Archive for the ‘Digital Marketing’ Category

What Sesame Street Can Teach Us About World Domination

Friday, July 9th, 2010

I love Ernie. I’m not afraid to say so, either.

This morning I read Good Night Gorilla to my daughter. If you’re not familiar with the story, Mr. Zookeeper says goodnight to all the animals as Gorilla (and Mouse) quietly release all the animals from their cages.

Here’s the thing: Armadillo has an Ernie doll in his pen.

Ernie, and pretty much all of Sesame Street, is ubiquitous. They’re everywhere. And they got there by being symbols of good, reliable, interesting, helpful content.

Do you remember life before the internet? Well, there was this invention called television, and on this invention they showed shows. Every day, you could tune in to Sesame Street and get songs, games, goofs, and smarts. Every. Day. And here’s what happens when you create quality content every day for 40 years: You win.

Your brand becomes synonymous with quality. Here are the principles behind doing that:

Be Unique Sesame Street is known all over the world and is instantly recognizable because they do one thing: make Sesame Street. What are you making that instantly recognizable?

Be Consistent Sesame Street delivers great content every day. Whatever your schedule is, make sure you stick to it. Your fans are expecting you- if you’re only there for them sometimes, you’ll lose their trust.

Be Excellent It’s not enough just to stand out and do it regularly. It’s got to be good. Make worthwhile content that’s informative, passionate, beautiful, helpful, or personal. Don’t suck, don’t write just to write. Sesame Street was excellent when it launched, and still is.

Be Confident You can’t write for everyone, so don’t try. You know who you want to help, just like Sesame Street does. the difference between you and the others is the confidence to speak only to those people. It’s talked about on the writing blogs all the time, but cutting out a segment of the market to connect better with another segment takes bravery.

Sesame street would have failed if they tried to teach all kids from birth to 18 how to read. Luckily, they just talked to 3 year olds. And they dominated the world with good content.

You? You don’t have to dominate the world. Just your business. I think Sesame Street’s a pretty good model for doing that.

Tags: business relationships, content, content strategy, marketing strategy, sesame street
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

If Digital Marketing Were Lego…

Monday, June 21st, 2010

…what would you build?

It’s worth thinking about. One, because I write for digital marketing. Two, because I play with lego A LOT with my kids. There’s probably not a better toy out there to get our imaginations flowing than Lego stuff. BTW, you don’t need kids to play with Lego (but it’s a nice excuse).

Here’s the thing: I see most business building exactly the same things they built before digital marketing existed. It’s a terrible waste. All these beautiful, genius tools laying around, and what do people make? Billboards.

I have some ideas about the parts and pieces of digital marketing as they might relate to the world’s greatest toy.

First, take an inventory of what you’ve got. Every single Lego set you ever open starts with exactly the same instructions: separate pieces according to color. When you start to build, the organization you institute at the beginning of the day will help make something amazing. If you don’t organize, on the other had (this is coming from someone who willfully ignored the instructions once), you can look forward to spending all that creative energy searching instead of building.

Also, follow instructions. No need to reinvent the wheel when you just start building. There are tried and true steps to making something recognizable that people can appreciate and use.

As any Lego builder can tell you, having a prescribed set of steps allows for a rhythm, which can be incredibly helpful in some of the more tedious parts of the process (be honest: it’s not all lightning bolts of creative genius).

Once you’re there, and you’ve got some good models set up, experiment. Create. Try. Fail. Participate. Those legos won’t build themselves. They’re tools; you’re the maker. Make something that represents you. If you’ve got no idea how to start, ask a six year old. They’re pros.

And, if you’re not into reading between the lines, here’s how I’m imagining the pieces:

Strategy: Big, wide flat pieces. They’re the ones that form the foundations. In those huge models, this is usually what you see at the bottom. They tie everything together.

Content: Big, thick blocks. These are the ones that give structure to your shape. They’re bulky and they take up space. Use these to make what you’re building bigger. This is your blog, your photo stream, your video channels. Every piece that you add helps give you more substance.

Connections: Those stick-things. We didn’t really have them when I was growing up, but every model I’ve built with my kids has the Lego rod-and-nut connectors. We’ve started to build our own creations with them, too, and they’re a strong way to bring different elements together.

Ratings: Let’s call them greebles. These are the little odds and ends that you put on your creations to give them character. They’re not absolutely necessary, but they make things interesting. And they’re there whether you use them or not, so you might as well get creative and break up the surface a little.

So, what do you think? Is this a stretch? Or does it “click”? (sorry, couldn’t help myself)

Tags: content, Lego, marketing mindset, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing | 2 Comments »

What Social Media Can Learn from One of Baseball’s Biggest Blunders

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

Baseball fan or not, you have likely heard about the blown call heard ’round the world.

Another painful recap, in case you haven’t: On June 2nd Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga pitched baseball’s 21st perfect game. Almost. Due to a blown call at first base, on the last batter of the game, he will never receive credit for it.

For those of you who care little about baseball, pitching a perfect game means no hits, no walks, no one on base. Since 1876 there have been 392,358 Major League Baseball games played, this would have been just the 21st game that was perfect. Think about that.

This may be a reach (ok, it is), but I believe there are some parallels here for social media marketing. The events of the game and subsequent actions of those involved is a modern parable for anyone using social media and business.

The Setting
Galarraga had retired 26 batters in a row. The 27th batter had hit a groundball to the gap between first and second base. Not quite routine, but not out of the everyday for a major league first-baseman. The throw, to Galarraga covering the base, beat the runner by a step. It was not a close play.

The Action
First-base umpire Jim Joyce, inexplicably called the runner safe. This split-second decision-making is a cornerstone of umpiring baseball. Watch a play, process it, quickly make a call. With no instant replay capability, like the NFL for example. Outside of homeruns, the call stands. No amount of arguing or post-call reflection could change the call.

As is common in baseball, on questionable calls, players and coaches will argue with the umpire over the call. Oftentimes vehemently, oftentimes with the umpires giving nearly as much as they get. In this instance, Joyce aggressively defended his call, arguing and swearing just as much as Tigers manager Jim Leyland. You could tell Joyce felt he had made the correct call.

Meanwhile, Galarraga acted with complete class. Shaking off the nearly incomprehensible call to toe the rubber and retire the final batter of the game. He did not argue, he did not pout.

The jawing with umpire Joyce, Tigers coaches and players continued after the game. Again, it was obvious that Joyce felt he had made the correct call.

The Post-Game Review
Within minutes Joyce had watched a replay and determined he had blown the call. He immediately took full responsibility, and went as far as apologizing face-to-face to Galarrage outside the team clubhouse. Something unheard of being done by Major League Umpires.

“I just cost that kid a perfect game,” said Joyce, who became a full-time major league umpire in 1989 “I thought he beat the throw. I was convinced he beat the throw, until I saw the replay.”

The Review from “Above”
Many immediately began clamoring for Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to overturn the call, and award Galarraga his perfect game. Going to the highest power in the game for a do-over of sorts, created a scenario for opening a HUGE can of worms. While it would not have set precedent, the infamous George Brett pine-tar incident was reversed, it would have added a twist of epic proportions.

What is the Parallel?
Despite all the training, experience and acquired knowledge, those participating in social media on behalf of their business are going to make mistakes.

It’s not so much the mistake that is made, but the subsequent actions that define the ultimate outcome. In some cases, effectively addressing a mistake can create positive feelings. Case-in-point, Joyce was voted as the game’s best umpire, less than two weeks after the infamous call.

When you make a mistake, own up to it. Acknowledge it. Apologize if you need to. Don’t run and hide, don’t blame others, and don’t be afraid to show your emotions.

As a boss (in this case Selig), don’t make your team feel gun-shy about participating. Is every move going to be right? No, but by not micro-managing, you give them freedom to participate. Provide training, and set guidelines if necessary to work towards preventing a gaff and support your team.

How do you handle mistakes?

parallel

Tags: baseball, social media mistakes, social media policy
Posted in Digital Marketing, Inspiration, Marketing | 2 Comments »

Buy In Or Fail

Friday, May 28th, 2010

I hate teambuilding.

Always have. I don’t like teambuilding exercises, ropes courses, or facilitated bonding. I’m not cynical about it (anymore); it’s just not for me. Call it a pet peeve.

A friend explained to me once why I had so much trouble with the concept: No buy in. I just didn’t accept it as something valuable. With that as a starting point, it never mattered where a teambuilding exercise went. I wasn’t going to get anything out of it. I hadn’t bought in to the premise. For me, teambuilding fails before the first trust fall.

The same thing is true with digital marketing.

You must put yourself in a position to buy in to the value with marketing online before you start. And if not, it’s never really going to pay off. In customers, connections, ROI, traction, and any other metric you throw at it. Without the buy-in, it doesn’t matter how many tools you set up; you’ll still fail.

There’s a fundamental change in thinking that has to take place. Digital marketing shifts the focus from product to personality. In fact, product is just a tiny part of it. Most of what digital marketing offers is a chance to interact and connect with people who are interested in the same things you’re doing. It’s only after an online audience buys in to your personality that your products matter at all.

So those interactions have to matter to you. For this to work, you have to care about what other people want when they’re online. Recognition. Respect. Consideration. All those things aren’t selling. Also, on their own, they’re not marketing.

They become selling, they become marketing, after a long period of buy in. That’s the only way to build up enough trust in others to sell to them. Without the buy in on your part, you’re just telemarketing with different media.

Tags: buy in, content, getting started in social media, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

The Four Parts Of A Content Strategy For Small Business

Monday, May 24th, 2010

Digital marketing requires participation.

And, as a rule, participation as the cost of entry is setting the bar pretty low. In fact, it’s the award you got in P.E. when you weren’t good enough at sports to win any other awards (welcome, fellow geeks!).

From that standpoint, digital marketing is pretty simple. Get a website. Register your business on a bunch of networks (facebook and twitter aren’t the only ones, people). Start a blog. Post some pictures. Take a little video.

Yup, that’s it.

Except when you factor in a content strategy. That’s where the work, the planning, the effort all come in to it.

You need strategy for digital marketing, because you’re not just doing this to make friends. You’re doing it to make customers. But that business/customer relationship changes so much when you get into the digital realm, and social media, and all that it entails; if you’re not prepared, if you don’t have a strategy, you’re setting your business up to fail.

Publicly.

Without strategy, your blog gets neglected. Your facebook page gets no interaction. No one follows you on Twitter. Your pictures gather dust. Your video gets ignored.

Ever go to the gym and see people standing around? Those are the people with no plan. They don’t have a strategy for what they want to do. No goals. No way to measure their progress. No real chance at success.

Plan or fail. That’s when participation makes a difference. When your business takes the time to think about what to say, when to say it, how to say it, who to talk to, and why, that’s when it starts to pay off.

In other words, content strategy. Break this down into four parts:

Learn,
Plan,
Create, and
Govern

Here’s how that works. This is the content strategy workflow that was developed by Kristina Halvorson in her book Content Strategy For The Web.*

Learn- Take a look at all the content you have. All of it. Yes, someone has to read it. Create a spreasheet with all the information you have about those pages, including analytics and quality. Most small businesses don’t have any analytics info (one of the reasons digital marketing hasn’t paid off for you, if you’re in this group), so you’ll have to go on pure instinct: does this content help us with the direction we’re thinking of going, or is it outdated?

Plan- There are literally thousands of ways to market online using new and updated content. There are two main questions to ask here: 1) What are your objectives? and 2) What are your tactics? If you don’t know how to answer those questions, seriously consider hiring professional help. You’re a small business, so every dollar counts, and there’s nowhere that your money will go farther than in the planning phase of your content strategy.

Create- Ah, down to business. Here’s where you’ll map out who will do what and when, then put someone in charge of organizing it. Develop a workflow, and decide who will write, photograph, video, edit, etc. You’ll also decide what is getting created and when. The creation piece basically dictates who owns what; don’t leave it to chance. There’s plenty of room for strategy here, even with very small (like, two person) teams.

Govern- One of my favorite content strategy quotes from Kristina is “Text is messy as hell”. That’s why it needs to be managed. Once it’s up, it’s not finished; monitoring your content for conversion, for improvement, for user interaction, for growth… that’s all part of the deal when it comes to content strategy for small businesses. You can’t just publish it and forget it (and that goes for all of your content, not just text). Who owns the content when it’s up and running? That’s the question you answer in the governing phase.

What do you think? Does this process make you feel lost? Or is it too simple for what you have planned? I’d like to hear about how you’re using strategy for your content…

*Edited. The post did not originally name Kristina as the source for these ideas.

Tags: blogs, content, content marketing, content strategy, small business
Posted in Digital Marketing | 2 Comments »

No One Is Listening To You

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Except the people who want to hear.

That’s a tough nut for most small businesses to crack. It used to be that you could just send out your email blasts and your brochures and your mailers, and that was it. Wasn’t not knowing that people were ignoring you great?

No. No it was not.

If you actually measured how many people weren’t listening, it would be downright depressing. All that broadcasting you did, throwing your stuff out there to see what would stick? Sheesh. Who’d want to measure it?

Listen to the sounds of silence. Those are the people not listening to you, not interested in what you’re saying on Twitter. Not fans on your facebook fan page. Actually, facebook has made it even more plain: They don’t “like” you.

Which leaves just the people that do like you. The people that are listening.

Those are the same people that help you do things like spread your message, increase your credibility, talk about you to their friends. Yours are the words in their “word of mouth”.

How many people are listening to you depends on a lot. You have to ease their pain, to put it in Jonathan Fields terms. You should be doing for them, and making it clear and plain that that’s what you’re up to, because it is so easy to ignore someone online. So you need a very clear way of saying what it is you do, and how that can help those listeners. Proving it over and over (and over) is as much about marketing as it is about your actual business.

Here’s what won’t work: You cannot expect to put a couple of words out there in the information stream and get much attention. It’s just not that helpful.

And if you are being helpful? The amount of people still not listening to you will be staggering. But the number of people who do will grow. It’s a slow process. It takes patience. But it will happen.

That’s where you should start. No one is listening to you, except the people that are.

So talk to them.

Tags: business trust, content, content marketing, marketing strategy
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

Three Very Simple Fanpage Tips

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

The Facebook Fanpage. It’s everywhere!

After some time of groping in the dark, and some functionality changes to groups and pages, marketers have now turned in force toward the fanpage.

Why? It’s another platform for interacting with your audience and expanding brand recognition.

Need more? Here are some lovely statistics from Morpace, Inc…

Facebook has more than 400,000,000 registered users.
68% of consumers with Facebook accounts say a positive referral from a Facebook friend would make them more likely to buy from or visit a retailer.
36% say Facebook is a good tool for researching products.

Here are a few very simple tips, which can greatly improve the quality of your Facebook marketing…

Give your fans a voice
Interaction with your fans is a goal, so allow it to happen and allow it to be easily found.

I often see businesses that have made it hard for fans to be visible based upon the wall settings. Allow your fans to post to your wall, post photos, and post videos. Real people posting photos of themselves using your products, well, that’s gold, especially if you are in the travel and tourism business.

Within your admin section, under wall settings, ensure you are allowing your fans to interact.

Ask A Question
How many times have you carefully crafted a wall post, only to have no comments or response? When you make statements, you automatically preclude interaction.

Ask people questions. For example, if you were going to post about an event happening this coming weekend, don’t stop with just the basic “This weekend be sure to visit blah blah for event XYZ.” Finish with an open-ended question, “What are your plans for the weekend?”.

Try it. Yes, social media is about connections. But people really (really) want to talk about themselves. Are you inviting them to do that?

Post Photos in Threes
Many small businesses are digital asset-poor not having vast library’s of photos and videos. Because of this you have to maximize your assets and try to receive the greatest amount of interaction.

So, when posting photos to your fan page, post in groups of three. You can continue to add to existing albums, and maximize the opportunity for interaction.

Why three? Simply because three photos are all that will show on the page when you post. Post three, then when it is time to post again, the freshest three will display on the page.

A side benefit is that it will display any previous interaction with the album, allowing you to leverage social proof to keep fans posting and interacting with your content.

Those are just three simple tips for fanpage optimization. There are tons more. What are your favorites?

Tags: facebook, fanpage marketing, getting started in social media, marketing strategy, Pat Strader
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »

4 Ways To Use QR Codes Right Now

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

Have you heard of Quick Response (QR) Codes?

If not, you will. Soon. QR Codes are defined in Wikipedia as (I wish there was a better location with a definition!):

A QR Code is a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The “QR” is derived from “Quick Response”, as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

Simply put, a QR Code is like a bar code that you see in the grocery store. However, instead of telling you how much your box of Fruity Pebbles might cost, it can share data in lots of different forms, from a link to an SMS message to almost anything you can think of.

The utility that these codes afford you (and the end-user, too) are equally as diverse. For the end user, it’s a method to quickly (QR = Quick Response, remember?) and easily retrieve, obtain or interact, using a tool that is nearly ubiquitous: a phone.

All users need is a handheld device with a free reader installed. For the business owner or marketer it provides not only a method of information dispersal, but also a method of tracking. While not all QR Code generators offer the ability to track usage, it’s not hard to find ones that do.

Here are some ideas to get you thinking about how to use them, and why…

Ideas for QR Code Use:

Make Offline Trackable and Interactive

Create a code linking to an optimized mobile-friendly landing page. Place the code on your print ads, rack cards even billboards. Utilize a simple call to action to scan (which you can measure) and re-enforce that call to action on the landing page. You just made an offline component interactive.

Go Paperless

Do you display at trade shows and conferences? Many that do spend time running to Kinko’s for copies (and then extra copies). You then hand off to attendees to be shoved in an over-flowing bag of other similar pieces. Display a code, linked to a PDF that folks can scan, download and print once they are back to their computer. Simple, trackable, cost-effective. And very green.

Make your contact information portable

You can create a vcard containing all of the same information from your business card, and display as a QR Code. I use one on my Twitter profile, have created stickers which I often place on my conference badges, and I’m even geektacular enough to have made a t-shirt with my vcard code, which I sometimes wear.

Perfect for Travel and Tourism

As many of your know, we work very closely with the Travel and Tourism industry. There are tons of opportunities for QR Codes to intersect with travel. Creating a QR code for monuments or historic locations can provide visitors with more information, even delivering interactive information. The photo depicts an “in the wild” example. I am told that they are becoming more prevalent on and around monuments in the Washington D.C. area as well. Battlefield maps, videos and photos, the possibilities are endless.

If you aren’t using QR Codes, it’s time to start thinking about putting them in play. Smart phone use is soaring (Readers are available for many other camera-enabled phones too), and many are coming out of the box with a reader installed. And the codes themselves can be created fast and cheap and provide tracking for your offline campaigns.

These are just a few. What are some ways you’re seeing QR Codes being used?

Tags: Digital Marketing, ideas, Pat Strader, QR Codes, Social Media
Posted in Digital Marketing | 6 Comments »

5 Ways To Make Your Marketing Manager A Publisher

Monday, April 26th, 2010

If I were a small business owner, here’s what I’d do with my marketing department: Make them publishers.

This isn’t news to anyone who’s been looking at news from the digital marketing world. Social media marketing, content marketing, and digital marketing are increasingly losing their definition and melting together. The heat that’s melting them, to keep the metaphor going, is publishing.

So what does that mean to small business marketers? It means you’ve got to get yourself some content (preferably with some heavy content strategy on the front end).

Here are five tactics to do exactly that…

Create an editorial calendar If you’re using project management software, you should have one of these at your fingertips. You should have one even if you’re not using any PM software (google calendar, anyone?). Get organized from a publishing standpoint, and your efforts will be much more effective. Never write a “sorry we haven’t blogged in a while” post again.

Don’t Stop At Text Photos and videos, like publishing itself, has become so completely accessible that there are really no excuses not to start. Just like your text, you need a schedule to produce graphic content. A picture is worth some specific number of words. Video even more. You don’t have to be viral. You do have to be consistent.

Put Social Media First Never think that social media is a fad. It’s not. Invest in it. The tools of social media will change, but the premise won’t. So from now on, you can’t broadcast your message to everyone online (you never could, although most websites were written and designed that way). Not possible, unless your plan is to out-amazon Amazon. So drill down and connect with the people that you’re interested in. And remember this: if you’re not having a conversation with them, you’re spamming them.

Read Your Analytics Numbers are scary to me. I’m a writer. An English major, even. But that doesn’t mean you should be (afraid of numbers, that is, not an English major, though there’s an argument for not being one of those either). Read those reports. How else are you going to understand what content works and what doesn’t? I’ve even gotten better myself. Publishers know the numbers.

Own It By that, I mean put an emotional investment into your content. Don’t just publish because you have to. These tools, this framework, allows you to do what direct mail, what your brochure, never could. The connections are there to make, if you want to. If you publish content that’s personal, not just your mission statement or your sale. That requires your marketing to break away from traditional thinking.

It requires you to become a publisher.

Tags: blogs, content, content strategy, getting started in social media, marketing strategy, Social Media, writing
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

How Do You Make The Switch?

Friday, April 16th, 2010

A small business that I know pretty well made a big mistake last week.

Here’s what they did: they hired a person to do their social media marketing.

Not a mistake on its face, right? Right. Having someone in a full time position to manage social media at this point should be obvious. And if it’s not, you’re reading the wrong blogs.

It’s so obvious, in fact, that for most small businesses, the marketing department and the social media manager should be the same person. The ubiquity (one of my favorite words, and a good name for a band BTW) of social media is such that to separate it from the rest of your marketing strategy is, well, dumb.

Back to our business at hand: they hired a person to manage their social media marketing. Nice. Good job, small business that I know pretty well. Way to go.

Until I found out why they hired her. She’s gen Y. That’s it. No experience other than having gone through high school with an ever-present facebook chat window open and an unlimited texting plan.

How bad a decision is this? Catastrophic. It’s like hiring your high school newspaper editor to design all of your print ads (no offense to the high school newspaper editors, current or former, but c’mon- that piece you did on how the fruit cup didn’t contain cherries last week wasn’t exactly the NYT).

Or hiring someone to run your shoe store because they’re bipedal. The point is that an internet age does not an internet marketer make.

Here’s how to switch:

-Embrace Social Realize that marketing socially is better than marketing traditionally. For small businesses, this is an absolute open-and-shut case. Over the long term, the ROI is better, the research is better, the metrics are better. At its core, it’s a better model for your business, because small businesses are about connections, and so is social media.

-Get Familiar Do some research on the space before you make any decisions. It’s said that the internet is an echo chamber, so maybe it’s ironic that the loudest echo is this: listen. Listen to what marketers are saying about the direction that social media is taking. Get familiar with the strategies and tactics. Once you understand a bit about how the gears turn, you can make decisions based on information vs. what’s all this hubub about the Twitter.

-Be True To Yourself Just because marketing is going digital doesn’t mean you have to all of a sudden become a geek. Your company has a personality. Lucky for us, that’s social media marketing’s strong suit. Copywriting isn’t dead, but it’s looking a whole lot more like the text you sent your sales team. Transparency is a bitch for most older businesses, especially the levels of transparency needed for good social media marketing. Anyone that tells you any different isn’t looking hard enough.

-Continuing Ed The big problem with most small businesses is that they’re static. Marketing may get a new look each season, but the tactics are exactly the same. Social media marketing is different. It’s a space that changes fast, and your HPIC (Head Poster In Charge) should be changing with it. And so should you. The cool part is that, digitally, this can happen with amazing ease and grace if you let it. It’s a matter of recognizing change and preparing for it, not just reacting to it.

Put another way: Everyone is aware of social media. Not many people understand it.

When you make the switch, be positive that you’re on the right side of that fence.

Tags: blogs, content, Digital Marketing, getting started in social media, relatonships
Posted in Digital Marketing | No Comments »

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What Sesame Street Can Teach Us About World Domination

If Digital Marketing Were Lego…

The Four Parts Of A Content Strategy For Small Business

No One Is Listening To You