Posted by Rahna on September 10, 2010 under Personal Branding, Social Media, Strategy | 
I read a theory about social media strategy today at Diana Huff’s B2B Marcom Writer’s Blog
It’s an excellent post (and subsequent conversation) about how strategy is over-rated when it comes to social media.
Her advice? Don’t try to get super-sophisticated with some complicated social media strategy. She advocates a Nike approach: “Just doit.”
Her argument? We, as marketers (and as human beings), instinctually know what to do when we get in to social situations:
- Be nice to people.
- Answer their questions.
- Respond to what they have to say.
- Post your own take on what is going on around you.
My favorite part of the post is this: “People recognize authenticity and like moths, want to hover near the source.”
I agree that we don’t need to over-think it, but even in her post, whether she knows it or not, she is advocating a strategy: Be authentic.
Bravo, Diana.
Posted by jos on April 29, 2010 under Media, Social Media, Strategy |
Phil Mickelson at Krispy Kreme
Here’s a bit of commentary on our highly-networked social media world:
In an interview leading up to this weekend’s golf tournament, this year’s Masters’ champion Phil Mickelson was asked about a Krispy Kreme incident that happened on Monday after winning the coveted green jacket. Phil pulled up to the drive-thru window in his Masters’ jacket (“it was kinda chilly out, so I just grabbed a jacket….”). Phil was fulfilling a promise to his kids that he would get the sugary donut treats once the tournament was over. The woman working the drive-thru that morning recognized him, snapped a picture on her cell phone, and posted it online.
Phil’s comment was that it was just another reminder that “everybody’s media.”
How true. Anyone with a cell phone and a computer can now report the goings-on of anyone else.
To me, there are several lessons in this.
- Always be your best self because you never know who is watching or listening or reporting. For those who were required to read George Orwell’s 1984 in their high school English class, concerns that “Big Brother is watching” were tied to big government and was seen as totally un-American and the ultimate invasion of privacy. Now, of course, we actually have “Big Brother” reality shows and YouTube, where it is not the government who seems to be watching but everyone else. Whenever I counsel people on social media, my biggest caution is, “Don’t put anything up on Facebook that you wouldn’t want to appear as the front headline of the newspaper.” Your boss (or potential future boss) is actually watching, despite what you might think.
- Be respectful of others. The media has laws and codes of ethics to follow as it relates to public figures, and John Q. Public, Reporter-at-Large, needs to honors those same codes. For celebrities and non-celebrities alike, at the very least, the Golden Rule should apply. They may all be new tools, but the same basic principles of human decency still apply.
- Yesterday is gone. There’s a whole new world of power out there. Use this power for good, not evil. Yes, “everybody’s media,” and that has given rise to a world of opportunity for entrepreneurs, empowered consumers who want to engage with their favorite brands, and given marketers a whole new slew of venues for communicating with their target audience.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Feel free to add a comment for any of our articles!
Posted by Rahna on October 5, 2009 under Digital Branding, Media, Social Media |
Later this week, I will be training a group of insurance sales agents on the best ways to tap into the power that social media networks can provide, counseling them on how to authentically present themselves to potential clients as a viable solution to the financial challenges they meet. In the training that I do, one of my biggest hurdles is with those who are entrenched in what they have been doing and honestly, if what you have been doing is working for you, keep doing it. Just understand that the world is changing …. everyday …. every minute. Evolution is inevitable, and revolution is always possible!
As pre-work for the discussion, I have asked each one of them to watch the following video to prepare for the session. It was created by Eric Qualman from Socialnomics. While I wish the sources for all the “facts” were given, the spirit of the video is totally valid and worthy of consideration.
Check it out: http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/the-social-media-revolution-visualised/
Have a digital day!
Posted by Rahna on September 28, 2009 under Social Media |
This is a question that was asked of me the other night during my presentation to the Social Media Club of New Haven, and my answer wrapped up several best practices that we had been discussing.
- First of all, be where your target audience is. The woman who asked the question said that she had the e-mail addresses of 500 to 2000 people with whom she has regular ongoing conversations. She wanted to migrate those conversations onto Twitter in order to streamline her conversations. Unfortunately you cannot convince a consumer to do something they don’t want to do or be somewhere where they aren’t. Fortunately for her, her audience is young, male and very technologically savvy, so the chances are very high that her target audience is already there.
- Take advantages of the tools available: All of the major social networking sites have a functionality that allows you to search your Outlook contacts (for example) and find those who also have a Twitter account.
- Think search. When you write your tweets, be sure to include keywords for the topic about which you would want to be found. If skydiving is your topic, then make sure to include the word skydiving in your tweet. One of the key benefits of Twitter is its searchability, so if you start having conversations about your topic, people will find you.
- Make use of the hash tag (#). When you put a hash tag before a keyword, it allows people to search you even more. The way that Twitter’s search works makes effective use of the hash tag and an easy way for people to find you.
- Add yourself on WeFollow.com: Enter the topics that you talk about so that people will be able to easily find you.
- Make a request: if you have an ongoing conversation via e-mail, and you would like to migrate those folks to Twitter, simply ask them to follow you. Make sure, however, that you make it as easy as possible to follow you. Include the link to your Twitter profile and allow them to follow you with one quick click.
- Be Relevant: If you tweet about topics your target audience cares about, you will grow a following, because Twitter is so searchable.
- Be Realistic: Realize that everybody is different. There is no way for you to use one vehicle to have a conversation with everyone in your target audience. Some people are on Twitter all the time. Some people “don’t get it.” Some people love e-mail , while others will never read their e-mail.
As the marketer, it’s up to you to be where your target audience is. In order to streamline your efforts, you can focus on the majority of people, but I would recommend having more than one communication stream so that people can find you and engage with you in many different ways.
Posted by Rahna on September 21, 2009 under Media, Social Media |
So this week seems to be a “social media week.” I am talking tonight to a group at the Suffield library on how social media can impact your career to increase your exposure, gain new clients, and engage with your customers in new and very rewarding ways. I’ll be chatting about how to express your personal brand in a very digital way. Then, on Wednesday, I’m speaking to the Social Media Club of New Haven.
One question that comes up often has to do with managing all your different accounts. Certainly LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the big three social networking sites. There may be some other areas where people in your industry are gathering to talk and interact. Each person should examine strategically, what the right sites are for your particular situation. Now, I happen to be on all three, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and yes, there are times when I don’t have time to update or don’t engage in conversations as much as I’d like to. With social networking , I find that the big consideration is time.
The easiest way that I have found to address this issue is to recommend to people that they post something in the morning (or whenever it’s convenient for you), quickly look at those who you do business with or are interested in, and scan the conversations going on, contribute for a set period of time (could be just 5-15 minutes/day). Set time limits for your day for how much time you’ll spend on this, and then move on with your day. It’s so easy for social networking to take over your life. Everyone’s lives are so interesting — the comments that they make can be delightful or inane, but it’s certainly entertaining. You have to actively manage your time. Otherwise you lose yourself in the digital social aspect of life.
One of the tools that I use to help manage this is TweetDeck. Many people find the Twitter feed is a little bit clunky, so Twitter applications have been developed to manage these in a more organized fashion. TweetDeck and HootSuite are two popular applications that help you manage your contacts and your communications. TweetDeck allows you to put people in groupings so that you can follow several different discussions at the same time, and make sure that you don’t miss important conversations that you want to be notified about. They are free to download. Check them out, and let me know what you think. I’m always interested in comments and feedback.
Posted by Rahna on June 8, 2009 under Digital Branding, Social Media |
I was presenting today to the Transformers® and G.I.Joe® marketing teams at Hasbro®, to provide guidance on social media best practices. Here’s what I told them:
• Listen: One of the easiest ways to get started is to conduct a Social Media Audit. Find out what people are talking about—you’ll be amazed at what you learn from this purest of all forms of consumer research! Get competitive intelligence, identify new market opportunities, and understand brand and category perceptions.
• Strategy Still Matters: Social Media Tools are just that…tools…one of the biggest mistakes I see is that companies get enamored with the “new-fangled” tools and start to use them…without a thought to the overriding rationale for choosing that tool over any other (traditional) marketing tool.
• Provide Value: You cannot simply shove your marketing message down someone else’s throat. Delight your consumers with added value and they will stick to you like Velco®
• Think Collaboratively: There is no such thing as “us” versus “them” anymore. You build something great with others—your consumers, your customers, your suppliers, EVERYBODY!
• Authenticity & Transparency Are Critical: If you try to be sneaky, you will be outed eventually. That has always been the case, of course, but now, with the internet, the public outrage spreads faster than wildfire, is global and permanently on record.
• Leverage Multimedia: Video is phenomenal. Opportunities abound for you to use sight, sound and motion as never before.
• Seek To Engage—Permanently: Social Media is not a “hit it and quit it” kind of a thing. Even if you look at it from a financial standpoint, you will be convinced that you want to nurture a life-long love affair with your consumer, not a one-night stand.
• Go Beyond Basic Measurement: The digital world can measure everything—how many seconds someone watches a video, how many people comment about a topic, who’s following whom. While marketing has always struggled with presenting senior management with the exact ROI on a TV commercial or newspaper story, social media offers more measurement opportunities than ever before.
Did I miss any? Feel free to add your comments as well!
Posted by Rahna on June 4, 2009 under Media, Social Media |
I had a conversation with Randall Cross of Ethervision, a company focused on iPhone applications and web video optimization. Very interesting.
The reason I was interested in talking with him is that I believe (as does Randall) that there is a huge future in mobile computing. While we are still in the very early stages of development of this phenomenon, iPhone apps are simply pointing the way, an indicator of things to come (sort of like “Pong” was for the video game industry). I’m curious, and I like to keep a pulse on what’s going on out there. I wanted to hear what he had to say about the topic.
Here are some top-line takeaways from the conversation:
In case you don’t have an iPhone or live under a rock, there is an entire industry that has been created around apps—an industry of iPhone apps that has been exploded in the past two years.
Is anyone making money at it? Well, yes, certainly there are the much-touted millionaires made overnight, with the top ten apps being downloaded 6,00-7,000 times per day…But that only represents a very small portion of the population of developers. Some never see a dime….but then there are those who are creating something of value, looking at the long-term returns instead of “one-hit wonders.”
“There’s an app for that.” There is an application for just about anything…with new ones being created all the time. Some are very simplistic and take only a few days to build. Others can take up to twelve months to create, because they are integrated with correlative websites and such.
Are there any limitations? Certainly. The iPhone does not have the processing speed (yet) to deal with complicated programming and 3D imaging. The key is to keep it simple; less detail is better.
How can advertisers leverage this phenomenon? Well, certainly, if you have a product or service that lends itself to an iPhone app, you could stand to make A LOT of money. But that’s not all you should be thinking about. You could sponsor an app that would be relevant to your target audience. See it as another way to build a brand impression.
It’s a world I will be following. Is it a fad? Is it here to stay? Is it only for the iPhone afficianado? Let me know what you think!
Posted by Rahna on May 28, 2009 under Digital Branding, Social Media, Strategy |
I’ve been focusing on on-line videos this week and thought I should share some of what I’ve discovered.
Here’s the bottom line: VIDEO MATTERS.
Whether you are a small business wanting to add a little mini-documentary video to your website or you are a large advertiser looking for new uncluttered channels on which to convey your message, on-line video is a rich area to explore.
If you’re a skeptic about the power of video, I have two words for you: Susan Boyle.
In case you missed it, Susan Boyle exploded onto the worldwide web in April as a contestant on Britain’s Got Talent. In the past two months, she has racked up over 100 million views — remember, the Super Bowl is viewed by something like 93 million! Suffice it to say, her life has been permanently altered by YouTube. And as we move forward, yours will be too.
In fact, it very likely already has been (especially if you are 18-34 years old). How many of you have seen amazing videos where men are bonding with lions or cats are hanging from ceiling fans? I’d bet a lot of money that the majority of you have. See my previous blog post for more quantitative info on trends and growth in on-line video.
Want another concrete example? Okay, a friend of mine is in charge of Digital Media & Marketing for Hyperion Books and spends her days leveraging the power of the internet to let people know about the wonderful books Hyperion publishes. Does she use video? You bet.
She recently worked with author Kelly Corrigan to develop a short but moving video on Transcending to promote the paperback release of her book The Middle Place. Upon posting the video, she and her team started to spread the word by sending an email to 50 of their interested friends. To date, the video has enjoyed over 4.4MM views and, more importantly, the book sat at #2 on the The New York Times Bestsellers List for many weeks. That’s low-cost, high-impact marketing.
So what does this mean for you? As I said at the start of this article, video matters. Consider advertising on-line as a viable alternative, and develop a video strategy for your digital efforts. Do you have any video on your website and/or on other websites? You should consider what the benefits could be for you.
Video allows you to:
· Discuss your topic with passion
· Take advantage of sight, sound, and motion
· Engage with your audience more thoroughly
· Show your thought-leadership
· Develop your brand more distinctly
· Entertain, inform and delight your consumers
· Improve your SEO rankings
Here are a few tips:
· Be really compelling: make sure the topic is relevant to your business
· Be succinct: most people will willingly sit through an engaging one- or two-minute video
· Be proprietary: embed the video on your own site
· Optimize: pay attention to meta data and Google Video map details
· Market your video: there are tons of video-sharing sites out there to post on
· Spread the word: use other media (both digital and non-digital) to spread the word
Posted by Rahna on May 21, 2009 under Consumer Engagement, Digital Branding, Social Media |
So today’s project is trying to find some great (current) examples of social media done right. I teach businesses about the necessary mindset for using Web 2.0 tools, and I have found that specific examples help them wrap their brains around a concept in a much more tangible manner.
So, who’s done a good job in engaging their consumer base in meaningful interaction that builds relationships and company value at the same time?
I’ll put this out there as a list to get some conversation started, but if you have others, I’m all ears:
· Entertainment industry
· Charity Tie-ins
· Viral campaigns
· Blogs
· Video
· iPhone Apps
· kids campaigns
· Mobile marketing
Tell me:
· What did they do that was so interesting?
· Why do you think it was so great ?
· How did they do it (what elements did they use)?
You can post something here as a comment or send a tweet to @Rahna.
Thanks!
Posted by Rahna on April 23, 2009 under Social Media |
Last week was a big week for Twitter. On Friday, April 17th, Oprah joined Twitter and sent her first tweet on national television. In addition, Ashton Kutcher got his millionth Twitter follower (beating out CNN). As a part of her show, Oprah had Ashton on as a (remote) guest, naming him the king of Twitter. The show represented a turning point for many social media proponents; they felt that social media had come of age and is now THE way to communicate…the only media worth considering.
Ashton talked about how media is now in the hands of the masses. You no longer have to wait to communicate. You can send messages out immediately to anyone willing to listen to you. In Ashton’s world, he appreciated being able to refute tabloid-type rumors right way, without having to go through a publicist or some other official spokes person.
There are those predicting that, like newspapers, all other media will soon be dead.
Hold on, there, Chief. Let’s take a moment to see who has gained these million followers…is it your Uncle Earl? No. It’s a celebrity, someone who reached stardom through that most traditional of all vehicles—TV! Yes, it’s another way to communicate, and there are definite marketing implications for anyone selling a product or service, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. There is still a primary place for “traditional” media. Social media is simply the toddler at the kids table at this point.
I’m not saying, “Don’t get a Twitter account.” I am on Twitter (@Rahna); follow me and we’ll talk tweet. I’m just saying, don’t eliminate your traditional media buy altogether.
