to a Facebook post (unless you put a coupon in it!). However, the IGC Show quickly proved me wrong. I just hadn’t had the chance to talk to other people in the industry in a while! Walking around from booth to booth it was clear that social media is becoming more important than ever in our industry. More companies are starting to realize that it isn’t just a new gadget, but rather a new channel that presents many different opportunities that were never available before.

After spending some time at the show, and reflecting on what I had seen and heard I came up with three major takeaways that can help you out with your social media initiatives.

1. Find your customer – Your social media strategy will be a failure if you do not reach out to YOUR customer. That means people that buy from you. It’s great to have followers from all over the globe. It shows that you might be more influential than you think. However, if you aren’t focusing on those followers that actually spend money on your business, you’re doing it wrong. That means talking to the right people and being on the right platforms. 

2. Forget the Hard Sell – People understand that you want to sell more plants and vegetables. They get it. You don’t have to push it on them. They come to your business on social media for something else. They want to see what’s behind your business. They want to know why you’re selling what you’re selling, not what you’re selling. Use your social media platforms to shout what your business believes! If you do this, people will follow your cause. However, despite my ideas against hard selling on social media, I will say everyone loves a coupon or deal once in a while. 

3. Gain Followers through Followers – Word of mouth is more important than ever. With social media people can talk to more people on a regular basis. You want to be the topic of as many of those conversations as possible (for good reasons of course). You can actively follow people on Twitter to increase followers; it works, but those best leads come from word of mouth interactions. They are coming to your pages with interest. This is why it is more important than ever to publish content that is unique and insightful! It is this content that drives people to talk to their friends about your pages. Social media is not a place for mediocrity.

The next time you sit down to try and figure out a social media strategy take these concepts with you. Content is king above all else! It doesn’t matter if you’re farming 2,000 acres of corn raising awareness in your community about agriculture, or if you are a small local garden center selling plants and gardening supplies; when it comes to social media tell people what you believe, and they will follow you. If you give your customer something to stand behind, it is less likely that they slip through the cracks.

Email me: mday55@gmail.com

Tweet me: @mday55

Or just search Mason Day on LinkedIn

Also you can find me in the 2014 Issue of Flourish for IGCs talking about Facebook, and in the September issue of Grower Talks!

Who ya gonna call?

In every action movie there is always some sort of go-to team. When things get crazy people in the movies always seem to call on a specific group of people to “get in there and take care of things”.  Whether it be the Ghostbusters, the Avengers, or just Rambo himself, it seems that in the movies people always have someone to call on when things get bad. It isn’t just in the movies either! When things get hairy for the military or there is a top secret mission they send in the Seals or the Rangers. When police come across situations that are especially dangerous they call the SWAT team.

The point I’m trying to make here is that in these instances everyone is (at least) somewhat prepared. People have someone to call on when everything is going wrong. Wouldn’t it make sense for your business to do the same? In the past year we have seen hundreds of businesses and people take PR hits for things they have said or done. With the world becoming more connected every day information slips through the cracks. Everyone has made their mistakes, and with social media it’s very easy for those mistakes to be blown way out of proportion. Even your small town greenhouse business can make the evening news if one of your employees does something inappropriate, or makes a claim against your business. This one spot then translates to an angry Twitter mob demanding for you to shut down, and leading others to harass your business. Like it or not the human race operates off of mob mentality. You certainly don’t want to fall victim to it. How do you prepare for something unexpected like this?

That’s when you call in your team of “experts”, your SWAT team. I’m not talking about a group of henchmen that would resemble the cast from The Expendables, but rather a team of three or four people that are extremely knowledgeable about your business, who are the best communicators in your organization, and that can make sound decisions at a moment’s notice. Type up a guidelines and procedures that are the limits of what your business will and will not due during a crisis; this acts as a boundary for your team and they know where they can act if the time should ever arise that they are needed.

It’s also extremely important to have an outlet for your team to act in. If something goes wrong and rumors are going around that you have been selling drugs out of your greenhouse or farm, how do you combat it? There has to be a channel in which your people can make a statement. Not addressing the issue is seen almost as an admission of guilt these days. This is where blogs come in handy. You can publish whatever you want. It gives your go-to guys a place to write the real story out. Twitter can be useful too, but only if you can handle your problems in 140 characters.

I know you’re thinking that it won’t happen to you. Your business is safe from the digital rumor mill. In reality it’s not. In some cases it’s almost worse. If you sell to a local region and something negative gets out to the local Facebook or Twitter community you can lose large quantities of your smaller customer base within a few days! Don’t let that happen to you simply because you didn’t have a plan in place for this kind of situation. For larger companies that span over many regions, a small local incident might hurt the business, but for smaller businesses a local incident might shut the operation down.

Even though you and I both agree that it seems ridiculous that it would be necessary for a business to have a digital crisis team to manage bad PR on social media, it’s the way the world is these days. It isn’t changing back either. The more connected the internet community becomes, the faster it can spread information. You as a business owner must ensure that the information being spread around is both accurate and non-damaging. If not you might not be around to fix the mistakes “next time”.

As always I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Feel free to shoot me an email at mday55@gmail.com

OR find me on Twitter www.twitter.com/mday55

Business as (Un)Usual

Think about the cell phone. When it was first developed, the cell phone was a pretty bulky thing, but still allowed people to have phone access from remote locations. However, the only purpose for the first cell phones was to make and receive telephone calls. Then a few years later we found out that we could send messages with our phones without making a call. We saw that we could put a small camera on a phone and integrate it into the phone’s system. Then phones were developed that could access the internet. We know have access to millions of apps online. We can send emails fast from our phones than we can most computers. There is almost nothing that we cannot do with a cell phone these days. The point I want to make here is that cell phones started out with one purpose and evolved into something we would never have imagined 20 years ago.

The same thing is happening to social media right now. You could say that the origins of social media lie in the chat rooms of the late nineties. Now there are many different social networks with different purposes. Sure, the central goal is still about connecting people, but the types of people using social networks is no longer limited to teenagers and college kids. People from all over the globe are logging into social sites for many different reasons. People are looking to find old friends, they are looking for deals on different products, some are looking to unite others around a cause, and some are looking to do business. Over the last few months I have been looking at social media from a B2B perspective (business selling to business perspective). I have been entrenching myself into both this non-consumer based culture and trying to see if there is any way that B2B businesses could fit into the scheme of social media. My answer: B2B companies need to be involved in social media. It’s not just about fitting into the picture, it’s about completing the whole puzzle.

The whole deal here is that as time goes on more people turn to social media for different reasons. This creates opportunities for businesses to jump in to the blender for a wealth of different reasons. Here are my top three:

1. Talent Acquisition – As generations move through the workforce more and more people will take to the internet to find a job. Speaking from experience, I can say that LinkedIn was the first place I went to look for a job before graduating from college. I’ve even seen people put “Looking for Immediate Employment” in their headline on LinkedIn. Also, by being active as a company on LinkedIn, people can find you. You do less searching for desirable candidates. LinkedIn is a place for people interested in being professional (somewhat at least), and it lets you see a person’s connections and past experiences before wasting anytime with interviews or phone calls.

2. Create Your Own Press – If you own a business and don’t have a blog of some sort or a way to address your customers and their customers I urge you to immediately find a way to rectify the situation. Even if you are a grower in the horticultural industry or the owner of a family farm it’s important to have a way to address your customers and their customers. Situations may arise in which you need to say something quickly to large amounts of people. In the green industry we can’t really hold a press conference and it can take days for industry media to type up a story. You need an outlet for damage control. In the fast moving digital world that we live in it’s important to act swiftly in those situations. Blogs are also great tools to keep people coming back to your website!

3. Customer Support – You may sell strictly to businesses, but your customers still sell to consumers. What does this mean for social media? The end consumer is connecting to those businesses that exist on social media. Pages like Facebook and Twitter are where consumers go to connect with the brands they love. So if your customers are on top of things, they should be connecting with the consumer in those places. However, where does your customer get the content to post on their social page for their business? How do you ensure that your plants or products are being represented correctly? Businesses have to be involved with the social media content of their business customers. For B2B companies it’s about providing a content service for all of your customers’ pages. It isn’t about posting a picture that gets 20,000 “likes” it’s about getting 20 other businesses to share your content on their pages. You get to market your plants by providing a content service for your customer. Businesses often get too caught up in how many likes their page gets. However, a better measurement of success is the dollar value behind those likes. If 20 businesses use your page for content and each business is worth $50,000 of business, 20 doesn’t seem like such a low number.

At the end of the day social media will continue to evolve over the next few years. Be ready to use things like Facebook and Pinterest in ways that you had never imagined. The key is to understand that even though you may not sell to the end consumer, your product still has to get there someday, and because more and more businesses are seeking to blur the gaps in the supply chain, social media is a must to maintain relevancy for the future.

- Mason  Day

www.twitter.com/mday55

mday55@gmail.com 

www.facebook.com/nextgenhorticulture