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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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Archives for September 2010

Planning to SMB Facebook

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So great we can open source this discussion right here to determine what a small-to-medium business forum, community, partnership, etc. looks like. Yesterday, I invited several tweeps to join in the creation of this endeavor, and nearly all accepted.

To recap, Neicole Crepeau and I determined the need for a forum, place, community location to address issues of concern pertaining to SMBs. That’s us. I invited (and they graciously accepted) Michelle Quillin, Jon Buscall, Michelle Hellyar, and Jenn Whinnem.

Another questioned the choice of platforms and said “Fail” to Facebook although he agreed it was “easy to set up.” Am hoping Gregg Morris weighs in here to share  his expertise for the back end. I believe, Davina Brewer at 3Hats will come forth, too, right?

What never fails to frustrate me is the back-end tech requirements of all things social media. Folks not in the know believe it’s “so easy” to set up a blog and take off to the moon. Or, launch a Facebook page with nary a glance at its design or interactivity; or, set up a SMB forum only on Facebook because the knowledge about other platforms is non-existent (sigh).

As a public relations strategist, I am an idea person through and through. It’s these tech details that kill me (and mark my words right here, that I will master this dark tunnel), and that’s why having varying levels of expertise on board for this is fabulous. Without further ado, let’s collaborate on what this puppy looks like. Please weigh in and please also forgive my lack of plug in for “email comments to me.” (The house is not in order!)

Strategic Plan for “The SMB Forum” or WHATEVER!

Objective

  • Create community for SMBs frustrated with new and befuddling rules of engagement for businesses
  • Provide forum for collective opinion and determine ability for call to action oriented to issues
  • Invite SMBs from all verticals to share among peer groups, collaborate freely while supporting and learning one anothers’ plights

Strategy

  • Communicate issues of import to SMBs based on breaking news, state laws, and other items pertaining to general business administration.
  • Inform and educate all SMBs about news that affects us regardless of size or industry sector.
  • Collaborate with independents, solos and other really small businesses and create a familial community where all questions are respected and all comments delivered in like manner and in good humor.

Audience

  • All SMBs who engage online
  • Bloggers seeking partners with whom to collaborate
  • Business owners seeking suppliers

Tactics

  • Assess rules of engagement for group leaders; determine topical interests and purpose for joining
  • Name the group!
  • Launch the group on a platform that is Facebook, ning, LinkedIn or elsewhere? What is preferred/why? (LinkedIn may be a great place to do this…?)
  • Develop some basic rules of engagement: i.e. comments on issues, welcomes to new group members, news articles that pertain to SMBs (many each day re laws and Congress) etc.

OK…your thoughts, please? Thank you!

Should We SMB Facebook?

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Twitter offers lovely surprises when you least expect it. I had no idea I’d banter intelligently with Neicole Crepeau (@neicolec) and invite her to a phone chat which resulted in both of us describing ourselves as SMBs frustrated with the health care reform situation. Nicole runs Coherent Interactive  and blogs on social media here.

My initial thrust in reaching out to Neicole was oriented to “what can we do as bloggers” to fight back?

Neicole, idea person that she is, suggested a Facebook page. That put the wheels in high gear. I’ve been avoiding starting a Facebook page for Soulati Media, Inc. because the Web site is still not where it needs to be (my designer is in la la land and not responding), and my blog pages need to be built with informed content. Why open yet another channel when my house is not in order?

Rather than Facebook about me and be so repetitive and boring, Neicole and I briefly addressed a Facebook fan page for small business owners struggling with high emotion about taxes, insurance, finance, and all other issues that form the backbone of our businesses.

Several years ago, I registered a domain name that would address the administrative inside of a business; the site would be a plethora of resources for all SMBs to tap and enable a smooth sail for these issues that plague us. My dream is still a dream, but this Facebook page is more a reality and easier implemented, too.

Here’s the invite…

We’re seeking SMBs (that’s small-to-medium businesses) to join us on this venture. Our aim is to create a forum for us in business to voice our concerns, share tales, and lend support to our peer groups. The role of those who engage would be to add links, content, comments and encouragement to anyone stopping by.

There’s no monetary gain here unless you get a lead from a prospect eager to engage in our conversation. The commitment is one of intellectual stimulation, some time, and the ability to freely say “I’m ticked off that SMBs continue to be gouged for more taxes, higher premiums, and more accounting demands…etc.”

As Neicole and I run successful ventures that keep us hopping (see above), we’re eager to find like-minded folks to launch this yet-to-be-named forum.

If you deem this cause and our mission agreeable, please join in. Just a note below is all we need to engage. If you think the Small Business Forum worthy and you’d participate, please also give me a nod here.

From the pod of a seed, big ideas come and a community is generated.

Media Relations ala Reputation Management

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One of the first pieces of counsel I give to companies embarking on media relations, messaging or message mapping is to know your competitors. By conducting a regular competitive analysis you garner full understanding of the space in which your company plays. While before competitive analysis was a challenging exercise, the onset of social media and social networking has made this research easy and fun.

To know your competition, who’s the spokesperson, what they’re saying, and about what product/service they’re preaching is imperative. This knowledge helps create a defensible or offensive position to tell your story via traditional media relations as well as social media engagement.

The August 2010 story “Rethinking Reputation Management” in Website Magazine says similarly:

“It’s time to rethink reputation management solutions. Ask yourself: How closely am I looking at my competition’s reputation? Identify companies you actively compete against as the first step. Commercial reputation management and monitoring solutions provide the deepest insight.”

The article goes on to say that tracking search terms produce the best information i.e. key words associated with your vertical. Once search terms yield a treasure of info, save them for constant monitoring via online reputation management tools.

What I mean by developing a competitive position relates directly to how informed you are about your entire industry sector. If there is a company with which you continually vie for market share, then learn everything you can about how they play and conduct business.

This knowledge translates directly to your boardroom chats about how to position your company to your peer group, customers, media, and other influencers. With the wealth of information now available online, you can build industry monitoring directly into tasks accomplished three times weekly.

I recommend some basic starting points to drive business intelligence (please add more to enrich these suggestions):

  • Monitor Twitter for trending topics, company spokespeople, and what the Twitterverse is saying.
  • Register yourself with Twellow and Listorious (with your own Twitter account) and regularly track others in your market there. Be sure to follow “people to watch” and get on lists to track the buzz.
  • Set up Trackur or Radian6, a few online reputation monitoring tools, along with Google or Yahoo! alerts, too.
  • Definitely monitor Facebook and YouTube for posted content as well as commentary associated to respective posts/videos within each social media channel.
  • Blogs tracked via Technorati and RSS are a must to monitor. It’s easy enough to subscribe to a competitor’s blog to see what’s going on and how aggressive their messaging truly is (relating to your market).

Rather than get inundated with data you don’t know what do with, monitor other companies for about six weeks to garner a firm understanding of competitors’ messages. This time period is enough to showcase a decent perspective of the alleged market leader. It also provides the backbone you need to begin to develop your own offensive position.

With the aforementioned, your messaging framework is rooted in competitive intelligence, and it strengthens delivery of your company’s external information to the influencers you’re trying to reach.  Your goal is not only to engage social media and create community, but to do it with aplomb! Hard-hitting, influential message delivery by designated spokespeople to traditional media and social media is how you get ahead of the curve and catch up to those already playing in your space.

  • Incorporate learnings from your peer group into your own messages. Package messages that resonate with a sprinkling of key words to satisfy search marketing, and be confident in your own storytelling abilities.
  • After you have a comfortable working message framework, package it into a message map. (Ask me if you’re unfamiliar with this necessary tool.)
  • Develop content that tells your story, issue many online press releases to build link love, drive traffic to your social media and networking outlets and continually garner attention from consumers at large.
  • Conduct traditional media relations with trade media in your market sector, and when a story appears be sure you feature that in all the respective places you publish content.
  • Give it three-to-six months to earn traction, depending on your aggressiveness.
  • Monitor your own company and the key words associated with your business. By doing so, you remain in an offensive position and can more expediently thwart attempts by the competition to gain the leading edge.

What have I missed? Please add your thoughts to the importance of competitive analysis for pretty much everything in which we engage, right?

Freedom of Expression?

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Symbol for Freedom of Expression, Democracy, UNESCO

Freedom of expression has become fear of reprisal for your opinion.

It’s difficult to truly express yourself anymore without feeling intimidated about the inevitable reaction. A Twitter pal expressed  her opinion about a politician; I DM’ed her and offered kudos remarking that public support of our elected officials was dicey and she was brave to display her sentiment on Twitter. (Note my lack of courage to share my thought to the entire stream.)

There are new comment policies being implemented more and more on blogs (I wouldn’t know about that yet!). Bloggers are asking for respect from subscribers/readers for all opinions without show of hatred, vicious attacks or downright rudeness. Apparently, we’ve come to a crossroads in respect where folks hiding behind the written word are compelled to strongly attack instead of invite constructive debate.

There are always two sides to every equation, story, experience, situation, and  circumstance:

  • The creditors and debtors
  • Pro-lifers and pro-choice folks
  • Republicans and Democrats with a few more mixed in
  • Smokers and non-smokers
  • Pro mosque or burning of the Islamic holy book

With international borders invisible on social media and networking, are there issues around global expression becoming more heated? Where are the lines of demarcation for decorum and who monitors those? Are there groups using this ungoverned platform as a means to build grassroots campaigns and take them viral?

I’d suggest yes; however, I’m not privy to an actual movement (perhaps the Tea Party is the best example today). Political parties are doing awfully well on the Ethernet. The gun slinging and hatred across the aisle feel more heightened than ever before. We’re walking a divisive line here that I believe will never blend.

On what side of the fence do you sit? Each of us has opinions to share; whether we share them publicly, privately or in a forum in which others agree.  Bloggers with high levels of subscribers/readers have the opportunity to express their opinions.  In any coursework for new bloggers, we’re told to “be controversial.”

That depends solely on a blogger’s comfort level with the first statement I made in this post.What about you? Do you have an opinion or two to share?

Image credit: Helmut Langer

Anatomy of 20 Minutes on Twitter

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There are a couple of things I’d like to share about this post. For starters, it’s too good not to use as an example of inspiration from Twitter. In 20 minutes, I posed a question, and Neicole Crepeau (with whom I had never tweeted) chimed in. In the flick of a wrist, we had:

  • Debated the definition of “guru” in social media
  • Shared data on latecomers to the party
  • Established our respective credibility
  • Agreed on our consensus
  • Became inspired by the chat to ask others to join us
  • RT’ed a bunch of times to show appreciation and respect
  • Retained the tweet stream to repurpose into a blog post WITH permission from both parties.

The true purpose of this stream is to debate the definition of “guru.” That’s not happening today, but it will happen tomorrow in part two of this post.  Ever the educator, I feel the need to share this powerful chat to showcase Twitter’s hidden gifts. And, if you don’t get this type of engagement on Twitter every so often, you’re not engaged! Simple.

Twitter Chat with Jayme Soulati and Neicole Crepeau:

@Soulati How would you define a #SM guru? Someone just said “it’s too early to define a true guru.”

@neicolec Good question! RT @Soulati: How would you define a #SM guru? Someone just said “it’s too early to define a true guru.”

@neicolec: Guru implies a long time doing something. It implies, to me, that you have developed solid, repeatable processes.

@Soualti: RT @neicolec Guru implies a long time doing something. It implies, to me, that you have developed solid, repeatable processes.

@neicolec: Social networks have only become mainstream (in terms of volume and user demographics) in the last couple of years. #SM

@Soulati: I’ve been presenting 5 times this year on #SM; fascinating to see YouTube born 2005. Not a long time!

@Neicolec: To date, most social media marketing has been experimental. Tried and true best practices (beyond basic use) aren’t there. #SM

@Soulati: I find #PR measurement easier with #SM. Best practices come with dedicated companies open to change, flexibiilty.

@Neicolec: While there have been successes in social media and there are big names, I don’t think that equals a guru. #SM

@Neicolec: A guru should be able to teach others those best practices so they can repeat them. Not seeing that much, yet. #SM

@Soulati: There are always leaders. In the case of #SM, perhaps good to delineate “leader” “mentor” “guru.” Good convo; let’s do blog post.

@Soulati: Hope you’re following Neicole and me right now. She’s got some good insight on how we define guru in #SM. We’re not there yet.

@Neicolec: I agree with you re: best practices. A post the other day said social media is now moving from revolution to evolution stage. #SM

@Soulati: Did you catch that nuance — to “evolution?” Hoping it becomes part of the channel, and slow adopters get on board.

@Neicolec: I agree with that. Best practices will be built during this stage. I also agree that there are leaders in social. Not gurus.

@Soulati: OK, you’re on. This is definitely a blog post; I will capture our discussion from this afternoon. OK to include your tweets?

@Neicolec: If you do a blog post, please DM me with the link. I’d love to see your thoughts on the topic.

@Neicolec: Did you see the latest stats on marketing spend. https://ow.ly/2wPFm I think those late adopters are coming on board.

@Neicolec: Absolutely! Enjoyed the tweet talk. A great example of the joys of social media!

@Soulati: Fully agree; thanks Neicole!