M2.0: Blogs

I finish my Teradata User Group presentation with a “How To” application – specifically highlighting the use of blogs into your marketing mix. My belief is that a blog is the easiest way to enter into the M2.0 realm – it’s an extension of your website and can be home for your YouTube video links, links to Social Networking sites and/ or your Twitter block.

For this section, I highlight 1154 LILL Studio – because I’m a bag-a-holic and because I have killer props. I also get to highlight their recent contest, Where has your LILL bag been? a contest that I served as model.

For those of you familiar will 1154 LILL, you know they offer custom handbags through their website, four boutiques and LILL-on-Location reps. I highlight their blog, because I think they’ve done a great job translating their in store experience in an online channel. They feature team members, fashion trends, refreshment recipes for LILL-on-Location parties and even contests – hopefully, I get extra props for touring my bag around Melbourne this week.

M2.0: Twitter

Philip has previously posted articles on how to use Twitter; my Teradata User Group presentation includes a slightly different spin.

Surprisingly, there were very few attendees who knew about the service, so I’m going to start with the official definition – Twitter is a micro-blogging site, allowing updates with a 140 character maximum updates. People can “follow” or subscribe to your offers that are deployed through the Twitter site, text message or website/ blog integration.

The applications that I show are from Dell and Obama. Dell uses Twitter to offer refurbished printers, limited quantity/ discontinuing monitors and special promotions. To date they have over 900 followers, a decent audience for items that are your star offers.

Barack Obama is using Twitter a little differently, offering updates to his campaign progress and giving a little additional insight to his personality – sorry Dell, Barack has more followers… but you’re still beating us on the follower count.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for more in the series.

M2.0: Social Networking

Social Networking sites are getting a ton of press lately. I usually share a couple MySpace examples in my Teradata User Group presentation, one from the Colonial Center and another from Nordstrom.

The Colonial Center is Columbia’s largest indoor venue, the home to a number of concerts, Gamecock Basketball and others events. Their page boasts over 11K friends, a network in tune with upcoming events and an opportunity for follow-up – for instance, photos from the recent Kenny Chesney concert.

Nordstrom also uses MySpace for their BP division, offering photos, fashion trends and ties of the retailer to various artists.

Fun Facts
MySpace is the third most popular site in the US, Facebook is the seventh (according to Alexa Internet). LinkedIn is also gaining popularity, garnering over 20 million registered users and now allowing company profiles.

There are even software applications that allow you to create your own social networking site – like Dog Community, Dog.com’s user group that was highlighted in one of our past Service In Action calls – find out more by listening to the January SIA Podcast.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for more in the series.

M2.0: YouTube

Our friends at Teradata gave me the incredible opportunity to present as part of their User Group sessions. In nine cities, across the US and Canada, I spoke about email marketing best practices and the ways businesses were applying M2.0 to their marketing mix. Many of the email-specific points shared are included in this blog, so I wanted to highlight the M2.0 techniques in a series of posts, hope you enjoy.

YouTube
One of the examples in my presentation is from Blendtec, you’ve probably seen their products in your neighborhood Starbucks or Jamba Juice – they make the blenders in the little plastic houses. A couple years ago, they launched a B2C expansion, partially through YouTube.

Their channel has garnered over 68K subscribers to date, includes 70 videos and links to 17 other friends who have submitted their own renditions of blend-able items. He even takes requests, like blending a Chuck Norris action figure following Chuck’s endorsement of one-time presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee. All in all, the iPod video is the most successful, with over 5.2 million views, but my favorite is still the glow sticks video.

Another YouTube example shared is from Dunkin Donuts – many know of my love of the pink and orange, even before I could use them for PowerPoints. They used their YouTube channel to accept customer videos in their How do you keep America Running? contest. Entrants submitted their videos for the chance to win a year’s supply of coffee. In total they list 42 winners and a special Top Ten list – all still getting air time.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for more in the series.

Email has Arrived

A good friend of mine runs marketing for a travel company, marketing to consumers via direct mail and email. A numbers person, Ann knows all the email metrics but was unsure of how many people saw the direct mail piece – only those who redeemed the coupon codes included with the direct mail.

Two months ago, she took a bold step, ceasing print pieces to a particular region and only sending email campaigns. Surprisingly, her sales went up, cost went down and she has started adjusting her marketing campaigns to rely more on email and less on print.

She’s not alone, recent events will definitely impact marketers across the country:
- On May 12, the United States Postal Service increased postage rates, coupled with the rising cost of gas; direct mail is going to continue to rise.

- Also on May 12, changes were proposed to existing CAN-SPAM legislation; placing additional importance on the recipient.

- Factor in the environmentally conscious, email is the most relevant, cost effective and can coordinate the needed immediacy we all crave.

The remainder of this week will focus on leveraging M2.0 tactics into your marketing mix – while you’re reading these posts, Reagan and I will be sharing the tactics at the Teradata Universe user groups in Australia and Thailand. Keep in mind that each of these M2.0 tactics rely heavily on email.

What the heck is M 2.0?

If you were to open a business, you need to let people know that you are in business. In the “good ole days” all you did was call the phone company and you were in the book. Some people went the extra mile and registered with the Better Business Bureau, hosted a grand opening or did a little advertising. These still apply but given the challenges and opportunities today, it’s fascinating what David can accomplish with all the Goliaths out there.

Here are a few (Web 2.0) things to consider to enhance your presence:
1. Your website – This is your imprint for the online world and an absolute to let people find you. Keep it simple and current, and try to engage people – but don't stop there.

2. Your email list – Ask people to sign up, ask them for preferences, communicate with them on a regular basis. Overstock.com, Paul Fredrick Menstyle and King Arthur Flour are three companies that do an outstanding job in getting people to sign up.

3. Your blog – Keep this current; incorporate customer feedback, product information, testimonials, email campaign information and editorials – all written with a passion to keep users engaged. The Craving Anthropologie blog is a masterpiece; Stave Puzzles and Duncraft also have great special interest blogs. An up-and-comer in this space is the blog of 1154 LILL Studio’s.

4. Your MySpace & Facebook Page – Set up an online profile about your company, feature key people within your company. If you are a financial institution – feature your reps, if you are a consumer products company – feature some of the personas that you market to, if you are a B2B company – feature the difference you are making in society, if you are selling a city – market it and so on. This is how the new generation will find you, and we better learn to be connected.

5. Twitter – Remember the Dell Dude? People enjoyed looking for him – now people track their favorites on Twitter – just remember to keep it brief.

6. Flickr a little – Why not put images up so people can find them, if people can see a delicious desert on Facebook with a note that it was put together with the finest ingredients from King Arthur Flour – odds are they will visit the site to learn a little more.

7. YouTube is cool – This weekend, we enjoyed watching two hours worth of clips with the kids – all different kinds of videos. A couple of months ago Britton’s of Columbia posted a video on how to tie a bow tie; the Masai shoe is so aptly displayed in a video from Herrington Catalog (part of their site). Of course you may have already heard the story of BlendTec. The point is that we should look for ways to engage the user through infomercials, as well as testimonial videos – linking all of it back.

8. Surveys are vital – we always want to know what our customers are thinking and how we can help them even more. Design Toscano does a great job in engaging their users for feedback. The key point is that you should always look for reasons to ask questions and try to leverage this information for future communiqués.

9. Podcasts are effective too – Why not record customer testimonials and play them on your site. Same thing for a bank – have someone provide a daily update on the rates and the market performance, trends, etc. Set these up on your site so people can come and be entertained as well as engaged.

10. Mashups are good way to integrate – think of it as a site cocktail, for instance you can combine mapping sites (Google or Yahoo!) and overlay apartment listings or traffic information. There are a couple sites that make it possible – visit Popfly or Yahoo! Pipes

So how do you use these Web 2.0 techniques? Yogis define M2.0 as new era marketing, in a recent seminar on M2.0 in Woodstock, VT, Reagan Taylor defined M2.0 as a strategy and tactics that leverage Web 2.0 technologies. The beauty of M2.0 according to Taylor is that all of this can be done on a minimum budget. Look for future seminars on M2.0 – we’re planning on in Atlanta soon.