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Archives for January 2011

Hey, PR Master Web 5.0 or Die

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It’s the year of public relations, or so I’ve heard. In my more-than-quarter-century in this profession, every year is the year of public relations, IMHO (in my humble opinion). I’ve relished this industry because it suits my thirst for the next new trove of knowledge to quench my intense curiosity to know more about everything.

Which leads me to Web 5.0 (isn’t that the version we’ve gravitated to without anyone really stating it?)…there is so much (too much) to learn, grasp, master. Anyone trying is going to fail miserably unless they’re being awarded a grant to master every app in the cloud, how each smart phone works, what new technology helps computers run more efficiently, etc.

I had a grand chat Friday with Michelle Quillin at New England Multimedia. It’s been my goal to connect via voice with my tweeps so I can close the gap of written word and still images on Twitter and Facebook. She shared with me the successes she and her business partner husband, Scott, have had adding social media to their growing web design, WordPress, and video business.

We spoke about where I need to move next; she said monetize and head directly to vlogging, and I said, “GASP!!” [Two of my public relations peers do this very well — Jontus Media, Inc. and Arment Dietrich.]

Any public relations person who’s any public relations person must continually re-invent. That puts us squarely behind the eight ball to walk the talk. Doesn’t matter if you don’t want to, can’t find the time, have no time, or the kids’ evening events are getting in the way – those of us interested in mastering a teeny piece of the pie must engage.

Why?

Because our clients and companies need us to know how to do this; they’re turning to the leaders to put the trough of water right in front of a nose, conveniently, and without the learning curve. That’s why our learning curve is both painful and exciting. Look at it this way, the world would be pretty darn flat if everyone worked the same way without twists and turns.

I’m groaning up the hill with the rest, but my outlook for 2011 sees the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m hoping there will be a “just say no” time when I can turn the other cheek to the latest gadgetry and widget. But, when my house is not in order and when there are way too many cool new things to glean, then I’m in – with 20 toes and 30 fingers.

How about you?

To Facebook or Not to Facebook?

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I’ve been having an argument with myself whether to launch a business Facebook page. I held out all of 2010, and slowly my blog post links began to get shared on Facebook personal along with business answers. Not sure my old pals from grade school really care what I’m writing about; they just want to see updated pictures.

Today’s Advertising Age, newly arrived via post, sealed the deal for me, and here’s why:

Ad Age did a preview of the year ahead in digital marketing; in the “Social Media” section it was all about Facebook. The editors wrote:

  • Digital lives are more complex with “the myriad tools, apps, platforms competing for time, attention, and dollars, but 2011 is the year it gets simpler. Only one really matters – Facebook.”
  • The review said Facebook “is truly global and now has in place the tools to be a partner the way brands had long hoped it could be.
  • It has nearly 600 million members and is still growing rapidly; it’s the largest photo site and largest mobile property.
  • The company has all its ducks in a row: management, a sales team and automated buying platform (plus a deal with Goldman Sachs).”

Others have been encouraging me to take the plunge – heck, what’s another platform to maintain along with two blogs and an active Twitter presence? Stay tuned for Facebook — Soulati Media style.

Meanwhile, did you tap a favorite resource to launch your Facebook page?

Toyota’s Creative Mobile Marketing Prius Campaign

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Toyota Mobile Marketing

“Prius is expecting; the Toyota family is growing,” states the full-page ad in the Jan. 10, 2011 Wall Street Journal in time for the annual Detroit Auto Show.

The clever ad asks people to snap an image of the circular icon (to see the sonogram) with instructions inside that say “Snap me” with a mobile phone image and a numerical text address. This is a Snap Tag mobile marketing program by SpyderLynk.

So, just for kicks, I did what I was told – snapped a photo with my new Blackberry Torch (my first image); texted to these numbers (my first time texting that way), and within seconds I had a response from Toyota “Meet the new additions at https://prius-sonogram.com.”

  • I am marveling at the creativity of Toyota’s interactive digital shop for this campaign.
  • I’m marveling at the opportunities for integrated marketing and public relations to launch this campaign both traditionally and via online engagement marketing (my preferred vernacular for social media).
  • I’m marveling about everything I don’t know and how much there is to learn.

Apparently, I’m in good company.

“Kids Lend a Digital Hand” in the same edition of the Wall Street Journal is about advertising agencies coming up dry with new interactive talent they can acquire in the market. They’re turning to kids – preteens and students to “get up to Internet speed!” Wow…I don’t feel like a numbskull any more.

The story states, “Ad and marketing agencies are under enormous pressure to reinvent themselves as technology multiplies the ways to market to consumers, from placing ads on Twitter to creating a branded application that people can find on Apple’s app store.”

Continuing with a tired and true statement, companies that went under the gauntlet to shave expenses eliminated training programs. The big agencies, ala JWT North America from the story, are now racing to fill the intellectual pipeline for its ranks. Everyone needs to get up to speed three months ago on how to do online engagement marketing, mobile applications, location-based marketing services, and so much more (forget about Twitter and Facebook; they’re old hat!).

Here are my takeaways from this post:

  • No one knows it all; everyone can learn every day what’s new and next.
  • Innovation and creativity drive business development.
  • Never assume those you work with know how to execute.
  • The pace is fast and furious; even the online courses and traditional college degree curricula cannot educate people as fast as the market continues to explode.
  • Integrated marketing is the future. It’s going to take a highly integrated team to impress the big corporations – that means public relations must continue to re-invent and ignore the age-old discussions about who owns social media and how traditional media no longer brings the opportunities it once did.

It’s been a new day for about five years; carpe diem!

Redefining Twitter Influence For Business ROI

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Credit: Facebook.com

There’s been a lot of discussion on every blog that’s any blog about influence. The latest national story by Advertising Age on The Influencers and a complementary story, “Your Followers are No Measure of Your Influence” about whether Twitter drives influence or not, have prompted lots of banter online.

The Twitter story is more about why your number of followers, how many lists you’re on and how many times your tweets are RT’ed have nothing to do with influence and more to do with popularity.

One thing is for sure; Advertising Age caters to the multi-gazillion dollar corporations that produce the iconic brands we consume. What of the mid-sized market of companies with equally successful specialty products catering to all of us, as well? When they read a story like this, are they running the 100-yard dash away from Twitter to the safety of Facebook? YouTube? Yelp?

I’m here to tell you, business owners, do not pass go; go directly to Twitter and engage. There are common threads in every marketing department, but each company brings a unique culture with its model. When you re-define “influence” to suit your business’s acceptable ROI, Twitter can help reap the benefits.

  • Define “influence.” The Ad Age story seeks that influencer who can tweet 140 and cause multitudes to make a purchase. This Holy Grail ought to be re-defined for mid-sized businesses  to encompass brand awareness, search marketing, location-based marketing services, prospecting for new customers, and executing creative marketing never before attempted.
  • It’s an art form. Twitter is more than “social” media. Rarely anyone understands how you can communicate in 140 characters until you do. It’s an art form, and it doesn’t include texting abbreviations either. The “social media” vernacular should be adjusted to get people away from the frivolity of the experience. I suggest  “online engagement marketing;” this lends a more professional and strategic bent to the experience.
  • You have control. Behind the Twitter numbers (as listed in paragraph one) is an entire discussion around influence. You can control your followers and you can specialize your stream by industry and topic. Only after you engage long term will you be astute enough to mold your stream into a long list of sales prospects. Mind you, sales will happen AFTER you create community.
  • Link Love and Traffic. Google now indexes tweets. You can build a Google alert for the name of your company or product, and when referenced on Twitter via link love, you’ll begin to see how to define your measurement and success.  Twitter is the easiest way to direct traffic via links to promote corporate blogs, promotions, location-based marketing programs and products. Twitter directs link love to blogs, Facebook, Yelp, Groupon, Quora, and it helps with Klout and Twinfluence scores.
  • Pushing sales. While marketers in mega corporations are being required to prove ROI from online engagement marketing, a mid-sized or smaller business can be more flexible in showing a return and eventually sales. Twitter is an untapped sales channel for smaller businesses and when it bears fruit, it’s worthy of repetition and longer-term investment.
  • Not a one off. Everyone says this over and over again – social media is part of the marketing mix. Twitter or Facebook are not one offs; you cannot execute either one as a stand-alone strategy without incorporating these tactics into an integrated marketing program.

If you are a mid-sized or small business and have already been executing online engagement marketing as part of your integrated marketing program with no success, here are several thoughts to consider:

  • Take a look at how you’re measuring success; is it simply oriented to sales, or are there other positive metrics contributing to filling the sales pipeline?
  • Who’s on your team?  Is one marketer trying to function as marketing, public relations, social media, and advertising? Change that in a hurry!
  • Consider an outside consultant who wears the hat of strategist and tactician along with a keen business orientation. Such a consultant ought to be able to blend public relations directly into the greater marketing mix seamlessly. (Give me a shout, and we can further discuss these options.)

Meanwhile…do not pass go, business owner! Go directly to Twitter.

Follow Friday Facebook Pages

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OK, don’t shoot me for mixing up a Twitter tradition with Facebook. We on Twitter typically use the #FollowFriday to send a shout out to specials in our stream. To be honest, my head is loaded with too much to hone in on a blog topic for today, so I took a cruise through Facebook (where I’ve had messages since December) to troll some small-business Facebook pages.

These are the ones I recommend for a “Follow Friday:”

  • New England Multimedia — Michelle Quillin begins each day with a question d’jour, and it varies topically and is always interesting. I believe she’s killing several birds by engaging her members, earning likes, and finding blog fodder for her equally interesting blog. I commend Michelle for how she strives to keep members interested with issues oriented to health insurance, employment issues, social media, video production, and so much more for small businesses and clients.
  • Terracom PR is a Facebook page by my colleague Christine Esposito.  She engages on all things green. As a public relations practitioner I’ve known since my Publicity Club of Chicago days, Christine impresses me with her expertise in sustainable marketing. Her posts are nothing but high-end expertise on a range of environmental, ecosystem, and other green topics, and she highlights them with informed statistics to back up her musings.
  • The Eye Site is a Singapore (what else?) spectacle retailer. This page does a great job of mixing it up so the posts are not too salesy yet  engaging with customers. It’s worth joining to see how Desiree Koh seems to mesh food with eye glass retailing, and it works! The pages are deep with videos and 29 (!) photo albums available, too.
  • The Meatloaf Bakery in Chicago  produces authentic, creative meatloaf meals as a cupcake. This FB page shows this small business has the right frontline team doing its national media relations, social media, and location-based marketing. The posts are a healthy mix of what’s on the weekly menu; hits in national, regional and local media; as well as Groupon promotions. I’m impressed with how this page has come alive; now I need to get there and sample the goodies for real! Congrats, Cynthia!
  • GJEL Accident Attorneys is a page for which I influence content every now and again (it is my client in the name of full disclosure). Why I deemed it an important addition to this list is due to its resourceful and educational content. This small law firm in northern California orients its Facebook content to safety issues pertaining to all ages of motorist (see the section devoted to parents), teen drivers, vehicle safety and a breadth of other information including links to the firm’s blog posts. As law firm sites go, this one is worth considering because its content is fully educational with downloads everyone can benefit from i.e. its On-The-Scene Accident Checklist.

Those are my picks; can you add any of your favorites we should check out?