Jump (Re)Start Your Social Marketing

Businesses often find themselves needing to jump start their social media marketing programs – either you have a program that has become stagnant or you are looking to start fresh. This outline serves up some things you should look at and how you could potentially structure your recommendations to your management team.

Five things make brands fail in social media -

1 - Communications that promote the brand versus engaging the user in a dialogue
2 - Not joining conversations
3 - Not responding to comments on social media sites
4 - Paying third party advertisers money to drive traffic to social media sites
5 - Creating free offers / coupons all the time

List the key social media channels you should focus on & offer the reason for the social media channel -

Facebook - to build community and foster discussion,
Twitter - to alert followers, follow groups & discussions, & manage discussions,
A Community Blog - This is where fans can provide feedback, content is sorted, and experts answer questions.
Etc., etc., etc.

To make your communiqués even more relevant, you should tie these three social media channels into the email marketing program to capture both consumer provided preferences and reverse preferences. Your goal should be to understand consumer preferences; stay connected, & become relevant in all your conversations.

Here are some specific ideas on how to drive engagement -

'a' - Ask people to answer a question
'b' - Ask people for their opinion through a statement
'c' - Put a picture / video and ask for a caption
'd' - Jump into conversations and keep them going without closing for a 'sale'
'e' - Use a coupon

Recommended frequency formula = (3a + 5b + 2c + 10d + 1e). Keep in mind, free coupons should be used sparingly.

Industry Leaders –
List sites that you think you need to be like and also provide a few sites that you don't want your brand to become.

Brand versus Brand Ambassador -
Many businesses focus on the brand to build up their business. The better approach is to leverage brand ambassadors to build up the brand. Talk about how your brand ambassador will drive your branding.

Resources Required -
Ask for what you will need. Put down money, people, & time. Also list the amount of time before you expect to be evaluated.

Measuring Success -Many brands have experimented with different approaches on social media before settling into their current strategy. They use social media to do the following - increase fan base, get more users to talk about them, & get their followers to promote the brand ambassador (or brand).

To measure success businesses look at very concrete things - increase in revenue (directly through this channel), reduction in costs (cutting specific advertising programs), & absolute growth on email list (as this is the offer vehicle) that can translate to buyers.

Getting Social Media to Succeed at Your Corporation -
The number one reason social media fails in most organizations is because there are a lot of 'volunteers who chip in.' While volunteers can be helpful, they do little to grow your social media program without being held accountable.

Social Media can only succeed if your organization is creative, responsive, and engaging. To meet this requirement, you have to empower an individual giving that person complete program responsibility & accountability. The responsible person can and should seek out opinions from the extended team but should be ultimately responsible (and accountable) for driving the program based on specific metrics of success.

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10 Tweets from Ashley @ RiverSideFCU

Ashley Kirwan is with River Side Federal Credit Union. She has taken social media by the horn and is busy implementing things one at a time. I met her at a marketing conference and here are her top 10 Tweets....

-Check out this great article on 10 Ways to Trick Yourself Into Saving

-Take the guesswork out of holiday tipping. Check out this Holiday Tipping Checklist from Real Simple.

-Reduce your car insurance premiums by taking a DMV-approved accident prevention course! It will save you money and make you a better driver. Click Here for a list of NY State approved courses. Many of them are offered online.

-The homebuying process can seem complicated, but if you take things step-by-step, you will soon be holding the keys to your own home! Click here for 9 steps on what you need to do to purchase your dream house.

-Top 10 Financial Tips for New Grads. These are some great tips for young professionals just out of college.

-Check out this great article from Real Simple "Your Biggest Money Worries Solved" It has some great tips and tools! For the person who spends too much, needs a budget, saves too little, needs to save for retirement, spends too much on gas, or needs a financial plan READ THIS!

-Go Green and sign up for e-statements today! You will be avoiding mail fraud, get faster delivery & reduce waste!

-FYI: Credit Unions are not for profit. Profits get returned to members in lower fees and better rates. Stop stuffing the Bank CEOs pockets! Maybe the best place to bank isn't a bank at all!

-Are you ready to have your minds blown? Check out this amazing video and let me know what you think!

-Check out this website... www.google.com/tipjar. Tip Jar is a collection of money saving tips submitted and ranked by the web community. There are some awesome ideas on how to save money. Check it out!

Simple, & effective - her Tweets drive engagement.

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Some Tips for Your Social Media

Here is some good learning from a number of companies in different stages of social media success. The important thing is that they are all headed the right way. More importantly their people are passionate about their brand & social media. That is what drives success. Be clear in your messaging as to why people should follow your social media channels.

The tips follow -

Put value in your Tweets. Make sure that people find your Tweets to be useful. Have a clearly defined purpose to each Tweet. You may be using it to tell people about an event, let people know about special offers, and answer questions or concerns as an expert. Follow The Wine Enthusiast on their Wine Tour at WineEnthusiast.


You have to use Social Media to build up your brand. Clearly define what each of your 'traditional' channels offers to people and make them clearly visible on your social media channels. Industry leaders are trying to be as consistent as possible so the users they engage do not have any difficulty finding things. Stressing everyday value is much better than gimmicky. Meet Paul Fredrick on Facebook.



If you can connect through real empathy - what more could you ask for? Most business marketers are passionate about their brands, the challenge lies in leveraging this passion into a dialogue with your customers. This dialogue is what drives connections and keeps them coming back for more. Once you have established good content, leverage this content across all your channels. Read about Annie's travels and encounters at Common Threads.

Turn your social media into a center of expertise. Your blog & other social media channels could be turned into a hub for valuable information with your clients. Give people a reason to go there, and if you are Gardeners Supply Company - you will go there every season. If you want to know what to plant when, well here are the experts.


You have to keep your fans engaged to keep them coming back for more. Share your passion with those that you serve and keep them involved in all that you do. The Winged Wonders contest by Duncraft was one of many ways the folks over at Duncraft have been sharing their passion. Well done contests are the best way to engage - everyone wins. Look at their blog - it is the center of their social media efforts.

Be clear in your messaging as you invite your customers to join you on Social Media. Make the message stand out and don't just put in a tiny little line that says 'Join us on our social media channels.' Sales comes through engagement, and engagement comes through a continuous dialogue with those you serve. Above all, dedicate a resource or resources to do things or set a regular schedule to follow up.

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The Ugly Tie Contest on Facebook

About 10 years ago, I was witness to an interesting marketing contest. Paul Fredrick, a business that specializes in apparel for men was hosting its annual pet of the year contest. Participants turned in pictures of their pets in Paul Fredrick attire.

The submissions were always interesting - you had dogs wearing shirts, shoes, & ties. There were a few cats in shirts, one of the more creative pictures was of a fish named 'Sal' neatly wrapped in a Paul Fredrick shirt.

The winner that year was Queenie - dressed in a crisp white shirt, tie, & shoes - I called her the cross dressing dog. The goal behind this contest was fan engagement - it got people excited, they loved to participate, and of course everyone wanted to know who won.

Social media has made it so much easier. Paul Fredrick recently ran an ugly tie contest. They had many submissions and their fans actually voted themselves on Facebook. They even used an email to promote the contest and of course there will be an email announcement of the winner. Fans participated in an open forum and people could see how the contest was doing at all times.

What makes their effort effective is not just the engagement of fans on the contest page but offering people an opportunity to learn more about their brand.

Ask the Designer - If you have a question about what to wear with what and where to wear it (mouthful) just ask their designer. I have had them match for me on a few occasions and have received many compliments as well.

Business Dressing - They talk about what to wear for business, offering youth the opportunity to blend in. Additionally, their tips on this page guide those who have been wearing their attire with the latest in fashion.

Featured Catalog - They always keep their paper catalog tied into their social media sites. This not only keeps the branding consistent, it also lets people know that they are up on their efforts.

How to Tie a Tie - Four simple knots, explained very simply. Again, a popular destination for those wanting to know how to add to what they already know and also for first timers.

The key to their social media sites is their ability to listen to people that participate in discussions. Test it out, sign up for email & ask their designer a question. You will be pleasantly surprised - not just by the fashion advice but by the helpfulness that they exude in their communiqués.

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The Best Reason to Get into Social Media

In an elaborate survey of consumers conducted in the fourth quarter of 2009, consumers highlighted what they expected from businesses. The consumer felt that their business really lacked an integrated communications approach, didn't really understand how to engage on social media, but also highlighted the consumers need to learn. Herein lies the opportunity for social media.

Three things stood out in this consumer research.

First, the consumer seeks an expert. The consumer will only visit with you (your virtual site or physical locations) if they are convinced that you can provide the expertise that they need. For example, if you are seeking a new flat screen television and want to know about the ability to play internet content - your physical visit to the electroncis store will only be worth it if the rep helping you can answer your questions. Consumers expect your site to be on top of the game providing the consumer with all the information that they need.

Second, the consumer seeks convenience. They want the ability to start transactions at any channel and finish the transaction off at the channel of their choice. A very important consideration here is that they expect to find information easily on your site. This means that not only should your site be well organized, they are also looking for your site to have great search, & they want you to list all your other sites including your social media sites. Also, keep in mind - tell people what each social media site is supposed to deliver versus making them just click through.

Third, the consumer seeks knowledge. They don't just want to sign on the dotted line or just take your word for it. They want to be educated and want you to explain things to them. If they were buying a home they want to understand the financing options clearly, if they are seeking references - they want to find real testimonials, if they are looking for recipes they can look those up themselves including check out user generated ratings.

The key element here is that your business is the expert, your consumers use your products and services, and these consumers can be turned into brand ambassadors. The right way to do this is to engage your current consumers on social media channels, publish this content onto your regular web site, make it easy for your prospects to find the information, and encourage your customers to mentor your prospects into making positive decisions (purchasing your product or service).

Banks like SunTrust have created sites like Live Solid to educate and inspire. Winston continues to expound his wisdom about fine wine at The Wine Enthusiast. The consumers quest for knowledge - wanting to learn things themselves is one of the best reasons to get into social media.

Also, be careful not to make every communiquee on social media channels about selling or transacting. Your goal really should be to inform, educate, or inspire. You should use it to answer questions and provide information to help consumers make decisions that are beneficial to them (and ultimately will be for your brand).

Do join us on Friday, March 26 as we speak about some very practical anecdotes on why to get into social media. To sign up for the call, visit Service in Action.

Also, do you know why peacocks really dance after it rains?

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Some Really Bad Tweets!

Here are some interesting examples of Tweets from Twidiots who forget that the web doesn't discriminate (it is hard to hide your personal stuff from corporate stuff), it doesn't forget, and you can have very viral reactions.

From some real people, working at really companies, and proudly wearing their company brand on their pesonal Twitter handle….

1- I really can not think straight. I'm worse off than a goldfish. I need to get tested, this is bad...

2 - too bad the xanax REALLY wants me to close my eyes.

3 - O....M....G.... 7 Kahlua Mudslides last night = REALLY bad headache this morning!

Three Successive Tweets (in order) from a Big Online Retailer (their CEO is an avid Tweeter) -

1 - Long walk to the restroom, long line at the restroom, really long flight, still in line...

2 - Had a ham and cheese sandwich at the ATL airport. Awesome stuff here…

3 - Oh, I did wash my hands…

Five personal tweets from a person running Corporate marketing for a respectable company...

1 - Watched all three videos, can't decide - my vote for the idol is ….

2 - RT @xxxxxx Yes, bitches, there is a new Bxxxxx 2nite. D reveals his fool proof system for getting any woman. #Bxxxxxnite

I am assuming she was still at work, because her next tweet said...

3 - Home from work…did nothing...but I do have a really bad headache.

But I am glad she started working again, because...

4 - How much money does your company budget for digital spend? I am trying to figure it out here….

5 - Back to the grind tomorrow. Ding-Dong, Klutz to call… Could watch videos all day, Thank God for YouTube…

I like the way she mixed up business and personal tweets. Her Twitter description tells you where she works!

Five tweets from a Cataloger selling dog food & accessories -

1 - Join our dog days of summer sale (link….)

2 - Great treats for your furry friends (link….)

3 - Make the dogs happy with our great grooming products (link….)

4 - For your pooch, poodles, & little pets add a little style (link….)

& then the dramatic finish…

5 - Great doggy styles, check out our Facebook page (link….)

No wonder, people get concerned about Facebook.

Two Tweets from a Financial Institution -

1 - Our rates come with a guarantee - lock this in for the next 30 days, 4.9%...

Within five minutes, the rate changed...

2 - We have great loan rates, really low, 5.3%

The real reason this happened is because two people were tweeting from the same handle without talking to each other. Tweeps!

Three tweets from another Financial Institution -

1 - Learn more about money, demystify your finances, get approved on the first attempt, keep your credit scores high, keep your loan rates lower (140 characters…)

2 - Join us on Thursday March 11, at our Newberry location from 4.00 pm to 6.00 pm for education, fun, & low interest loans to get what you want (140 characters…)

3 - Call Megan at xxx-xxx-xxxx, ext xxx to sign up for this special event, please do not reply to this message as this mail box is not monitored (140 characters…)

So I called Megan, even though I was upset I couldn’t tweet back an RSVP. She had no idea about the workshop, and put me on hold, I waited five minutes, my call got dropped, so I called back - got her voicemail, and never got a call back from this FI. Not sure what happened, but a classic case of left hand not knowing what right hand was doing.

I tweeted back to the FI handle, that wasn't responded to either.

From someone who applied for a job -

I asked her if she knew about Twitter. She said she did, shared her Twitter handle with me during the interview. We pulled it up, this was one of her most current tweets.

I make mistakes, speak without thinking, act without knowing, drink so much I can barely walk. I'm a fantastic lover though, & good friend..

She nonchalantly replied, 'I'm honest too!'

To be successful on Twitter you have to engage. You also have to be prudent and careful. The web doesn't offer you an eraser, and you have to learn how to walk a fine line between your personal and business tweets. If you have other fun tweets you would like to share, please post them.

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Seven Ways to Use Twitter

Many businesses simply don't know if they should be on Twitter. They know about the buzz and get excited about followers but they are unable to justify whether they should be on Twitter or if they are, they are having some interesting challenges with engagement.

Here are seven simple ways you could use Twitter for your business.

1. Provide updates from your brand. The goal here is to make people aware of things that you have going on. The key is to keep the updates short, and make sure that they are relevant. Don't put traditional press release out via Twitter.

2. Announce special events or promotions. If you are hosting an open house, or you have a special speaker coming in - you can use Twitter to make an announcement to those that follow you. You can also use Twitter if you have a special offer. Crisp, clear, & concise - this is what Twitter feeds can be leveraged into.

3. Offer some basic tips about your product or service. One suggestion is to take some of your frequently asked questions from your site and make them available to those that follow you via Twitter (with a link to the page with more information). They important thing to do here is to use a little intrigue to get the dialogue going - engage with a question and then offer an answer that is relevant.

4. Offering 'deeper' information about your brand. You can use Twitter to schedule a special online event - some have done well by scheduling power hours where people tweet about a particular topic. This is also used effectively while covering real events.

5. Effective on-boarding. Most people who work with your brand may not realize all that you provide. The best way to make them aware is to get to know them better. You can use Twitter as part of an engagement cycle where you can introduce them to the different things you do (set up timed welcome tweets). Additionally, you can use Twitter for consumer surveys and do a little aspirational marketing. Take a look at Live Solid, they have done a good job with 'aspirational engagement.'

6. Get more mileage out of print. Start with something you may just mailed to your list and highlight parts of an interesting article. Refer to something specific within the article and try to engage people with a question online. Once you get the hang of doing this, do this for upcoming mailers. Eventually, look to reduce or stop the distribution of a specific direct mail piece. The ROI gained could help you do more with Twitter.

7. Now, try to be cool. Three simple contests work well here. You could put up a picture and ask people to vote on a caption. You could post a question on Twitter and may the first correct answer win. You could also run a scavenger hunt on Twitter - driving people from one spot to another.

A few things to think about - you can use Twitter for customer service, for FAQ's, to engage people, & yes sometimes be cool. The thing to remember is that you have to be careful about being too cool as you may not be able to sustain it or your brand may not stand up to it. Twitter is also very powerful in getting people engaged on both mobile and the web.

The important thing to remember is not go be an 'Illtwitterate' or a 'Twammer' but 'Twengage' 'Tweeple' with 'Tweets' that 'Twexpound' 'Twisdom.'

Here is a video that NAFCU has put together on 7 ways your Credit Union can use Twitter. It has some tips for all of us.



If you would like to look up more definitions, you can go to the Twictionary.

Many thanks to Duncraft for allowing me to use their picture. They are passionate about birds, & yes - Tweeting! Check out their blog.

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The Kit Kat Flap

About a week ago, Greenpeace put up a video on YouTube taking a shot at Nestlé Corporation. The one minute video showed a bored young man, taking a break with a Kit Kat bar. He bit into the chocolate, which if you look closely was an Orangutan's finger. The rest of the commercial shows blood, and then shows the Orangutan struggling to find a home in a forest that has been destroyed by deforestation. The Greenpeace message to Nestlé - 'Do not buy palm oil from companies that are tearing down rain forests - which are the home of these Orangutans.'

Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

The commercial was quite simple and effective but followed made it much more impactful. Nestlé ordered YouTube to pull down the commercial which drove people to go see the commercial on Vimeo, plus it was picked up by news agencies & broadcasted on television stations throughout the world.

Some key lessons for all of us in marketing & PR.

First, you have to realize that the consumer is the one who drives demand for content. Censorship of materials that you may consider inappropriate is not going to get the material off the air. Don't run from bad news or think it will go away. You have to be prepared to deal with negative commentary by responding to what has been put out.

Which leads us to the second thing, many businesses complain about getting involved in social media because they don't have the ability to react and respond to negative commentary. Businesses need to be there to both monitor what is being spoken about them and also drive the discussion and feedback. Negative commentary is part of what makes up discussions. You need to be on social media so you can respond better to what is being said about you. Also, don't forget, it is an opportunity to highlight the things you could be doing.

Third, you need to have a policy in place. The folks at Nestlé waited a little too long to respond to two things - first, they didn't know how to respond to the video on YouTube, second - they really didn't help things by pulling the video off YouTube because that only exacerbated the negative coverage. And even now you can find many variations of the ad on YouTube, on Vimeo, and numerous other sites. The short video below mocks their decision making process.



Fourth, Social Media is a global phenomena and the news here traveled faster than on traditional news channels. Think about this in a positive way - if you have a plan and a policy for social media - imagine how quickly you can get your message across to people. I would recommend taking a look at the Greenpeace ad effort to plan out a detailed campaign.

Fifth, assign resources within your organization to plan, & execute your social media strategy. Additionally, you need to measure how you are doing by asking your consumers, and also looking at basic ROI. It is going to take time & effort to get things done - you need to be sure that you have a head start.

This video that follows is hilarious with the subtitles, and a little too real about what many Ivory Towers think about social media. Very apropos when they say - 'Deep down in the PR Bunker.'

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How Ivory Towers Kill Social Media - II

The right way to engage and sell to prospects is to listen to their requirements, package your offer accordingly, convince the prospect to become a customer, and then collect revenue. The problem is created by 'customers' when they order a product from a company. Things now work in reverse as you have numerous people who claim credit. Sales usually says that they drove this 'order' but marketing comes in to supersede sales - they feel that their 'compelling message & collateral' got the sale.

Consequently, the Ivory Tower becomes bigger, and the organizations connection to customers & prospects becomes weaker. They (the Ivory Tower) continue to convince themselves and the organization that it was their magnetism that drew the prospect to become a customer. They continue in their endeavor to turn their marketing programs into cross channel marketing endeavors including social media engagement strategies.

While it is a little difficult and slow to measure the impact of direct marketing programs, it is easier to see the impact that social media has on our communications. Since things are now measurable and the prospect ignores the message, the 'marketing department' now begins to scratch their heads as to what is wrong. They cannot fathom the lack of engagement. Their strategy to solve this problem is to continue to invest more in internally focused social media programs or giveaways.

The giveaways again create a short lived engagement cycle - ultimately leading to further consumer disengagement.

So how do you fix this issue? For starters engage your prospects, your customers, & your front line in planning your social media strategy. Also, leverage the ability to track accomplishments to gauge the success of what works and what does not.

Effective social media is actually diligent application of good customer service & traditional marketing principles.

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Really Bad Stuff About Social Media

Social Media continues down a frenetic pace and can do an effective job in engaging people. I do get frustrated (as I am sure many of you do too) when I hear experts speak without any expertise. What is worse is that some of these experts are listened too and give us all a bad name.

A very big corporations, very senior person was asked, 'How are you focusing on Social Media?' His answer, 'To continue to strive, to meet, and to exceed my customer's expectations in a dynamic economy, with a focus on values about our core customer and recognition of evolving demographics.' Deep, profound, and hard to comprehend. This is the vision that has stalled this corporations endeavor into the next step.

Another big corporation showed me their Social Media statement, 'Our focus is to enrich our customers' personal lives and to make them more successful by bringing to market exciting and useful products & services, empowering our employees & shareholders, & stakeholders in the process.' I bobbled my head in awe!

A CEO of an online retail software company made a statement in January 2009, 'Social Media will be gone in 2010!' Of course, he had a bias - his software allowed you to invest in search marketing and he was concerned that he would be cutting into his margins.

A learned & esteemed internet consultant made a statement in January 2010, 'Social Media is too expensive, too hard, and almost impossible to justify!' What was his bias? He was a very intelligent guy and explained that by partnering with him he would break down the hard part for you. He still charges a pretty penny and knows how to justify his invoice.

A VP of marketing spoke to people last week and told people that they should hold back their investment in social media. Her rationale was that it was still emerging, still evolving, and left a lot of questions about how it could replace advertising in print or on TV. Of course, her bias was that she was in charge of promoting her Direct Response Marketing company that focused on direct mail & TV advertising.

A business owner hired a social media consultant. Six days and $45K later, the proposal was a Social Media Playbook. Rohit Bhargava, Augie Ray, Jason Baer, & Shiv Singh - you folks would be proud to know that your work was quoted in this consultants playbook. Six months later, this business is still figuring out how to implement what the consultant ordered.

(By the way Rohit, Augie, Jason, & Shiv are outstanding writers on Social Media, you can actually read about some great social media articles at Social Media Today.

Do join our Service in Action call on Friday March 26, as we focus on some very practical examples of social media - with a focus on simplicity, practicality, & driving ROI.

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Practical Ways to Get Started With Social Media

Your advertisement reads as follows -

Business organization seeks tools to extend reach quickly. Need to attract people of all ages, creating a synchronized 1:1 dialogue. Need to fuse text, pictures, sound, video into 'dynamic story telling' content. Need to be cool to attract new clients and courteous to keep existing ones. Need to do this to drive revenue, reduce costs, & create unprecedented engagement.

Implemented effectively, this is what Social Media can bring to the table. While there is little doubt amongst businesses on whether or not they need to be in social media, many companies can learn about the best way to get into social media. Many of the leaders today have the following seven steps they follow towards effective social media enablement.

1 - Create social media channels. Start by choosing where you should be and how best you should cover those channels.

2 - Engage members in dialogue by 'asking' and answering questions. Don't just create a presence and wait for people to come. You have to go out and seek your fans.

3 - Keep soliciting feedback, keeping in mind that feedback is not just words but fused content. Encourage pictures, words, & video.

4 - Publish feedback, starting with positive feedback till you learn how to publish (and deal with negative feedback).

5 - Mentor your fans, followers, and consumers to be leaders on the social media forums. Step one is listening, step two is acknowledging, step three is mentoring them towards responding on behalf of your brand.

6 - Personalize interactions by letting your organization address individual queries on an open forum (of course giving your customer the opportunity to talk to you in private)

7 - Assign resources to work your social media channels. You cannot expect success with a half hearted effort.

At the end of the day, social media is about effective engagement. You have to practical, and you have to be relevant.

Some organizations are doing a remarkable job in managing their social media efforts. Join us on Friday March 26th at 2.00 pm EST as we focus on real anecdotes about what businesses are doing to drive social media into their marketing mix. Really practical examples of what is working and what isn't and how some are spending just 90 minutes a week to drive effective social media engagement. To get more information on the call, visit the Service in Action site.

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Job Opening with the LA Clippers

From time to time, we have friends who will pass on job opportunities to see if we know folks who would be interested. Our friend Jeff at The Los Angeles Clippers passed on this job opening in his department. If you're interested, just post a comment or send us an email.

Web Content Manger

TYPE OF POSITION: Full-time, salaried, benefit eligible

RESPONSIBILITIES: Under the direction of the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, the Web Content Manager supports the efforts of the Los Angeles Clippers in managing the content and quality control for its web sites and e-mail marketing. Specific duties include, but are not limited to:

-Edits and publishes web content for Los Angeles Clippers web sites. Is responsible for keeping the sites fresh and “sticky”, encouraging fans to return frequently

-Creates, manipulates and edits graphics for web production

-Encodes and edits video clips for web viewing

-Manages day-to-day proofing and quality control of web sites and email marketing copy
-Test sites for errors, spelling mistakes, grammar, broken links, browser compatibility and technical problems

-Works with other internal teams to build and update their respective areas on web sites

-Helps develop and implement new content ideas

-Moderates social network and forums, helping build and stimulate activity within the online community

-Maintains web related email boxes, responding to and forwarding messages

-Recruit, supervise, and train interns for the Web Department

-Various other duties as assigned

REQUIREMENTS:

-Bachelor’s degree and at least four years experience in related field are required.
-Positive attitude and strong work ethic a must. Must have a team-first mentality.
-Should be extremely organized and detail oriented.
-Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with emphasis on writing and editing.
-Solid computer skills, Internet knowledge, and good HTML skills are required.
-Required computer program knowledge: Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, FTP, Windows Media Encoder, HTML Editor programs (Front Page or Adobe Dreamweaver).

-Knowledge of Flash and Javascript is a plus.
-Knowledge of the NBA is helpful.
-Must be able to work flexible hours including weekends, holidays and game nights as assigned.

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Paradigm Shift Needed In Self Service

Airlines force you to self service kiosks, retailers make their kiosks look enticing, & financial institutions leverage the security of the ATM to transact. In an endeavor that started a few years ago, businesses have been trying to migrate low value transactions & low value consumers to self service devices. The idea here was that a self service device was less expensive and did well to take care of the low value consumer, leaving the 'better' channels to serve the more affluent consumer.

The same thing holds true for email marketing. Early investment in email was made to ensure that this lower cost channel took care of the masses leaving the 'special' / 'human' channels for higher value consumers.

What is happening instead is that the higher value consumers are looking for consistent transactions and therefore spending more time on self service devices. They are skipping the 'line' or the opportunity to converse with 'live' agents and trying to do things themselves. Unfortunately, many businesses did not think about this and consequently their self service devices offer the most basic functionality without the ability to engage the higher value consumer.

Social Media makes this change even more dramatic as consumers of all kinds - 'low & high value,' converge onto social media sites sharing their opinion, and asking their peers for information.

Most businesses are trying to react to this by creating special shorter lines for self service channels where the higher value consumer is invited to transact. They are also assigning representatives to monitor what high value consumers are saying on social media channels. These in my humble opinion are bandage solutions and largely ineffective in solving bigger issues. These are bad experiences, they are not intuitive, they are cumbersome, & worse yet - they are disconnected across channels.

Instead, business should look to empower their self service devices with access to more information, allow the machine to personalize the transaction with the consumer, and create a systematic cross channel dialogue in real time.

Remember, if the consumers experience is intuitive, takes less time, & solves their basic needs it now allows the business to engage the consumer in a more relevant dialogue based on the consumers preferences.

Human channels have always been used to resolve problems. Consider arming both humans and 'droids' (your self service devices) with a simple user interface, access to cross channel information, & the power to serve their fellow humans. This paradigm shift is really needed in self service. Getting there is not easy, there are a few businesses that have started investing in both a strategy and taking quick small steps.



Like you can see in the ad above, if the ATM know you better and saves you time - you can probably trust it to do a whole lot more. And more so you will now trust the financial institution to serve you even better. Bottom line - to be successful, this is what you need to drive interaction in 2011.

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3 Idiots: Book versus Movie = Great Buzz

Chetan Bhagat authored a book called Five Point Someone, 'five point' or '50%' or someone focused on barely getting by (mediocrity, if I may say so Chetan). The book was an excellent rendition about being successful by doing what you like and pursuing your passion. It is also one of the highest selling books in India.

A few months ago Bollywood launched a movie derived or based on this book. The movie, '3 Idiots' has the same theme as Five Point Someone. The message is that of pursuing simplicity, speaking clearly, about learning to understand, & being passionate. Of course, no Bollywood flick is complete without romance, songs, and comedy.

Both the book & the movie were phenomenal. Plus the 'controversy' about how much of the movie was based on the book, the performances in the movie, and the anticipation certainly helped the movie become the highest grossing Bollywood movie to date.

Here are some lessons for marketers -

1. Create a pre-buzz. Use intrigue to drive excitement. The songs came out first, then there was the making of the movie, then came the controversy.

2. A perfected script. The book was awesome, the movie made it thoroughly entertaining. Both combined to make it a very compelling story. Tie your products or services into the user generated content. Bollywood movies do a great job of subtle advertising. As the marketer, you control the script - you should play director.

3. Song, comedy, romance - do you have a gimmick for your marketing message?

4. Must watch scenes. Amir Khan who plays the hero of the movie defines a machine as something that simplifies what humans do. The other explanation was verbose & ineffective. The combination of both of these scenes and the marketing around these scenes created quite an anticipation about the movie. Use best sellers often within your messaging. It keeps people engaged.



5. Do you have video? The book Five Point Someone is available on Amazon, and the movie is going to be released on YouTube. You should be able to download the movie for a fee next month. Video should be a key part of a marketers strategy. What compelling video can you put forth to create interaction. Where do you stand with your social media engagement? YouTube is going from the home of clips to very targeted content. Are you ready?

A Personal Note:
To put the controversy aside - to Chetan - you write very well and I have personally read two of your other books, 'The Three Mistakes of My Life,' & 'One Night at The Call Center.' Amir, you are an exceptional artist - you play very few roles but your amazing talent drives great results. Why don't the two of you collaborate to create targeted content for YouTube & perhaps the next big flick?

Enjoy the song...

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How Ivory Towers Kill Social Media

Ivory Towers - the 'bastions' of knowledge within an organization. Every organization has their share of 'armchair social media experts.' They feel that they know it better than anyone because they use social media personally, they have read a few articles, & consider themselves marketing experts.

The challenge with most of these experts is that their involvement either brings social media initiatives to a crawl, raises the complexity of what needs to be done, astronomically hikes the cost of social media initiatives, or simply make the competition look divine. The focus becomes internal and initiatives fail.

Here are some things that Ivory Towers promote but are the worst things you can do for your brand -

1 - Create billboards, & print collateral advertising your social media presence. A big bank, inspired by the Got Milk commercials, created a simple billboard - 'www.BankXYZ.com' - no call to action, nothing. Just the banks web site. They thought fans would rush in while stuck in traffic.

2 - Creating interactive games on your web site & blog to show how 'cool' your organization really is. Remember, the Ivory Tower does not think about consumer engagement, instead they think about ways to make your brand look 'kewl.'

3 - Not willing to join conversations - they want to lead conversations and start conversations, but it is beneath them to monitor these conversations to answer consumer questions. We can all learn a lot from SouthWest Airlines & their Twitter initiative.

4 - Focus on quantity of fans & followers, versus quality of each connection. Ivory Towers just want to grow the list!

5 - Having the approach of 'build it, & they (fans) will come.' Amazingly, emails, & other collateral is created demanding that the brand be followed on the social channels - no real reason why?

Ivory Towers have a hard time valuing conversations with fans. It is beneath them to listen. There is no value exchange for the fan.

If you really want to create a good network you need to give your fans a reason to join, and humbly join conversations. Social Media is about engagement and creating a buzz through that engagement - not the other way around.

(Do visit www.despair.com, they have some incredible gifts for you and even for your Ivory Towers.)

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Creating Dialog Thru Social Media & Email

Social Networking is contagious, many check their profiles throughout the day to catch up on messages, get updates from acquaintances and just stay in touch. Not only is the usage growing but so is membership. This increase also includes a number of companies attempting to market within the social spaces… while the ads are one method, the better approach would be to incorporate your social media efforts with your existing email program. Interactive dialogue across all channels is the ideal approach.

Say for instance you send an email each week, if you managed to get a response (open/ click/ conversion) from every recipient each month, you would be a happy marketer... but unfortunately, not every recipient is going to give you a response. Here are some ideas on the “power of social media” and instruct attendees how to use it to create raving fans out of followers – young & old. Yes, a simpler step by step approach where a little time each week with a purpose will help you build your brand, grow your reach, and help you create a bond with those you serve.

To try to get to that level, take a few lessons from social networking sites:

1) Target Segments – After all a social network is a collection of friends, there is something common among them, find the commonality and offer accordingly.

2) Be Engaging – Discussion is key, ask people to participate, engage them with relevant questions… What is your opinion? Which one do you like?
 
3) Showcase – Social sites showcase their network, John is attending… Lisa is going to… Megan is taking her kids… Apply these same ideas to your communiqués; include user generated content when you can. People like to read real stories and see real pictures.
 
4) Cover your Bases – Set up all your social networks; to cover the full gamut, you’ll need Twitter, Blog(s), Community Profiles (Facebook for sure, Myspace perhaps, LinkedIn in some cases), some Video and lots of Pictures.
 
5) Build Excitement – You have to generate interest, run contests, reward recipients for paying attention and help them stay engaged. It’s the best way to build community and a loyal stream of customers.

Grow a bond with your customers and prospects through shared inspiration, the web can keep them engaged and help you Create Interactive Conversations! Our best practices call next month is on 'Creating engagement through social media.' Mark your calendar for March 26, 2010 for the call - www.serviceinaction.com.

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Five Key Challenges for FI's in 2010

Financial Institutions (FI's) are looking for ways to connect with the consumers they serve. Consumers are becoming more aware and they are expecting a lot more from the FI's that serve them. FI's are facing the challenge of growing their customer / member base in a time when it is so easy for the consumer to walk away. Here are five key challenges faced by FI's that need to be addressed in 2010.

Internet Banking - More consumers need to get onto Internet Banking platforms. FI's need to reduce the amount of 'help' they provide to conusmers. Too much time is spent answering questions and training both employees and consumers on the internet banking platform. FI's are looking for ways to increase awareness of this service, provide easy training, & also encourage their consumer to find the FAQ's themselves.

Social Media Channels - FI's need to have a policy, build a strategy, and come up with a way to measure their social media programs. This is the year to get into social media, and it also the year to keep consumers engaged. Your challenge otherwise is loosing your consumer to others that provide similar services.

Mobile Banking & Messaging - FI's are spending money on getting enabled for mobile. They need to hasten the spread of mobile and look for ways to coax consumers on to this channel. FI's are excited about the impact that mobile can have on one to one messaging yet there are no real plans in place on how to drive revenue through the mobile channel.

Email Marketing - No longer a closet business for FI's - email is now emerging as a crown jewel for many FI's direct marketing programs. This is despite the fact that most FI's used to chastize email marketing as a gateway to phishing. The key difference this year will be on how to engage consumers across channel leveraging the email channel.

ATM Network - An ATM machine used to be a cash dispenser. FI's really need to move beyond basic cash dispensing, generic personalization, and customer service to a state where the ATM is an agent that facilitates real one to one marketing across channel.

The ad above from HDFC Bank is just one small example how this bank is making its ATM's efficient and using the time to serve customers with relevant messages. While their ATM's are incredible, you won't believe what they have been able to do across other channels!

If you want to know more about what an FI should be doing, please send me a note.

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Shoppers Want More From Retailer Social Media Programs

Shoppers want enhanced personalization, more choices in how they ineract with retailers through social media. After a significant number were polled about what they wanted - here is a summary of what these consumers really want -

1. Consumers are looking for personalized experiences with social media - real one to one marketing & don't forget customer service.

2. Consumers want to find the retailer easily on social media channels - take the guessing out of where the consumer can find you. Google is great but listing your social sites on your channels is much better.

3. Consumers want to know what is being offered on each social media channel - why Facebook, what's on YouTube, why should they follow on Twitter.

4. Retailers need to unify offers across social media channels - don't play games with consumers.

5. Nurturing & not taking over the content on online communities adds credibility to user messaging. They want retailers to encourage conversations and not take those over.

6. Consumers expect to be heard - put experts online, listen, & respond quickly to concerns. It's not like they are waiting for your message to come to them. They ring your social 'doorbell' and expect you to serve them pronto.

7. Consumers are looking for real commercials - no fake models but real user generated content on social media sites.

Consumers also felt that more than 50% of their favorite retailers were missing on social media channels. They also felt that 70% of those who were there were completely missing the mark.

While many businesses realize the importance of social media channels - they feel that it takes too much time to do things right. Join us on Friday March 26th as we talk about how some have used their time judiciously to create effective engagement through social media.

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Social Media Success: Which bird will win?

Hundreds of backyard birding enthusiasts got involved submitting pictures of birds to Duncraft. It was tough to go through the hundreds of pictures to narrow it down to just 14 finalists. Every picture was turned in by a raving fan. Duncraft fans are indeed passionate about backyard birding.

They have done an incredible job engaging their fans through social media. Mike Dunn, their CEO says that Social Media is about creating a dialogue and sharing a passion. He grew up enjoying this hobby and is thrilled that social media helps him carry the passion forward with people all around the world.

If you have a question - you can go to their site, call them, or even mail them - they do an awesome job responding to you. They share their expertise because they know birds, and more importantly want to learn about birds from their fans as well. They listen to questions from customers calling in and try to make the answers available on different social media channels.

They even point their customers to come visit and participate in a social media dialogue. If you post a question on their social media sites - other birding enthusiasts will probably chime in with their opinions, sometimes before they do. This is how involved their fans are!

Duncraft shares their passion through Tweets, have a relaxed setting on Facebook, & provide really insightful information on their Blog. Interestingly, their Blog brings their social media sites together including some interesting videos on YouTube.

Their social media channels are integrated - Blog, Facebook, & Twitter - these are connected to carry on conversations with their fans.

Isn't it incredible that a bird company Tweets!

Do you know how to attract Bluebirds? Look at this tweet - - the tweet leads you to their blog which is packed with great information.

Or check out this really pretty duckling - - directly taking you to a video of a duck feeding fish.

Who ever knew pigeons were so smart? Never underestimate the power of teamwork! - an amazing picture of three pigeons turning on a waterfountain.

Every one of these tweets are intriguing and effective in driving cross channel dialogue.

Facbeook is a place to hang out and learn. They have customers and fans post questions or their success with products. They run a caption contest each week.


What would you say about this Redhead? - look at the engagement and comments from other fans on Facebook. (link)

Getting back to the contest - take a look at the incredible pictures on their blog - 14 gorgeous beauties.

Why don't you add your vote on who you think will win?

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Oscar Buzz: Avatar or Inglourious Basterds

Last year Slumdog Millionaire walked away with most of the awards at the Oscars. The movie was about 'anticipation marketing' & did a very good job engaging people - all the right ingredients for Social Media.

Since last year, Social Media has taken on a buzz of its own. There are a number of nominees, a lot of buzz and The Academy has done a very good job trying to canvass engagement.

If you go to their web sites at http://www.oscars.org you will see references to a very nice engagement forum on Facebook & Twitter. Their YouTube site is also full of good engagement. To connect with fans they have even created www.oscar.go.com - with the intention of involving, engaging, & promoting everything about movies. Games, challenges, trivia, mobile alerts - they have it all.

Some people have even created their own avatars to talk to fans about who is going to win. Alix Diva is an expert on Twitter and she is giving away $100 to those that can predict the best movie, best actor, & best actress.

Just like the movie Slumdog Millionaire a good social media program keeps fans engaged, a carefully scripted plan that way even if they figure out your formula and know what to expect, they’ll still have something to look forward to. The Academy's web sites are the basis for user generated content, and consequent engagement. A scripted path that allows for efficient engagement, anticipate needs, determine recipient’s favorites and their best-fit offers.

The movie Slumdog Millionaire followed a path – simple questions leading to more complicated ones; even when you knew what to expect, you waited to watch because there was enough of a teaser. Use the same approach with your campaigns, lay them all out and see if they flow.

Offer a theme to keep people engaged across campaigns, make reference to current events and keep sharing feedback from the users and incorporating feedback from your team. Your goal is not just to get a click-through to landing pages, but to get people to share what you show and keep coming back for your campaigns.

I was blown away by the effort involved in Avatar. I was also impressed with Inglorius Besterd's. Other than that, I have no idea who will win.

Maybe Alix at TopFlix will let me in on the buzz?

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Three Key Channels & Two Absolutes

Three channels are going to drive digital engagement in 2010. Email, Mobile, & Social Media.

Email because it is personal, can be personalized, and can be tracked. The bigger opportunity with email is that it can be used as the lead in to all other channels. Email is also emerging as a strong replacement as the primary point of contact replacing direct mail in many instances. The key to EFFECTIVE email is to use it to build up preferences on the consumer.

Mobile is important for two key reasons - first, your business is available to the consumer at any time; second, it is available anywhere. Also with the growing use of smart phones - mobile is going to become stronger and stronger. A key issue as far as mobile is concerned is to remember only to message if it is important. Unlike many international countries the user pays for the message in the US.

Social Media is good for many reasons - it is free (not counting the effort involved), it is also where your consumer hangs out. Your opportunity is to join your consumer on these channels. Many create big signs and offer great incentives to lure people in - while this is good in the short run it is not effective. To be successful in social media you have to join conversations. Many companies are still struggling to get this right.

To keep consumers engaged you have to focus on what the consumer desires. Organizations need to be able to set up cross channel preferences pages that can capture and serve consumers across channel. The second thing to keep in mind is that you want to provide 'timely relevance.' Whatever channel you choose to communicate - make sure you have relevant information delivered quickly. Else, your program looses value.

Your goal is to drive targeted conversations.

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Leveraging the Offer Within

You don't have to offer everyone the same deal. People are willing to pay more for convenience, choice, or perceived value. Why not offer a little intrigue? Why not leverage mobile? Why not come up with custom offers? Oh, and don't forget about social media. The point is to make them feel special, treat them like a Maharaja.

A neighborhood golf course puts up a sign on the road each week. They list the weather forecast for each day and have published pricing for all. They take the time to update their web site, update the rates in their pro-shop & even their ad in the local newspaper. Same deal for all - they call it consistency, but I spoke to them about different options for different people. Start by thanking those that have played with a simple email & an opportunity to sign up for the next round with a special discount. People will pay a premium to play in better weather. They also won't complain if they don't know what others have paid.

A local pizza shop has started asking people driving by to follow them on Twitter. Nine times a day, they tweet an offer out to those that follow them. The offers vary - some of them just offer a scrumptious meal, some offer a deal, some even are timed offers - 'if you order in 20 minutes' you get 2 free toppings!

A sports team engages fans by asking them to text in the answer for a chance to win during the game. The fan is engaged even more when they are asked to choose between offers. What follows is a timed text message, encouraging the recipient to visit a concession stand or a merchant. Oh, and even if you are not at the game - they think of ways to keep you engaged.

The web to many is one offer fits most. Given technology, interactivity, & personal media - why not look for ways to create offers within the 'envelope?' More power to you as the consumer feels special and an opportunity for you to test offers, earn more, and stay engaged with your consumers.

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Why Sign Up?

Okay, so this is a fundamental question for any marketer? Why should I sign up for your marketing program? While it is easy to copy the answer from other marketing programs - here are three simple things you should consider doing to enhance your program.

Start by defining a simple mission statement about your business. List the product you sell or the service you provide. Now list the available channels. Your catalog, your brick & mortar, your ATM's, your kiosks, your web site, your phone numbers, and all your social media sites.

Next, tell people how they can contact you on each available channel. Ask them for their mailing address, their email id's, their mobile phones, & also offer them the opportunity to connect with you on your social media channels. Do not simply state things like 'follow us on Twitter,' or 'become a fan on Facebook,' or 'give us your email id.' Give them a real reason to sign up. Which takes us to the most important thing to do.

List the five to ten reasons why one should sign up for each of your channels. Remember the things that get people interested are intrigue, value, & delight. So if you have a calculator or a fun fact - list it and offer the answer via email. If you are going to provide something of value - tell them what they need to do to get that information. Of course, show off your brand and tell them that by becoming a member of your list you will delight them with appropriate offers.

The important thing to keep in mind is that you should list your reasons simply & clearly. You should also solicit feedback on these reasons from your staff and your customers. Now, try to adhere to these reasons as much as possible.

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Engaging Your Customers Effectively

A group of marketers got together last week to chat about best practices in email marketing. The discussion was an effective recap for many and certainly a comprehensive guide for those just starting off. We spoke about 17 things a marketer needs to do to keep their consumer engaged. Here are a few key ideas we spoke about.

Number 2 - You have to know more: In addition to email, you need to ask the consumer for additional information that will help you with segmentation and personalization. Include basic preferences, and let the consumer know about all your available channels. Use intrigue, incentive, and tracking to build up your repository.

Number 3 - Message people right away: Start by thanking people for signing up for your campaign, deliver what you promised immediately, and make sure that your first message is written to perfection. If you offer a coupon, remind people about the expiration date. Think about your first email being so good that the consumer keeps it forever.

Number 6 - Enhanced Message: In addition to covering all your basics in your email messaging think about a few ways to make your email stand out even more. Solicit feedback and request preferences in every email message - but make sure you tie this back into building up your consumer repository. Think about the types of recurring streams you can create within your organization to automate some of your email messages.

Number 7 - Focus on Growing Your List: This should be an imperative within your organization. You can use both incentives and recognition to grow your list. Two things to consider when growing your list. First, look at the cost of acquisition of every email id. Second, make sure that your net improvement is on the way up - this means that in addition to getting names, you want to make sure that more people are paying attention to your messages.

Number 9 - The Power of Re-marketing: Track email performance to follow up with people based on their clicks. Plan your landing pages to see if your call to action is listed appropriately. Think about 'Happy Path Testing' - make sure that error free pages are actually leading the recipient to an appropriate decision.

Number 14 - Your Other Channels: What can you do to extend the shelf life of your direct marketing materials? What is the worst thing you can say to your customer? Do you write on the merchandise that you ship? Have you conducted a catalog reading? Do you know how to tell the rest of the story?

If you would like the presentation with all 17 points listed send me a note. If you were part of our discussion on Friday, thank you & do give me your feedback.

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