Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Social Media Tips
OK, I admit it - I am NOT an expert on this stuff...but, hey, I'm in the game and I am learning! I have uncovered some compelling reasons to use social media in your marketing mix and a few sensible rules of engagement...
Why incorporate SMM into your marketing mix? Well, as opposed to advertising- SMM is free. It's also credible - peers advising peers.
My role, what I do and what I love to do is promote my client's events, services, products and brand through any and every avenue possible. I have fun doing this because the world of social media allows me to engage with and follow folks who have the same interests and want to hear what I have to say - and vice versa. What you can do with SMM is this; build a community. Engage with your customers, partners, prospects and peers. Have a voice. Listen and learn from others. Use social media tools to help build your brand.
Tips I have found on colleagues blogs and tweets:
1. Know why you’re using a service.
I use Twitter (http://twitter.com/dvendley) to access relevant links to useful knowledge and influential people in my idustry and to reach and develop mutually beneficial relationships with others. Linkedin provides me the ability to tap on or grow the collective knowledge and expertise in my network. This is assuming I've linked up to people I know or trust to be reliable, of course (I have). Then, even if my immediate contact does not know the answer, their contacts down the trust chain may or can refer to people who can help me. Facebook has proven valuable both personally and professionally. I have created groups and connected with long forgeotten colleagues and aquaintances who are now valuable resources, prospects and who can link me into their networks..
2. Know what your followers or friends want - provide value.
Understand what your friends, family, colleagues and customers wnat and give it to them. Simple as that. Keep it relevant and engaging.
3. Cross-pollinate your friends
from one social media service to another. If I tell my Twitter followers I’m on Linkedin or Facebook, I will get new followers “crossing over” from social media service to another.
4. Use the same avatar for each service
so that you’re instantly recognizable by your friends from other services.
5. Help others unconditionally
Doing so attracts people to you and helps you be seen as an expert. I know this doesn’t seem very “markety” but that’s the point: it’s actually the best marketing you can do. If somebody showed they gave a damn and helped you solve a problem or answer a question, wouldn’t you be more inclined to follow/friend that person, maybe check out their blog?
6. Put in the time.
This is the hardest point for many to deal with. They just don’t have the time. My advice is to pick two social media sites that resonate with you and use them.
Take breaks.
ou can wear your followers and friends out if you over-use a service. They’ll get sick of you, even if you’re providing value. It’s like the social media version of that person at the party who just won’t shut up and you want to wring his neck.
Why incorporate SMM into your marketing mix? Well, as opposed to advertising- SMM is free. It's also credible - peers advising peers.
My role, what I do and what I love to do is promote my client's events, services, products and brand through any and every avenue possible. I have fun doing this because the world of social media allows me to engage with and follow folks who have the same interests and want to hear what I have to say - and vice versa. What you can do with SMM is this; build a community. Engage with your customers, partners, prospects and peers. Have a voice. Listen and learn from others. Use social media tools to help build your brand.
Tips I have found on colleagues blogs and tweets:
1. Know why you’re using a service.
I use Twitter (http://twitter.com/dvendley) to access relevant links to useful knowledge and influential people in my idustry and to reach and develop mutually beneficial relationships with others. Linkedin provides me the ability to tap on or grow the collective knowledge and expertise in my network. This is assuming I've linked up to people I know or trust to be reliable, of course (I have). Then, even if my immediate contact does not know the answer, their contacts down the trust chain may or can refer to people who can help me. Facebook has proven valuable both personally and professionally. I have created groups and connected with long forgeotten colleagues and aquaintances who are now valuable resources, prospects and who can link me into their networks..
2. Know what your followers or friends want - provide value.
Understand what your friends, family, colleagues and customers wnat and give it to them. Simple as that. Keep it relevant and engaging.
3. Cross-pollinate your friends
from one social media service to another. If I tell my Twitter followers I’m on Linkedin or Facebook, I will get new followers “crossing over” from social media service to another.
4. Use the same avatar for each service
so that you’re instantly recognizable by your friends from other services.
5. Help others unconditionally
Doing so attracts people to you and helps you be seen as an expert. I know this doesn’t seem very “markety” but that’s the point: it’s actually the best marketing you can do. If somebody showed they gave a damn and helped you solve a problem or answer a question, wouldn’t you be more inclined to follow/friend that person, maybe check out their blog?
6. Put in the time.
This is the hardest point for many to deal with. They just don’t have the time. My advice is to pick two social media sites that resonate with you and use them.
Take breaks.
ou can wear your followers and friends out if you over-use a service. They’ll get sick of you, even if you’re providing value. It’s like the social media version of that person at the party who just won’t shut up and you want to wring his neck.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
What if
What if you could get all your marketing and public relations needs met in one place? With a talent pool to choose from who were local, affordable and managed for you?
Just a thought
So Fridays at Five this week is a double whammie....ladies only at four (face it on 5th street) then we join the guys at Jo Feds at Five...See you there
Cheers
Just a thought
So Fridays at Five this week is a double whammie....ladies only at four (face it on 5th street) then we join the guys at Jo Feds at Five...See you there
Cheers
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Get Those Happy Customers Yakkin'
"[M]any companies hesitate to launch customer case studies because they worry about imposing on their best customers," say Barbara Bix and Olga Taylor in an article at MarketingProfs. "To their delight, however, companies often discover that decision-makers are happy to discuss their experiences and look forward to being featured in an article that positions them as a leader in their industry."
If a belief that case studies impose on clients has prevented you from showcasing your best work in public, you're missing out on a host of benefits that could speed a sale along. These include:
Associating your brand with those of high-profile customers.
Attracting reporters hungry for substantive narratives and sources willing to speak on the record.
Enticing prospects who discover case studies in Google searches.
Bix and Taylor recommend providing at least one case study for each product or service you offer in each industry you serve. "Each satisfied customer is a key to several others who are similar, want to be similar, or simply know of your customers," they say. "Can you afford to have them keep their story to themselves?"
The Point: "Customer success stories work by matching your prospects' goals, titles, problems, company characteristics, industry buzzwords, and so on to those of your successful customers," say Bix and Taylor. "That's because customers believe that their situations are relevant to companies that are just like them."
"[M]any companies hesitate to launch customer case studies because they worry about imposing on their best customers," say Barbara Bix and Olga Taylor in an article at MarketingProfs. "To their delight, however, companies often discover that decision-makers are happy to discuss their experiences and look forward to being featured in an article that positions them as a leader in their industry."
If a belief that case studies impose on clients has prevented you from showcasing your best work in public, you're missing out on a host of benefits that could speed a sale along. These include:
Associating your brand with those of high-profile customers.
Attracting reporters hungry for substantive narratives and sources willing to speak on the record.
Enticing prospects who discover case studies in Google searches.
Bix and Taylor recommend providing at least one case study for each product or service you offer in each industry you serve. "Each satisfied customer is a key to several others who are similar, want to be similar, or simply know of your customers," they say. "Can you afford to have them keep their story to themselves?"
The Point: "Customer success stories work by matching your prospects' goals, titles, problems, company characteristics, industry buzzwords, and so on to those of your successful customers," say Bix and Taylor. "That's because customers believe that their situations are relevant to companies that are just like them."
Friday, January 9, 2009
Media Predictions for 2009
Yesterday I posed the question, Is the sky really falling? Diana Mermigas, editor-at-large at MediaPost has this to say:
Television broadcasters and newspapers have their moment of truth
Many individual and group TV and newspaper properties will collapse under the weight of an advertising recession and legacy costs. Their online and other digital revenues will fail to offset double-digit ad losses. Loan covenants and debt payments will be missed. Some will shut down; a few will sell off in a dismal deal market.
All media will hang on and gear up for post-recession consolidation
When asset values are reset and financing flows, every kind of rollup and startup will abound: TV and radio stations, newspapers, TV networks, production companies, agencies, and everything Internet.
There will be big media sellers
Sacked with thinly valued stock prices, declining revenues and earnings, and a long, painful recovery, many media properties will be sold. Majority shareholders and owners are under pressure to sell or merge assets, including Yahoo, CBS Corp., Time Warner's AOL, General Electric's NBC Universal, New York Times Co., bankrupt Tribune Co., book publishers such as CBS' Simon & Schuster, Take Two and Sirius XM.
There will be big media spenders
Media conglomerates with cash will fill strategic needs buying at attractive valuations. Prospective buyers include Time Warner, News Corp., Google, Microsoft, and Liberty Media. Most likely deals: Yahoo-AOL-Microsoft, NYT-News Corp., NBCU-Time Warner, Viacom-CBS, IAC's Home Shopping Network-Liberty's QVC, Take Two-Electronic Arts. Bank, private equity, venture capital and other capital outlets may begin to thaw by the end of 2009.
Legacy costs, structure and processes are history
The only way may be Chapter 11 bankruptcy for some bigger players. Going digital, going green, and infrastructure redo tech boom will be other ways that companies of all size will wrestle with their legacy demons.
The Long Tail gets squeezed
Only the niche enterprises with the strongest, most lucrative consumer and advertiser following will thrive in The Great Recession. Others may have to align with or be folded into a larger entity to survive. Online niche has not existed long enough to develop a recession-proof business model, but it will continue as a primary element in the connected digital universe.
Advertisers will spend even less than the worst-case decline forecast
More of what they spend will shift online and to other digital platforms, where overall growth could exceed single digits. Advertiser spending will noticeably decline in the broadcast network's upfront, which has its last big hurrah. Cable networks inch closer to ad-dollar parity, but suffer the same online competition pressures. Newspapers continue to tank, unless they participate in the massive contraction and consolidation of cross-platform news.
Major ad categories will never be the same
Major advertisers such as automotives, financial services, retail and real estate will not return any time soon; they will be diminished and different when they rebound a year from now. That is a disaster for local media, which could easily see more than half their ad revenue base wiped out in 2009. For instance, automotives generally have comprised 40% of local TV income.
Consumers continue to embrace and drive digital
Even in a recession, all age consumers will be discriminating spenders on the interactivity that best suits their needs and interests, mostly on devices and services they already own.
Local is the new social
Some local TV broadcasters and newspapers will begin to monetize enough to stay in business. Some Internet players will begin to dabble more in this huge void. Relevant local information, social sharing, retail coupons, school and community data, sports scores, car pools, etc. remain a big missed opportunity.It will be delivered to Internet-connected mobile devices, including smartphones. A new player will emerge and do for local content and services online what Craigslist did for regionalized classified advertising.
At least one broadcast network disappears
The CBS Broadcast TV Network is the most likely candidate to collapse or convert into a general entertainment cable network. It is a possibility whether CBS Corp. remains autonomous, is sold, or is reunited with Viacom, given Sumner Redstone's debt problems. NBC-TV, Fox-TV and ABC-TV also recognize the need to establish a solid second revenue stream that would come from converting their traditional broadcast networks into general entertainment cable hubs. However, cable advertisers and subscribers would probably only support two of the four.
Digital video growth continues
Established long-form TV and film producers will create more intriguing ways to entice consumers with abbreviated five-minute forms of their content for dispatch to all corners of the social-networked Web. Many Internet and media players, such as Time Warner, Google, Yahoo, NBC Universal and Walt Disney, will launch virtual video studios. They will use existing and strategic partner resources to produce original content that will attract new advertising dollars. Some user-generated video will be more enterprising, professional and commercially successful. Online and television video will become more mutually supportive in driving consumers and advertisers.
Refinement of online functions
Search, discovery, e-commerce, social networking and personal relevance become the focus of new value-creation efforts by companies waiting out the recession.
New media economics and business models
Personal relevance and engagement become forces as strong as any marketing brand; e-transactions become as important as advertising revenues and subscription fees.
More accountable, monetizable media metrics
Advertisers demand and get more ROI from interactive digital buys. A new metric that begins to take shape involves mutual monetizable connections that target consumers, advertisers and producers of goods and services. Measurement will extend to tracking what users do with advertising, data, content and connections in ways that generate revenues. Other devleoping new metrics will measure and value user engagement.
Mobile connectivity will become the core platform
The road to universal WiFi and WiMax may be bumpy, but anywhere, anything interactivity on smartphones, video-friendly PDAs and other wireless mobile devices will be the global screen of choice. Primary drivers will include interactive communications, location-based services and e-transactions.
Governments and gatekeepers seek digital cash
New York Gov. David Paterson is just the first to propose an iPod tax on digitally delivered entertainment services--one of nearly 90 new fees and taxes to help close the state's $15 billion budget gap. Other ailing states (including California and Illinois) and the federal government as well as distributors, such as cable system operators, will follow.
From Diane Mirmigas OnMedia Blog: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticleHomePage&art_aid=97024
I have three words for 2009: Relevance, Permission and Mobility!
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