The Fiducial Mark

Where does social media play into a Product Manager’s go-to-market strategy?  Earlier this year Pragmatic Marketing released their 2009 Annual Product Management and Marketing Survey.  While the survey covers many aspects of product management, I noticed that the survey included a section on social media.  In particular, one particular question asked: “How much influence is social media on your go-to-market activities?”  The results:

• 51% Considered it but it was not a significant factor.
• 40% None.
• 9% Major part of the program.

With regards to Twitter, 62% of respondents did not use it.  The survey also includes a number of sample answers, which you can check out for yourself on the survey results page.   These covered a broad spectrum of opinions from optimistic to highly pessimistic.

So where does social media fit in with Product Management?  Recently the folks at Brainmates shared the results of a panel discussion they hosted on the challenges and opportunities that social media poses for product managers and marketers.  There are some great points (that I won’t rehash here), and I’d recommend checking out the post.  Instead of discussing social media and Product Management in general, I’d like to focus in on social media and product launches.  Here are a few considerations that come to mind:

• Planning: how does social media play into your product launch plan?  For example, will you use any social media channels to discuss the launch (blogs/videos/forums/groups/micromedia/etc.)?

• Feedback: along with client visits, conferences, phone calls, and email, social media is another venue to connect with your user community.  While your feedback strategy may vary depending on how mainstream or niche your product offering is, social media can be a source for immediate feedback on your product launch.

• Engagement: Measuring feedback is great when you have an online community, but what do you do when that community starts reaching out to you?  What if your customers hate your new product or update?  Adding social media to your launch plan translates into engaging with your community.  So what does that mean?  Twitter isn’t an RSS feed for your product updates – use it (and other channels) to engage in discussions, thank your community, and open up new lines of communication into your organization.

Circling back to the question about where social media fits into product launch strategy: what can a well-executed strategy look like?  The Social Media Examiner recently authored a post on Cisco’s social media launch strategy.  While cost savings may not be a measurable outcome in all cases, it does highlight the broad spectrum of social media channels a launch can inhabit.  Getting back to the original question posed by the Pragmatic Marketing survey: is social media impacting your launch strategy?

Photo Courtesy of Kryten