Archive for the ‘Social Media Marketing’ Category
Social Media Strategy? Think Like a Reporter
Monday, July 12th, 2010Recent surveys have shown that while businesses are embracing social media in droves, many are doing so without any real strategy in place. Without a strategy, there may be no clear ownership, or definition of success, or measurement, or integration with other marketing and PR efforts—all of which can lead eventually to wasted time and effort, abandoned blogs and Facebook pages, and even the erroneous conclusion that social media doesn’t work for us.
Yet developing such a strategy can be challenging; where does one start? Most of us have, through the classroom, TV shows or somewhere in life, learned about the reporter’s questions: who, what, when, where and why. Just as these questions are critical to solid journalism, so they can be invaluable to social media strategy development.
Who: the first who question is who will be in charge of social media efforts? Responsibility should be placed as high as possible—with the CEO ideally (think Tony Hsieh, or Jonathan Schwartz before the sale to Oracle). If not possible, then responsibility should rest with an executive in marketing, PR, product management or customer service. If absolutely necessary, this leadership can be outsourced, but only as part of a close long-term relationship. Who else will be involved? In all but the smallest companies, there are often multiple individuals tweeting, networking and even contributing to the company blog. In these situations, it’s imperative to have a social media policy in place, encourage subject matter experts (SME’s) to share their unique knowledge, and remember that everyone who participates is acting as a public face for the company—social media isn’t a job for an intern.
What: what type of information will you use to attract a social media following? In b2c, contests, games, apps and coupons are popular content. In the b2b world, thought leadership content is key, but this can take different forms depending on your resources and style: blogs are the most common media, but video, podcasting, online presentations and articles are other ways to share information and education with prospects. What also refers to subject matter—in b2b, that usually means reporting on research, offering a unique perspective on industry developments, solving problems, providing how-to guides, or presenting other information that is of value to your audience and positions your people as the experts.
When: how often will you write new blog posts? Tweet? Update your company’s Facebook page? The answers will be different depending on your company’s resources, the amount of content you have to work with, the number of employees involved in your social media efforts, the specific social media tool and other factors. In general, more is better, and most companies could probably benefit from greater social media activity, not less. There is a risk of over-doing things, particularly on Twitter, but as long as your focus is on adding value rather than self-promotion, few followers are likely to complain. Most companies find that the amount of time they need to devote to social media, particularly to engagement, starts out modestly and increases over time as their blog readership, Twitter following, Facebook fan base and other groups grow.
Where: which social media sites and tools will you use? There’s no question that blogs (which usually mean WordPress), Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn have emerged as the “big four” social media venues. According to recent research, these are used by 70% or more of those active in social media (no other single tool was used by more than half of respondents). Twitter is probably the closest thing to a universal social media tool for business, while Facebook is huge in b2c, and LinkedIn is indispensable on the b2b side. These are the tools to start with, but by no means should a social media strategy be limited to these: depending again on talent, resources, corporate personality etc., other tools to take into account include YouTube and Vimeo (video sharing); SlideShare (presentations); social bookmarking sites like Digg, delicious and Propeller; online forums (there are specific forums for almost any industry); Ning (for creating your own community or finding others to engage with); PitchEngine (social PR); and social profile sites like VisualCV and PeoplePond, just to name a few.
Why: possibly the most important question of all. What is your company aiming to accomplish through social media? What are your goals? How will you measure them? There are at least a hundred ways to measure social media success and more than a hundred tools for monitoring them. While measuring social media ROI is difficult to do with any precision, it’s important to use what measures you can to help gauge the impact and continually improve your efforts.
Crafting a social media strategy is vital to achieving success and avoiding wasted efforts. It’s a challenging exercise, but one that can made easier by thinking differently—such as like a reporter.
Three Words That Should Never Be Used With Social Media
Tuesday, June 15th, 2010At its core, social media marketing is still marketing: it requires a strategy, planning, objectives, measurement, and utilization of key messages. It supports a brand, and needs to integrated with other marketing and PR activities rather than treated as a separate island (just as, for example, a company’s search and display advertising should communicate a consistent message). It’s a component (an increasingly essential one) of an overall marketing and PR plan. It has a purpose and needs a budget.
But on the other hand, social media is not simply another channel, i.e. to be lumped into a group such as radio, TV, outdoor, print, and social media. Unlike other channels, social media is informal, interactive and personal. So while some essential components of marketing still apply, social media requires a unique approach. Treating it as just another communications channel or advertising medium is likely to be not just unsuccessful but actually damaging to the brand.
This may spark some arguments, but here are three common terms from traditional marketing and advertising that I believe should never be used with social media.
Mass (as in “mass marketing” or “mass messaging”). For most of the last century, advertising and marketing were about mass–reaching the largest number of individuals possible. While the fragmentation of media (hundreds of cable channels, millions of websites) has made true mass marketing somewhat more challenging, the appeal hasn’t disappeared: witness the exorbitant advertising rates for the Super Bowl and shows like American Idol.
Certainly b2b marketers, whose appeal is limited to specific niche markets, have always targeted their messages more carefully than have big consumer brands. But scale has still been an important factor, as the largest trade shows and highest-circulation publications, even within a specific niche, command the highest prices.
But social media isn’t about reaching the largest number of individuals in a particular group, but rather about reaching and engaging those who are most passionate. It’s about interacting with the 20% of potential customers who are likely to provide 80% of your profits, and the 10% of key influencers in your market space who can shape the views of the other 90%. It’s about narrow but deep rather than broad but shallow. To cite one specific social medium, it’s not about having the most followers on Twitter, but having the most engaged followers.
Automate. Automation certainly has its place in marketing; for example, using marketing automation software which can send specific email content to different groups based on their pipeline position or past behavior. But not in social media. Social media is about building relationships and interacting. Automation can be spotted a mile away and tends to really turn people off. To be sure, there are many helpful social media tools that make certain tasks, such as monitoring, more productive. But the core value of social media is in humanizing your brand and connecting directly with your biggest fans and market influencers. That can’t be automated.
Campaign. This word implies a defined beginning and end. A political campaign starts when a candidate announces that he or she is running for a specific office, and ends with the election. In marketing, advertising campaigns utilize a defined set of creative elements over a specified time period. But social media is, again, at its core, about establishing and building relationships. Talking about social media campaigns makes as much sense as saying you’re in a “dating campaign” or a “friendship campaign.” Social media marketing relationships are different, to be sure, as they are fundamentally about business. But some of the same fundamental principles apply; trust is deepened over time, and there is no predefined, fixed time period planned for the relationship. The business value of blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, LinkedIn connections, etc. increases over time.
One of the keys to social media marketing success is to find the proper balance with other marketing activities. Social media isn’t an entirely new, separate realm. But it does have its own unique characteristics that provide its power. Marketers who focus on relationship building and interaction rather than broadcasting and promotion will achieve the greatest returns.
Minnesota’s Social Media Event of the Summer
Wednesday, June 9th, 2010If your small to midsized business is struggling with questions about how to create an effective social media strategy, use social media tools most effectively, make the best use of your time on social media, generate results or other related issues, mark your calendar for this upcoming one-day social media and online marketing event.
On June 24, SCORE will be hosting its Social Media & Internet Marketing Boot Camp in Bloomington. Having shed both its original acronym and somewhat stodgy image several years ago, SCORE today is a dynamic organization that helps startup and growing businesses to maximize their success, through face-to-face counseling, online interaction, webinars, live events, and partnerships with organizations such as the American Express OPEN Forum.
This seminar will cover a wide range of actionable social media and online marketing subject areas, including how to:
- • Develop a social media strategy
- • Use online reputation management (do you know what people are saying about you? and what you can do about it?)
- • Maximize your social networking efforts while minimizing your time
- • Design an effective business website – then optimize it and measure your results
- • Generate revenue through email marketing
- • Use specific social media tools (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging) most productively for business
And much more. Learn more about the seminar and how it can benefit your business. Hope to see you there!
Social Media for Sales
Monday, June 7th, 2010One of the challenges in measuring the ROI of social media marketing is that the use of social networking and social sharing tools isn’t confined to the marketing group. Social media is being used in multiple functions across the enterprise, from product development (e.g. through co-creation and crowdsourcing) and customer service (Best Buy and Comcast for example) to human resources (outstanding HR tweeps: Sharlyn Lauby and Alicia Arenas) and sales groups. Although the efforts may be separate, success (or failure) in one area can certainly impact the effectiveness of social media efforts in other areas; for example, developing a reputation for delivering reliable customer service through social media channels will almost certainly help make social media marketing and sales efforts more rewarding.
In terms of revenue generation, the effective use of social media by both sales and marketing teams is critical. It may be even more important in sales, as sales professionals deal with prospects as individuals (the level where social media can be most impactful) while marketers still for the most part deal with prospects in groups. The opportunities to use social media in the sales process are limited only by the creativity of sales pros, but three critical areas stand out.
The first is for the sales team to understand what their own company is doing with social media, and how customers and key influencers are responding. This means working closely with marketing to understand both what messages are being communicated and how the market is reacting. If customers are praising the company’s service through social media channels, that is a strength the sales person can play to. If they are pointing out quality issues with a specific product, that’s an issue that members of the sales team need to be prepared to address. Sales professionals will be more productive with a solid understanding of the social media monitoring, interaction and promotion activities being conducted by the marketing group.
For more information on essential tactics for social media use by sales pros, see my recent guest post on the Your Sales Management Guru blog.
What’s So Funny About Social Media and Online Marketing?
Tuesday, June 1st, 2010What has 28 links and will make you laugh? This blog post! From social media cartoons and contextual advertising gone wrong to dysfunctional agency-client relationships and the best (and worst) online ads, here are some of the most amusing, creative and remarkable blog posts and videos of 2009.
Some of this content may not be suitable for most office environments, elderly relatives, children, pets, potted plants or those who simply lack any sense of humor.
Amusing, Creative and/or Just Plain Odd Blog Posts
Social Media
Top 30 Social Media Jokes, Clips and Cartoons! Episode 4 by Thoughtpick
An outstanding collection of social media-themed cartoons and videos. Mostly safe for work.
The Twitter Avatar Roast: 10 Types of Profile Images by Tremendous News
An inspired taxonomy of Twitter avatar types, from “The People Who Think We’re So Interested In Them We Need To See Their Childhood Photos” to “The Nothing-Is-More-Natural-Than-Me-Just-Kinda-Laughing-Not-Noticing-You’re-Taking-A-Picture-Of-Me Guys.”
Ten Reasons NOT to Use Social Media by Sanera People Development Company
Exhausted from trying to explain the benefits to social media to clueless executives, Alicia Arenas switches gears here and delightfully makes the case for “why you should avoid social media like the plague,” with reasons such as “Because what your customers say about you and your company is irrelevant” and “Because participating in the world’s fastest growing communication tool is not a good use of your time.”
How social media is like the seventh grade by Training Marketer
How automated social media responses make online introductions as awkward as junior high.
SEO, SEM and Web Design
You might be a redneck SEO if… by David Leonhardt’s SEO and Social Media Marketing
David Leonhardt takes on Jeff Foxworthy with his own list of 50 signs you may be a redneck SEO, including “If your other Mac is a truck, you might be a redneck SEO.”
The 100 most funny and unusual 404 error pages by Blog of Francesco Mugnai
Who says 404 error pages have to be boring? Check out this outstanding collection of amusing, creative and occasionally bizarre examples of what you may see when clicking on an outdated link or mistyping a URL.
10 unbelievably cute 404 page illustrations by Limeshot Design
If your taste in custom 404 error pages runs more toward sweet than strange, then check out this collection of plump cartoon animals and other frilly stuff.
20 Funny, Clueless, Weird, And Existential Google Keyword Searches by MediaPost Search Insider
Wondering if anyone has ever entered “where did I put my keys” into a Google search box, Rob Garner discovers an array of loopy searches, from “Why am I hot” (9,900 searches per month) to “Why am I so broke (16 searches per month – comforting to know that narcissism is so much more common than destitution, I guess) to “What is the number for 911″ (yes, these people can vote too).
Contextual Advertising Gone Wild – 20 Examples by Pedro Laboy
***** 5 Stars
As anyone involved in online advertising knows, contextual advertising attempts to match ads with the surrounding text, so that, for example, if you’re reading an article about European sports cars, you’ll see an ad from Porsche or BMW. Sometimes, however, this can go horribly wrong–as the examples in this post demonstrate. A Bank of America ad showing up next to a news story on mortgage fraud; an ad for cheap life insurance next to a story about the untimely death of “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin; an ad for Kaplan University with the headline “Jobs become obsolete; talent doesn’t” next to a report about Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence from Apple. Ouch! Some of these will make you laugh, others will make you cringe.
How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell by The Oatmeal
Anyone involved in design will relate to this; the decline of a design from the “everything is cool…the client communicates their needs and you set expectations” stage through “minor changes” and the everyone-gets-a-say stage through the final abomination of the original, georgeous design.
Advertising & PR
The LOL Cats Take On The World Of Freelancing by Hi, I’m Grace Smith
Grace Smith imagines the LOL Cats from I Can Has Cheezeburger taking on various types of challenging clients in the world of freelancing.
The Publicity Stunt Hall Of Fame by Taylor Herring Public Relations
A collection of funny, clever and inspiring PR stunts from around the world; you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll pick some trivia for the next happy hour, you’ll maybe even be inspired in these vignettes about the origins of the Tour de France and Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade to the “Barbie Street,” how Liz Hurley became famous, and much more.
Six Business Lessons from the North Pole by The Communicator
Highly creative take on Santa’s marketing and business brilliance, from branding (the red suit is instantlyrecognizable) to human resources (who’s ever heard of an unhappy elf?).
Hard to Categorize
32 Absurd Action Figures by TrendHunter
A bizarre collection of action figures the world probably doesn’t really need, but some people will buy regardless, such as the cast of the “Twilight” movies, political action figures (including Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber and BHO), the Katy Perry doll, and the “Jesus Action Figure and Cleaning Kit.” Really.
Won Park – The Master of Origami Paper Folding by The Design Inspiration
“Bending, twisting, and folding, Won Park creates life-like shapes inspired by objects living and not– both in stunning detail.” An amazing collection of Origami art using $1 bills.
Review of webmarketcentral.blogspot.com by Global Business Blog Reviews
This showed up in my Google Alerts one day; a two-paragraph review of my old blog. Who knew a marketing blog could be “visually restorative” and “enchanting”? Well I thought it was funny anyway.
Funny, Clever or Otherwise Remarkable Videos
Billy Mays’ Resurrectifier Commercial – YouTube
Jimmy Kimmel explains how late pitchman Billy Mays is able to keep selling products even after his untimely passing. Tasteless, but funny.
Why Print isn’t going anywhere for a long, long time… by Junta42
Remarkably creative spoof commercial for “The UK’s best handheld for 40 years” – the Sun newspaper.
The Vendor Client relationship – in real world situations by Erin Blaskie
If you’ve ever worked in a marketing agency, you’ll find this video hilariously familiar. In you work on the client side, hopefully you won’t and you can just laugh at the inconsideration of others.
Top 5 Media Industry Parody Videos – a Little Too Close for Comfort? by iMedia Connection
***** 5 Stars
Matthew DiPietro collects some of the funniest agency-related videos of last year. The language gets a bit rough in spots though, so wear your headphones or earbuds if watching at work.
Resco Packer-Viking Week – YouTube
Mail fulfillment house Resco created this video to some publicity in the Minnesota-Wisconsin region by capitalizing on the passionate Vikings-Packers rivalry-which was intensified last year by the defection of Packers legend Brett Favre signing on with Minnesota. But this destined-to-be-a-classic video really speaks to the primal emotions of fandom anywhere, in any sport. And it’s very funny.
Meet The Fune, Microsoft’s New Smart Phone (It’s Really Hot) by TechCrunch
“It’s a phone that runs Windows Vista, and it connects to the Internet through America Online.” Get a sneak peek at Microsoft’s answer to the Android and iPhone.
VerticalResponse – Nuthin’ But an App Thang – YouTube
An email service provider rap video. `Nuff said.
Comic Relief – The Process by Web Marketing Therapy
What stop signs would look like if they were designed by clients and advertising agencies. It’s not pretty, but it is funny.
14 hilariously effective online campaigns by iMedia Connection
From rapping preppies and a disturbing Australian Flash Dance take-off to John McCain and Paris Hilton, Jim Nichols reviews a slew of the most entertaining viral video ads of last year.
Evian Roller Babies international version – YouTube
The gold standard of viral videos. With almost 24 million views, yeah, chances are you’ve seen this, but it’s still absolutely amazing.
Top 10 Shockingly Bad Tech Ads by Listverse
Some are more tragic than funny, but these can be the results when bad video happens to good people. The vintage clips at the end promoting Windows 1.0 and Windows 386 are priceless.
2009 The Year in Social Media by The Group News Blog
A nine-minute wrapup of the social media “highlights” of 2009.
