Begin by Using Basic Marketing Techniques
1. Be Conversational
2. Make Life Easier (Provide Value)
3. Measure Your Efforts (ROI)
1. Using the Web to be Conversational
First, for a conversation to be successful, you have to care about the customer, their long-term needs, and what they are looking to accomplish at that moment. Then …
Listen to what your customers are already saying.
If you already have ways of receiving feedback from your customers (call logs, snail mail, support emails, etc.), read them. They’re conversations just waiting to begin.
Search the Blogosphere to manage what people are already saying about you and how you do business with tools such as:
• The Social Pipe
• Technorati
• Google Blog Search
• Twitter Search
Respond to the conversations you find.
By responding to the people who have contacted you directly (even just to thank them for their correspondence!) you’ve facilitated a conversation. As long as you solve their problem courteously and in a timely manner, you’re their hero (and now they are your customer evangelist).
Blogs – Publicly thank (and reward) the people who are saying nice things about you on their blog. Publicly apologize and request a more personal conversation method (phone call, email) to fix the problem for the people who are speaking badly of you.
Initiate new conversations (once you’ve got the other ones under control).
Every good marketer knows that one disappointed customer is worth ten delighted ones. It used to be that if you could get the disappointed customer to provide you with their thoughts and feedback, you could tailor your business practices to appease them. These days, the web-savvy customer not only wants to be involved in the tailoring process, they’d rather do it for you!
Feedback forms are a good way to invite conversations. Ask questions like:
• “How was your experience?”
• “What would you change?”
• “Frustrated? Let us have it!”
Surveys & Polls are another good way to spark conversations.
• On your website or another
• By email
• Using Facebook
Social Networking has proven to be viable time and again.
• Create a page, a group, or an application for Facebook
• Get a MySpace page up to allow for grassroots feedback
• Start a Google Group about a topic your company knows best
• Get on Twitter to allow people to contact you
Email is great for starting new conversations with existing customers who have already given you their email address.
• CampaignMonitor
• MailChimp
2. Using the Web to Make Life Easier
Start by making every interface (website, phone calls, mail, etc.) understandable! Don’t use long, difficult words and legal jargon. (Attorneys generally don’t write good public interface copy.)
Making It Easier for the Customer
Take what your customers are saying into account, then …
Allow them to do things from the comfort of their own home, such as:
• Managing their account online
• Filling out and submitting forms online
• Engage customer service and support online using web chat (or Twitter)
Allow them to do things from anywhere:
• Making payments or checking balances via SMS or mobile browsing (Bank of America has executed this nicely for the iPhone)
• Give them the option to receive SMS notifications for account events (e.g. “Your payment has been applied to your account”)
Making It Easier for You
There is an alternative to spending tens of thousands of dollars for IT solutions that integrate with your current workflow: Web Applications. A web application (webapp) is software that is online, and therefore available everywhere, 24/7/365, and is a solution that is quickly becoming the most efficient way of getting things done.
Webapps… • don't require a large IT staff to maintain - no software updates or patches.
• are cost-efficient - no more expensive servers or upgrades to buy.
• are platform independent - any moderately recent browser works.
• don’t lock you in - generally, you go monthly and can cancel any time.
• aren’t bloated with confusing and unnecessary features - generally, they are geared toward accomplishing one (or two) things, and doing it well.
3. Using the Web to Measure Your Efforts
The great (and sometimes scary) thing about using the web to connect with customers is that everything is traceable. This means that when you send an email, or post a comment on someone’s blog, and someone visits your website because of it, it’s all able to be seen and measured using web analytics software. Once they come to your site, you can then see everything they do on your site. At that point it’s up to your web-guru’s to design a site that capitalizes on their visit. (When was the last time your ad agency offered you the ability to see such detailed ROI for your analog media campaign?)
Web Analytics
• Google Analytics
Online Buzz
• Social Pipe
• Facebook Lexicon
• Twitter Search
About me
Joel Wilson
New Media Director & Project Manager, COSTEP Marketing Dept.
B.S. in Media Arts & Sciences from Indiana University
Monday, March 19, 2012
Social strategy
This 10-point sequence is effective.
1. Listen to conversations about your brand/company/industry
2. Calculate your share of voice – and your competitors’
3. Set yout goals to align with PR, marketing and business goals. Get agreement on the goals.
4. Find relevant communities and bloggers who write about your subject
5. Identify the influencers in these groups. Tip: In all liklihood, they are not famous A-list bloggers.
6. Develop a content strategy based on what you have found in your previous steps.
7. Evaluate the platforms and tools: which tools are best for your business to reach the people you want to start conversations with.
8. Create and deliver that content – monitor responses and reactions.
9. Participate in and facilitate conversations. Provide tools to make it easy to find, share and discuss the content.Syndicate your content so it can filter into the social web.
10. Track and measure results.
Also consider:
I think this is a good primer. It’s definitely important to listen and engage. There are a couple key steps missing, however.
1) You have to set goals before you can determine your strategy. Are you trying to increase awareness about your company or product? Trying to decrease calls to your customer service team? Trying to raise the positive sentiment around your brand? These are all different goals that require different strategies.
2) Define who you want to target. Is it moms? Maybe you want to reach male teen gamers? In the listening phase, find out where they hang out and what tools they use to communicate. Since both of these target audiences use social media differently, you’ll be able to better choose what tools to use when developing your strategy.
3) Don’t just choose to do video or a blog because you feel like everyone else has one. Choose the tools that best align with your goals and the technologies your target audience use.
4) Since you have goals, you’ll be able to measure how well you met thos egoals. How many calls to customer service were deferred? Are people talking about your brand in a more positive light? If you have clearly defined goals, the ROI will be a lot easier to see.
1. Listen to conversations about your brand/company/industry
2. Calculate your share of voice – and your competitors’
3. Set yout goals to align with PR, marketing and business goals. Get agreement on the goals.
4. Find relevant communities and bloggers who write about your subject
5. Identify the influencers in these groups. Tip: In all liklihood, they are not famous A-list bloggers.
6. Develop a content strategy based on what you have found in your previous steps.
7. Evaluate the platforms and tools: which tools are best for your business to reach the people you want to start conversations with.
8. Create and deliver that content – monitor responses and reactions.
9. Participate in and facilitate conversations. Provide tools to make it easy to find, share and discuss the content.Syndicate your content so it can filter into the social web.
10. Track and measure results.
Also consider:
I think this is a good primer. It’s definitely important to listen and engage. There are a couple key steps missing, however.
1) You have to set goals before you can determine your strategy. Are you trying to increase awareness about your company or product? Trying to decrease calls to your customer service team? Trying to raise the positive sentiment around your brand? These are all different goals that require different strategies.
2) Define who you want to target. Is it moms? Maybe you want to reach male teen gamers? In the listening phase, find out where they hang out and what tools they use to communicate. Since both of these target audiences use social media differently, you’ll be able to better choose what tools to use when developing your strategy.
3) Don’t just choose to do video or a blog because you feel like everyone else has one. Choose the tools that best align with your goals and the technologies your target audience use.
4) Since you have goals, you’ll be able to measure how well you met thos egoals. How many calls to customer service were deferred? Are people talking about your brand in a more positive light? If you have clearly defined goals, the ROI will be a lot easier to see.
Corporate facebook pages
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/6438-25-brilliant-examples-of-facebook-brand-pages
B2B Strategy
1. Take time to create a strategy.
2. Map your audiences’ online media habits and identify your influencers.
3. Share social media responsibility and train internally.
4. Focus on the right social networks for you.
5. Plan campaigns but don’t forget to be reactive.
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/8574-creating-a-social-media-strategy-for-b2b-organisations-5
2. Map your audiences’ online media habits and identify your influencers.
3. Share social media responsibility and train internally.
4. Focus on the right social networks for you.
5. Plan campaigns but don’t forget to be reactive.
http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/8574-creating-a-social-media-strategy-for-b2b-organisations-5
A Bold B2B Sales Strategy
A regional firm that was competing against five "industry giants" for a major contract asked for Konrath's help with their upcoming sales presentation. She offered the small firm a challenge: "Let's assume they gave you the contract. What would you do next?" she asked. Taken aback, the team admitted they were "not exactly sure" that what the prospect was asking for in the RFP was "the best way for them to achieve their goals." If hired, they said, they would offer alternatives. "Then that's what your meeting will be about," Konrath advised.
Here's what the team did on the day of their presentation:
They gave a handout of their company information to the review panel.
But they said that, rather than talk about themselves, they'd prefer to focus on the hiring company's challenges.
The team then suggested alternatives to the requests made in the RFP and questioned the panel's thinking on some of their "must-have criteria." The discussion took off.
The result? The prospect company canceled the next round of interviews—and hired the regional company within the week.
The Po!nt: Give to get. While the thought of offering more of your expertise upfront might seem risky, getting down to work in a sales presentation is bound to have an impact. Consider what more you can give to land that next big contract.
Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2444/a-bold-b2b-sales-strategy-that-just-might-get-results#ixzz1pb6ocVoT
Here's what the team did on the day of their presentation:
They gave a handout of their company information to the review panel.
But they said that, rather than talk about themselves, they'd prefer to focus on the hiring company's challenges.
The team then suggested alternatives to the requests made in the RFP and questioned the panel's thinking on some of their "must-have criteria." The discussion took off.
The result? The prospect company canceled the next round of interviews—and hired the regional company within the week.
The Po!nt: Give to get. While the thought of offering more of your expertise upfront might seem risky, getting down to work in a sales presentation is bound to have an impact. Consider what more you can give to land that next big contract.
Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2444/a-bold-b2b-sales-strategy-that-just-might-get-results#ixzz1pb6ocVoT
Five Tips for Online Public Relations Success
One day, when sending a Twitter pitch to a reporter, I thought to myself: "Just seven years ago I was blasting an impersonal fax to a list of 100 nameless reporters and editors, then reporting the campaign's success by sifting through heaps of magazines and newspapers and working my scissoring and gluing magic to create a clip report."
Fast forward to 2012. Long gone are the days of shadowy media pitching, offline promotions, and untraceable success. Advances in the digital world have revolutionized media. Public relations (PR) digitization has improved the industry by facilitating more informal relationships between journalists and PR professionals, simplifying measurement via real-time Internet analytics, and allowing greater accessibility for the general public to influence a company's reach.
"So, where am I missing the boat on this digitization?" you ask. Whether optimizing your content for search engines or pitching your company's news via social media, you may have multiple areas in which to improve your online reach.
Here are five tips to master the digitization of public relations.
1. Optimize your content
Creating a riveting press release about your product or service is one thing; getting people to actually see your release is another. One key tactic for maximizing your online exposure is to optimize the content within your release for search engines (search engine optimization, or SEO). The process is fairly simple:
Navigate to the Google Keyword tool.
Type in three or four words or phrases that relate to your drafted press release.
Fill out the captcha, and a list of related keywords will appear (sorted by volume and related search engine competition).
Select two or three keywords that have a high volume of searches and fairly low competition.
Integrate the selected keywords into your press release a few times each, and (if applicable) hyperlink the keywords to relevant pages on your site.
2. Use Twitter to pitch reporters
According to a report by Cision and George Washington University (GWU), 52% of journalists have Twitter accounts. And that was two years ago! See an opportunity here?
I have successfully pitched to USA Today, The Huffington Post, SimplyHired.com, AOL.com, and many trade industry publications via Twitter direct messages.
More and more, journalists receive their news via social networks. Use the social channel to start the dialogue with new reporters within your beat. You won't be disappointed.
If you haven't yet created a list of journalists on Twitter in your niche, use tools such as MuckRack.com, a website that lists journalists on Twitter by beat. Then follow those journalists on Twitter and start engaging them by responding to some of their tweets and direct messaging them. You can also conduct a simple Twitter search by hashtag or keyword to research journalists or media outlets in your beat.
3. Be selective in your connections
I recently attended the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association Summit and a session titled "Blogs, Bribes and Blasphemy: Engaging Influencers in a Changing World." In that presentation, the speakers underscored the importance of targeting a few ringleaders in your industry rather than a list of 100 nontargeted folks.
"Influencer marketing" is a tactic that has emerged for targeting key people rather than a target market as a whole. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as "a person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace." Influencer marketing focuses on social influence to advocate for your product or service. Though you are connecting with a smaller pool of people, your reach via those influencers will double or triple a standard noninfluencer-focused pitch (the age-old "quality over quantity" approach).
Use that tactic in your PR campaigns by creating a list of the top 25 influencers in your niche. Research their social media authority via tools such as Klout, track their online and offline presence and authority, and then start building relationships with them so you have a shoe-in the next time you are promoting a specific event or product launch.
4. Send press releases via nontraditional media
Case in point: My former employer's blog gets 40 times the number of unique visitors that the company's news and media room gets. The Cision/GWU media survey also found that 89% of journalists use blogs to source their stories.
In addition to posting your news release on your company's newsroom, repurpose it as a blog post and use your social media networks to pitch it. Use event posts, video blogs, podcasts, and even infographics to promote your business. Nowadays, nearly all journalists source news from blogs, so why not repurpose?
5. Track your success
Unlike 10 years ago, when press releases were very difficult to track, the Internet has made measurement much easier. Media platforms such as Cision and Meltwater News allow you to track media placements and create customized clip reports with corresponding metrics. Google Alerts provides real-time placements from your email inbox.
You can use data on sites such as Compete.com and Alexa.com to track the number of visitors that have viewed your placed article, and you can create a custom URL via Google's custom URL Builder and link-shortening services such as bitly to track the click-throughs on each link placed in your release.
Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/pics/2012/6944/five-tips-for-online-public-relations-success-slide-show#ixzz1pb4FGgcP
Fast forward to 2012. Long gone are the days of shadowy media pitching, offline promotions, and untraceable success. Advances in the digital world have revolutionized media. Public relations (PR) digitization has improved the industry by facilitating more informal relationships between journalists and PR professionals, simplifying measurement via real-time Internet analytics, and allowing greater accessibility for the general public to influence a company's reach.
"So, where am I missing the boat on this digitization?" you ask. Whether optimizing your content for search engines or pitching your company's news via social media, you may have multiple areas in which to improve your online reach.
Here are five tips to master the digitization of public relations.
1. Optimize your content
Creating a riveting press release about your product or service is one thing; getting people to actually see your release is another. One key tactic for maximizing your online exposure is to optimize the content within your release for search engines (search engine optimization, or SEO). The process is fairly simple:
Navigate to the Google Keyword tool.
Type in three or four words or phrases that relate to your drafted press release.
Fill out the captcha, and a list of related keywords will appear (sorted by volume and related search engine competition).
Select two or three keywords that have a high volume of searches and fairly low competition.
Integrate the selected keywords into your press release a few times each, and (if applicable) hyperlink the keywords to relevant pages on your site.
2. Use Twitter to pitch reporters
According to a report by Cision and George Washington University (GWU), 52% of journalists have Twitter accounts. And that was two years ago! See an opportunity here?
I have successfully pitched to USA Today, The Huffington Post, SimplyHired.com, AOL.com, and many trade industry publications via Twitter direct messages.
More and more, journalists receive their news via social networks. Use the social channel to start the dialogue with new reporters within your beat. You won't be disappointed.
If you haven't yet created a list of journalists on Twitter in your niche, use tools such as MuckRack.com, a website that lists journalists on Twitter by beat. Then follow those journalists on Twitter and start engaging them by responding to some of their tweets and direct messaging them. You can also conduct a simple Twitter search by hashtag or keyword to research journalists or media outlets in your beat.
3. Be selective in your connections
I recently attended the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association Summit and a session titled "Blogs, Bribes and Blasphemy: Engaging Influencers in a Changing World." In that presentation, the speakers underscored the importance of targeting a few ringleaders in your industry rather than a list of 100 nontargeted folks.
"Influencer marketing" is a tactic that has emerged for targeting key people rather than a target market as a whole. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association defines an influencer as "a person who has a greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace." Influencer marketing focuses on social influence to advocate for your product or service. Though you are connecting with a smaller pool of people, your reach via those influencers will double or triple a standard noninfluencer-focused pitch (the age-old "quality over quantity" approach).
Use that tactic in your PR campaigns by creating a list of the top 25 influencers in your niche. Research their social media authority via tools such as Klout, track their online and offline presence and authority, and then start building relationships with them so you have a shoe-in the next time you are promoting a specific event or product launch.
4. Send press releases via nontraditional media
Case in point: My former employer's blog gets 40 times the number of unique visitors that the company's news and media room gets. The Cision/GWU media survey also found that 89% of journalists use blogs to source their stories.
In addition to posting your news release on your company's newsroom, repurpose it as a blog post and use your social media networks to pitch it. Use event posts, video blogs, podcasts, and even infographics to promote your business. Nowadays, nearly all journalists source news from blogs, so why not repurpose?
5. Track your success
Unlike 10 years ago, when press releases were very difficult to track, the Internet has made measurement much easier. Media platforms such as Cision and Meltwater News allow you to track media placements and create customized clip reports with corresponding metrics. Google Alerts provides real-time placements from your email inbox.
You can use data on sites such as Compete.com and Alexa.com to track the number of visitors that have viewed your placed article, and you can create a custom URL via Google's custom URL Builder and link-shortening services such as bitly to track the click-throughs on each link placed in your release.
Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/pics/2012/6944/five-tips-for-online-public-relations-success-slide-show#ixzz1pb4FGgcP
How to Follow up When Someone Mentions Your Brand on Twitter Read more: http://www.marketingprofs.com/short-articles/2502/how-to-follow-up-when-someo
To illustrate the right way—and wrong way—to interact with potential customers who mention your brand on Twitter, Joe Rawlinson recounts what happened when he tweeted from a conference. "During the course of the day, I mentioned several products that the speakers were discussing," he writes. "I had no experience with these products nor did I necessarily need their services at the time."
Salespeople from one of the companies he mentioned chose to respond—but not through Twitter. Instead, they foraged for Rawlinson's other contact information, emailed him at personal and business addresses, and followed up with a phone call to his office. This aggressive follow-up would have overwhelmed Rawlinson even if he'd announced he wanted to buy the product—but as someone who had merely mentioned it in a reportorial capacity, he was "completely turned off."
Another company about which he tweeted—ClueApp.com—responded with a friendly tweet: "hey! Thanks for sharing for sharing Clue with your followers. Have you had a chance to create your own Memory test?" Rawlinson appreciated the engagement, and a brief discussion ensued:
@joerawlinson: not yet, but since I keep hearing about your service it is on my list to try.
@ClueApp: sweet! Tweet it here when you do, and we'll take the test too. :)
It was a far more pleasant experience for Rawlinson. "No intrusive prying into all my Internet footprints to track me down and thrust a sales person upon me," he notes.
The Po!nt: You will probably unnerve potential customers if you reply to their tweet anywhere but Twitter.
Salespeople from one of the companies he mentioned chose to respond—but not through Twitter. Instead, they foraged for Rawlinson's other contact information, emailed him at personal and business addresses, and followed up with a phone call to his office. This aggressive follow-up would have overwhelmed Rawlinson even if he'd announced he wanted to buy the product—but as someone who had merely mentioned it in a reportorial capacity, he was "completely turned off."
Another company about which he tweeted—ClueApp.com—responded with a friendly tweet: "hey! Thanks for sharing for sharing Clue with your followers. Have you had a chance to create your own Memory test?" Rawlinson appreciated the engagement, and a brief discussion ensued:
@joerawlinson: not yet, but since I keep hearing about your service it is on my list to try.
@ClueApp: sweet! Tweet it here when you do, and we'll take the test too. :)
It was a far more pleasant experience for Rawlinson. "No intrusive prying into all my Internet footprints to track me down and thrust a sales person upon me," he notes.
The Po!nt: You will probably unnerve potential customers if you reply to their tweet anywhere but Twitter.
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