10 Tips for Marketers

Want to know why things go viral? Why some products get more word of mouth? Let me tell you a secret. It’s not luck.
Viral has become marketing’s Holy Grail. From the Harlem Shake to the Rutgers basketball coach abusing his players, hardly a week goes by without some video or news story going viral. And word of mouth and virality have a huge impact on businesses, large and small. Blender company Blendtec’s sales shot up more than 700% a few years ago after videos of the CEO blending things like iPhones spread like wildfire. But what makes something go viral?
If you ask most social media “gurus,” they’ll tell you it’s all about getting lucky. Viral isn’t a strategy, it’s like buying a lottery ticket. Or they’ll talk about cats. Lots of people share videos of funny kitties, so cats must be the reason things go viral.
All these theories are great, except, well, they’re not really backed up by anything. No data. No analytics. Just old fashioned guesses based on looking at a couple particularly noteworthy successes. It’s like the idea that the Earth was flat. It seemed right until someone actually looked deeper and showed, well…it wasn’t.
Virality isn’t luck. It’s not magic. And it’s not random. There’s a science behind why people talk and share. A recipe. A formula, even.
My colleagues and I have analyzed thousands of news articles and hundreds of brands, all to understand why some make the most emailed list or get more word of mouth. Again and again we found the same principles at work. Six key drivers that shape what people talk about and share.Those six principles are the basis of my new book, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, and the first principle is Social Currency.
New York City is a tough place to open a bar. Competition is fierce and it’s hard to cut through the clutter. There are dozens of options around every corner.
But a few years ago Brian Shebairo launched a place that’s been packed since the day it opened. In fact, it’s one of the most sought after drink reservations in the city. Bookings are only available day-of and people frantically hit redial again and again hoping to snag a spot. Yet he’s never advertised the bar. Never spent a dollar on marketing.
How did Shebairo do it?
He hid his bar inside a hot dog restaurant.
Walk into Crif Dogs in the East Village, and you’ll find the most amazing hot dog menu you’ve ever seen. A Tsunami dog with pineapple and green onions, a Chihuahua dog with avocado and sour cream, and a Good Morning dog wrapped in bacon, smothered with cheese, and topped with a fried egg.
In one corner, off to the side, is an old-school phone booth. One of those rectangular numbers that Clark Kent used to morph into Superman. Walk inside and you’ll see a rotary dial phone on the wall. Pick up the phone, and just for fun, dial the number 1. Someone will pick-up the other line and ask you if you have a reservation. And if you do, the back of the phone booth will open and you’ll be let into a secret bar called, of all things, Please Don’t Tell.
Has Please Don’t Tell violated traditional “laws of marketing?” Sure. There is no sign on the street and no mention of it in the hot dog place. In fact, they’ve worked hard to make themselves a secret.
But there’s a funny thing about secrets. Think about the last time someone told you a secret. Told you not to tell another soul. What’s the first thing you did with that information?
You probably told someone else.
And the reason is something called Social Currency. People talk about things that make them look good. Sharp and in-the-know. Smart and funny rather than behind the times. If people go to a place like Please Don’t Tell, or even if they just hear about it, they tell others because it gives them status.
Social Currency isn’t just about hidden bars. It’s why people brag about their thousands of Twitter followers or their kids’ SAT scores. Why golfers boast about their handicaps and frequent fliers tell others when they get upgraded. McDonald’s used social currency to help the McRib sandwich take-off and RueLaLa used it to turn a struggling website into a $500M business.
Want to generate word of mouth? Get people talking about you? One way is to give them a way to look good. Make people feel special, or like insiders, and they’ll tell others—and spread word of mouth about you along the way.
Along with five other key principles (STEPPS: Social Currency, Triggers, Emotion, Public, Practical Value, and Stories), Social Currency is a sure fire way to generate buzz. Will following these six principles guarantee that 10 million people spread your message? No. But it will increase the number of people who pass it on. Encourage people to tell two friends instead of just one. It’s like a batting average in baseball. No one hits a home run every time, but by understanding the science of hitting you can boost your average.
The next time someone tells you that going viral is about luck, politely tell them that there is a better way. Science. Word of mouth isn’t random and it’s not magic. By understanding why people talk and share, we can craft contagious content. And use it to get our own products and ideas to catch on.
Photo: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

Jonah Berger is a Marketing professor at the Wharton School. Want to learn more about why things go viral? Check out his New York Times bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch On. Follow Jonah below to stay up-to-date with his articles and updates!

What is Social Media - Social Media Marketing: Start an Internet Marketing Business

Scoop.it

IS LOSING YOUR HISTORY WORTH IT?

Don’t ditch your history for a new look

I recently met with a not for profit to discuss their social media, fundraising and marketing strategy. They asked me; “what is your opinion of our new brand/look?” It was completed over a year ago but it was my first opportunity to give an opinion.

They were not prepared for my response

I advised them of the following;

1. I had to Google you to find out who you were.

They had changed their name to an acronym and although when I looked it up it did make sense, they had not invested in marketing the change so consumers and supporters would make the connection.

2. Your new brand is clean, but it doesn’t really say anything about what the organization does or who it represents.

It was a bright, clean and snappy new look, colourful and trendy but, it actually did not tell a story or paint a picture about the organisation’s past, purpose or vision.

 ___________________________________________________

"In the end, it's not the years in your life

that count. It's the life in your years".

- Abraham Lincoln
_____________________________

Don’t ditch it, bring it with you

To freshen up your corporate image is a necessary thing to do from time to time.

But be careful when hiring ad agencies to bring you a new look for your brand. Be sure that you don’t get caught up in the excitement of bright colours and modernisation. Bring your rich history that made your organisation who and what it is today with you into the now and the future.

Sacrificing your organisations history for a trendy new look could cost you dearly unless you are prepared to invest in re branding your new look. 

 Let your past flow into your present and future

It is important to bring the past with you when creating a new look for your brand. Especially in the not for profit sector.

Your history shaped your organisation, it was most likely filled with struggle, amazing individuals fought for your organisations very existence because they believed in what they were doing. They wanted to make a difference to the lives of those in your  cause and you need to bring that effort and accomplishment with you.

If your cause, the lifeblood of your service cannot be seen easily in your brand and recognised for it’s contribution to building a fair and supported society for the people you represent, then what good is a brand at all?

Before you jump into a new look

Build a bridge that allows the history that defines what your organisation stands for to ensure it comes with you into the future. Your supporters and those that your organisation cares for will come with you too.

The not for profit I am working with is experiencing the after effect of not bringing it’s wonderful history forward in it’s new brand. The impact is wide reaching. The community at large seems to have forgotten who they are in this highly competitive charitable landscape. I recall the messages of their past, they were emotive, courageous and uplifting but I was unable to link them to the now when I looked at their new brand.

Let your champions of the past shine into your future.

If you do not consider this, you may find that the struggles your organisation went through in the past to achieve the recognition and support required to deliver to the community may be relived. Don’t start again, carry forward all that you have achieved in your past to ensure that your new look or brand will prosper for your cause.

By Gail Worthington-Eyre
                                                                                                                                                 

Is Social Media The New Call Centre?

The Real Value of Social Media Customer Service

Are you ever frustrated with call centre delays, being put on hold, getting cut off, being diverted to several lines before you get to who you need to speak to resolve an issue? How do you feel about talking to the recording that rarely interprets your verbal three word prompt correctly and ends up diverting you to the wrong department for your query? Or even worse, you just can’t get through because they are experiencing above average call volume - that never seems to stop.

As the business landscape changes and technology and social media develop, will social media be the new five star standard in customer service delivery? Think that sounds outrageous, think again, it has already started.

Big business are converting more prospects into sales through social media than ever before, online sales in most categories are growing at remarkable rates. Instant response customer service is an expectation and consumers want customer service delivered in their communication landscape. People of all ages are spending more and more time on social media, globally consumers are taking the social experience mobile and predictions are that this shift will surpass all expectations over the next few years.

Brian Solis, author of The End of Business as Usual predicts, “2013 will bring about an expansion in social media beyond a marketing and engagement philosophy to that of oneness. Social media strategy will start to take a more integrated approach where social media becomes an extension of important channel strategies and business functions. It will be driven by a holistic effort where enterprise, business and functional strategies work to accomplish business objectives while meeting the needs and expectations of employees and customers”.

 This means business must prepare to have conversations with consumers on their terms.

Social media provides business with the opportunity to demonstrate the professional status of your company or organisation. It is a listening opportunity, a chance to talk with your consumer or potential consumer, and it is an opportunity to engage those who are likely to want or need what you offer. Using social media you can establish a relationship that meets the needs of both parties. You can educate and inform potential buyers and reach a much larger market than traditional marketing platforms in a more personal way.

Conversation is the starting point for that relationship with your customer, it is one of the most natural ways of building a relationship. The increased use of social media by consumers over the past few years paved the way for a logical shift  that brings a value add to the customer conversation and relationship. Social media conversation allows you the opportunity to reach more customers faster and more affordably than ever before. A conversation with one customer on your Facebook page will in all probability respond to similar questions from many customers therefore you are not conversing with one customer, you are problem solving or providing valuable information that may be the deciding factor in your company being a trusted brand to many potential and existing customers.

A recent article by sellingpower.com states; “A prospect turns into a lead when you start a real conversation with them, great conversation is two-way. The best conversation is an exchange of ideas that benefits both parties. A great sales leader, Gerhard Gschwandtner put it this way: “Ditch the pitch. Co-create with the customer. Make them part of your value chain.”

Brand loyalty is built on trust, trust is established through conversation, and online conversations utilising social media channels such as Facebook creates an immediate opportunity for customer engagement. Responding to consumers in a timely manner on social media demonstrates that you are open and an accessible.

Remi Carlioz, senior head of digital at PUMA, is blunt and to the point in his article on Digiday, “It is undoubtedly necessary to find and engage with people where they digitally reside, rather than relentlessly, always trying to usher them back to a brand’s owned platform. Brands are too self-centered and must boldly act on the desire that the consumer possesses; the desire to transparently experience and interact with a brand online.”

By Gail Worthington-Eyre

 

Improve your customer service not your marketing

It wasn’t that long ago, before the advent of social media that if you had an issue that needed to be rectified with a store or business you either phoned their customer help department or wrote them a letter.

 

 

Whether this was to complain or thank them for their service, both of these channels were viable contact points, but the response time could be many weeks until you received acknowledgment of the issue that you initially raised. However, In today’s social driven world, businesses have lost the control over the customer as it only takes one disgruntled customer on Twitter or Facebook to damage your brand image.

The whole point of social media is to encourage interaction and communication. We all know that if used effectively, it can be a great promotional tool to increase brand awareness and showcase your business, but users have become used to getting answers and feedback within hours of posting.

The truth about your customer care department

Customers don’t have the time to search the web for your customer help address and they don’t have the time to phone your call centre and wait in a queue to be served. They simply don’t see your support phone number or email. They just see your business on social media so they will complain on your Facebook wall or @ you in a Tweet for all to see.
 

Make customer service work for you

• Your social media customer care team should be listening what is being said about your brand online. It may be the case that you are automating your posts and broadcasting, but you should never neglect your profiles because there is a risk that negative remarks could be made and be shared within hours. There are many online monitoring tools and simple notifications that can be set up through email so you can keep track of activity.

• Your social media team should have plan of how to deal with problems.  They may be creating your marketing content, but also need to know how to handle a crisis.

• When an issue has to be dealt with a decision has to be made, whether it should be handled privately (via traditional channels) or, whether to consider going public where you can demonstrate that you listen & care about your customers and can create a positive outcome for your brand. As to whether you ‘delete or not delete’ the comment, It is considered poor form to bury bad press as this can lead to complaints going onto other social platforms and making the problem worse. Proving you can handle these situations and adding value for the customer is even more important than just creating informative and engaging marketing content.

• Review your business and see what the common issues are. Measure your customer satisfaction ratings and if there is a problem. Fix it!

A report by NM Incite in 2012 found that: 71% of those who experienced positive social care are likely to recommend that brand to others, compared to just 19% of customers that do not receive any response.

Social media isn’t just about marketing

As social media continues to grow, it is really important for businesses to accept the fact that consumers will turn to online channels to either complain about service issues and in many cases praise you. It’s very easy for your customers to go elsewhere if you fail here, so unless you get this point of your customer journey right whatever you achieve with your social media marketing can be damaged by your lack of care.

If you aren’t listening and responding to your customers then how do you expect continued loyalty for your business?

By Talkabout Group

 

Employer Brand and Consumer Brand. Why should there be a difference?

As usual Firebrand produce some interesting and informative articles. I really liked this one and wanted to share it with you. 

Gail Worthington-Eyre

Have you ever had a customer track you down via Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to resolve a problem for them? What about a friend asking you for advice about a product that’s made by the brand you work for? If that’s happened to you, like it or not, that makes you a brand ambassador.

Social media has rewritten the rules for engaging with customers. No longer can you be a faceless organisation that only relies on a small PR team to “spin” news, a marketing team to craft promotional messages, a customer service hotline to answer customer complaints or the field sales force to deal with everything else. Almost all of your employees can be tracked down and identified either via LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and Forums. So what does this mean for your customer engagement plans?

 So what’s a “brand”

There are two options:

1. Hope customers won't ask questions via Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and that your current customer service/marketing/PR/sales force will cope with the diverse demands placed on them. Clearly this is not realistic or smart.

2. Embrace social media, train up all employees and build a strong network of brand ambassadors.

What is a brand ambassador”? A brand ambassador is a passionate advocate of your products and company. They are someone, in any part of the organisation (from frontline staff to the CEO) who is proud to work there and to recommend your products to customers. There’s one other requirement that’s important: they must not be afraid of using social media to engage customers.

Here’s the 7-step guide on how you build a robust social media-enabled brand ambassador  program:

It all starts with a social media customer engagement policy. Here are 3 great examples from Intel, Coca-Cola, and Dell. Define who you want to approach as the first generation of brand ambassadors. Is it the marketing team? Customer service team? Sales force? Or perhaps employees from any part of  the organisation that are social media savvy? Ask for volunteers first, and then draft the right people as needed. Add customer/social engagement KPIs into each brand ambassador’s performance and importantly, make sure this is also a KPI of the executive team. If the CEO has these KPIs in his/her plan, then it will be clear organisational priority.

Training. This is important. The training program should cover the basics like media training (how to respond to external enquiries, what to say, what not to say, etc.), your company’s code of conduct, your policy on confidentiality and sharing information, as well as understanding social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Forums, etc.). More advanced modules should focus on tone of voice, how to correctly identify yourself as a company employee, the blurred line between personal and professional social media, and so on.

Provide tiers of engagement. Not all brand ambassadors are equal. Consider providing more intense training for employees who are already customer-facing, or who have high profile roles (the CEO, Marketing Director, Sales Director, head of product design, etc.). Ensure you have strong links back to the rest of the organisation, such as HR (for job enquiries), Customer Care (for customer service issues) or Sales. For example, studies have shown that 47% of people want customer service through social media, so it’s important your brand ambassadors know how to respond to service-related issues. Once you’ve got it right with the brand ambassadors, consider rolling it out for all employees. Dell is doing it and already has over 10,000 employees trained. Not only does this reduce the risk of things going wrong with employees using social media, it’s also 10,000 brand ambassadors who are actively engaging customers! Finally, consider getting help. This isn’t easy otherwise all companies would be doing it. There are specialists in every city who understand this space and who you can outsource this whole process to.

 

Author Johan du Toit
Read all of Johan's Posts

 

The Power of Branding on the internet

The importance of talking to grow and strengthen brand has always been acknowledged as the most powerful component of any successful branding campaign. Over the past few years the internet and ipad, smartphones and the apps developed to extend their value have catapulted the power of branding into the hands of anyone with a digital connection. Just look at the internet Marketing businesses popping up in the hundreds and thousands daily around the world. 

Word of mouth has now emerged to be even more powerful given a single persons word has the power to reach the farthest corners of the globe in a matter of just seconds. Big brands have cleverly used this to their advantage to get a head start on the vast majority of businesses around the globe. 

It is time for all businesses product or service based to be looking seriously at how they are going to ride the wave:

Extracts from - Allen Adamson book, 50 tips from Brands that lead 

• Word of mouth will happen with or without you. Use it to learn what you’re doing right. Use it to learn how you can improve the brand experience.

• Short jokes are easier to tell than long ones. Consumers can only tell your brand story the way you want it told if you’ve sharply defined it for them.

• Always remember that when something impacts a consumer’s life on a personal level they’re more likely to share it.

• For people to want to pass along a brand experience it must be extraordinary. Make sure you give them something to talk about.

• Make it easy for consumers to share your brand story with others. Give them a platform or forum to pass along their input.

• Consumers like to be recognized and thanked for their loyalty. Acknowledge consumers who have something nice to say about your brand. Reward their support.

• Consumers vote with their wallets. Treat your brand’s advocates like the shareholders they are.

By Gail Worthington-Eyre

Best Practices for a Solid Social Media Strategy

Social media has grown from a curiosity to an integral piece of corporate strategy in the space of only a few years. Nearly overnight, business owners have brought on whole teams of specialists to craft effective social media strategies and manage multiplying numbers of social media accounts. The truth is that you can build an efficient and valuable social media strategy by following a few Best Practices.

 

 Successful businesses start by identifying the social networks they need to be active on and the tactics they need to use on each network. A good strategy will discuss the type of content to be posted — including a discussion of “Voice” and “Tone.” Following the social activities of others is useful to come up with your own “style.” When you find a brand whose approach you like, spend some time studying what they do with their followers. Watch for several weeks and get a sense of the cadence of their social activities. Immersion will give you confidence for the next step — Implementation.

Here are some Best Practices as you put your plan into action:

PURPOSE

Nobody has time to waste. Take a look at your strategy and review the reasons your business is implementing a social media marketing plan. What do you want out of social activities? Are you trying to drive people to your website, your blog, or your Facebook page? Focusing on your ultimate goal will guide your next steps: what you do (what channels you will use), when you do it (what schedule you will aim for), and what content you’ll share (blogs, ebooks, testimonials, webinars, tip sheets, etc.). This kind of analysis can head off social missteps (remember the United Airlines baggage handlers’ debacle?) and help you focus on what’s important and productive.

SCHEDULING
Social media is global now; it doesn’t sleep. Your social media management tool needs to allow you to easily schedule messages, unless you have employees who cover all the time zones in shifts! Even while you sleep in, say, Duluth, you will want to schedule messages to go out to your customers in Tokyo during their workday.

If you want to take scheduling to the next level, look for a tool like HootSuite that integrates with a Contact Relationship Manager like Nimble and offers the ability to schedule large batches of messages at once. This will be an incredibly useful timesaver when it comes to managing campaigns or contests that require heavy messaging around a certain period of time.

GEO
When it comes to interacting with your customers, those in different locations may have different needs, speak different languages, or follow different trends. You’re going to want to optimize your searches and filter them by language to help you curate relevant content for different demographics.

KEYWORDS
Through social media, businesses can keep their finger on the pulse of their industry. Setting up keyword search streams provides insight into what your customers think is trendy. This can be great intelligence to help you develop a marketing strategy that focuses on your customer’s lifestyles and personal preferences. There are lots of apps that will help with this; you can set up Google alerts for free and chose how often you want to be notified.
Keywords are useful for keeping track of competitors’ activities but they’re also useful for tracking brands that are complementary to yours. If your product or service is often purchased in conjunction with another product or service, keep an eye on the complementary product’s social media activity. Be ready to take advantage of promotions or recent sales — because these are potential leads ready to be converted.

COLLABORATION
It takes two, as they say, to tango, especially when it comes to being social. An effective social media campaign will benefit from collaboration. Set clear expectations and solicit employee buy-in. Can your employees help you with the management of your social presence? Are they enthusiastic about participating? Do you have a social media management tool that enables you to seamlessly collaborate with your team to ensure you execute an integrated social media management strategy? The answers to these questions can mean a greatly amplified social voice for your brand.

REPORTING
Gone are the days of social media purely being about “building buzz.” It is now a line item in budgets as business owners invest resources to turn social relationships into business opportunities. With a line item comes the need to demonstrate return on investment.
Set up a system for analyzing important metrics (such as click-through rates on shortened links, clicks by region, and top referrers). It’s also important to have access to Facebook Insights and Google Analytics. You’ll want to track your Twitter @mentions and watch trends as people follow you on Twitter. Are you on Google+ or LinkedIn? What metrics will tell you if you are succeeding? You might have to pull your statistics from several places, but the data is valuable and worth a bit of trouble.
Access in-depth granular metrics on the efficacy of your social media programs. This is important because you will understand which messages result in the highest number of conversions, which platform is providing the greatest return — even what time of day is most effective to drive traffic.

WHAT IT TAKES TO SUCCEED
Social media is here to stay, but it’s still in its formative stages, and a lot of brands are still just skimming the surface of its business potential. To maintain a competitive advantage, businesses need to stay alert and aware. Develop a strategy you are comfortable implementing, even if you start small.. Then stay focused. Don’t waste your time telling your followers where you’re eating lunch. Have a purpose, prioritize your tasks, and keep good metrics to track results. When you do these things, your social media efforts will result in increased revenue to your business.

Authored by:

Brad Friedman

 

Social Media = Customer Service

Social Media = Customer Service

Late in 2012 over 100 social media statistics were released. As this exciting platform grows in use across all industries and as an add on to previous discussions on how the aged care Industry can leverage social media to connect with the consumer and grow brand loyalty I have extracted just a few of the over 100 statistics that were revealed. It is clear that social media = customer service and the challenge moving forward is to take the relevant data that exists and develop a strategy for how that fits within the industry.

Below are just 7 of the top 15 positive and negative statistics that were revealed along with a few extra interesting stats.

Social media accounts for only 16% of customer engagement today, but is expected to increase to 57%—the second-most used channel, behind only face to face interaction—within five years. (Marketing Pilgrim)

I hope you like the info and would be interested in your thoughts.

Seven Positive Social Media Statistics for 2012

1. 91% of online adults use social media regularly
2. 9/10 mobile searches lead to action (over half lead to purchase)
3. 54% of active social networkers follow a brand
4. 61% of global internet users research products online
5. Companies that blog have 55% more website visitors
6. 77% of B2C companies have acquired customers from Facebook
7. 83% of people who complained on Twitter loved the response from those
companies that did make the effort

Seven Negative Social Media Statistics For 2012

1. 25% of small to medium sized businesses have no strategy and only 28% measure their ROI
of social media activity
2. 83% of socially savvy consumers have walked away from a purchase in the past year after a
negative customer service experience
3. 56% of customer tweets to companies are being ignored
4. On average companies only respond to 30% of social media fans’ feedback
5. 70% of brands ignore complaints on Twitter
6. 55% of companies ignore all customer feedback on Twitter and Facebook, largely because
they have no process in place to respond
7. Only 44% of customers are answered within the first 24 hours

60% of people who use three or more digital means of research for product purchases learned about a specific brand or retailer from a social networking site. 48% of these consumers responded to a retailer’s offer posted on Facebook or Twitter. (MediaPost)

Social media and blogs reach 80% of all U.S. Internet users. 91% of experienced social marketers see improved website traffic due to social media and 79% are generating more quality leads. (Business2Community)

Is this information useful to your organisation?

Thank You