Marketing Trenches

“I hear you guys are the social media gurus in this area. Can you help us blow out our efforts on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook?”

These were seemingly innocent words from a prospective client, spoken just last week. As we dug a bit deeper, the red flags started flying. He wants help with social media only, and wants to address only those three properties. He doesn’t want us to worry about how the website, blog, search, email or other areas might impact social media. He is concerned about tracking the effort, but his tracking and measurement will focus on volume of followers, friends and connections.

Ummmm…no thanks.

He wants a Social Media Superhero. The superhero he wants doesn’t possess super human powers and is not dedicated to protecting the public. The superhero he is after is the type that can make his company look “hip” and “in the know”.  He is convinced this is what he needs because he read a book by a Social Media Superhero, a book that - not surprisingly - offered subtle plugs for the idea of hiring a Social Media Superhero.

He doesn’t need a Social Media Superhero. He needs a Marketing Superhero who possesses social media powers and skills, or who can access people with those powers and skills.

I’d say that over half the companies we talk to start with this Social Media Superhero mindset. They view social media as a set of properties that they need to address one-by-one, and they are focused on establishing a “presence” on each of those properties. If no one challenges that viewpoint successfully, they decide to hire a Twitter guy. Or a Facebook gal. Or my favorite - a LinkedIn optimization firm. With Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Batman on board, how can this social media thing fail?

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Last week, we were excited and honored to be part of a group of presenters at a Greater Baltimore Technology Council event, Digital Media in Action: Engaging, Implementing & Creating Tangible Outcomes.

For our portion of the program, Mike and I discussed Why Blogging Should be the Hub of your Social Media Efforts.  While I’ve included our presentation below for those of you that want to dig in slide by slide, from a big picture perspective our focus was on the benefits of blogging as a component of your overall B2B marketing strategy.  And though many of the same approaches — and the results - do carry over in a B2C world, our presentation was primarily for the B2B audience.

The goal was to provide insights on how to use a blog for branding, communications and prospecting purposes.  Specifically, we covered:

• Building a blog strategy
• Options for creating a blog
• Benefits of corporate blogging
• Common blogging objections and appropriate responses
• Marketing a blog
• Writing blog posts to maximize readership
• How to get started on a post when you seem “stuck”
• How a blog drives the rest of your social media efforts
• Tracking the ROI of blogging
• Using your blog, and social media presence, to “Skip the First Meeting”

In particular, for B2B marketers it is nearly impossible to be involved in the vast amount of social media properties out there.  By using your blog as the hub, you are able to then use that content as the anchor for your social media efforts.  Mike made a great point during the presentation on why people read our blog: they know what we do, they want to know how we think (thanks to Will Burns for reminding me of this via Twitter).

Without great content - and the blog can serve as that content source of how you think - your social media presence is likely to be just a bunch of 140 character headlines with no story behind them.   It’s tough to really make an impact that way.

We thoroughly enjoyed our chance to speak at the event, to meet and do Q&A with so many people, and the feedback we received via Twitter.  We’re looking forward to the opportunity to do so again soon.

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow @willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

I was speaking with a few colleagues the other day about the different benefits of social media as a whole, and blogging in particular.  The folks in the room had varying levels of social media involvement, from no involvement at all to heavy involvement.  Each of us discussed what we hope to get out of social media, why we blog or might consider it, and how businesses can benefit from blogging.  The discussion went on for some time, covering the wide ranging benefits from SEO opportunities to more frequent customer touch points and everything in between.  After a while, it quieted down a bit and somebody asked me if they had missed anything on the list.

Skip the First Meeting

While our blog serves many purposes, one of them I hadn’t heard mentioned by the group was one of the things that I find most useful.  Having a well planned blog and social media presence, with what we hope is interesting and insightful content, allows us to Skip the First Meeting.

So what do I mean when I say Skip the First Meeting?  Unfortunately, despite how well you may try to vet things ahead of time, inevitably in our business you run into an opportunity that 5 minutes into that first meeting, after you’ve sniffed each other and gotten a bit more of a sense of your businesses –  you both know isn’t a fit.  You don’t think alike, you don’t value the same things, really whatever those components may be.  Of course generally by this time somebody has ordered food, or driven out of their way, or fired up a PowerPoint or laser lights show, or something else entirely, and it’s too late to do anything but spend the next 45-60 minutes or more there despite you each knowing this isn’t going to work out.

Now, we often head this meeting off at the pass.  We’ll send a contact or prospect a link to our blog ahead of time, and also encourage them to connect with and follow us on social networks, and ask them to read through these pieces ahead of time before scheduling that first get together.  By doing this, we make much more efficient use of their time and ours.  We try to convey the idea here that we want to be involved in strategy and planning and believe in taking a holistic view of marketing, and that shines through in our posts.

When we discover the poor fit, we each save ourselves the time of an unproductive meeting where we just won’t be a fit for each other (although sometimes we do miss those laser light shows).  And just as importantly, for those that could be a fit, we’ve fast forwarded over the glossy part of the first meeting and are digging right into the important and meaningful parts that are usually saved for a second meeting.

So while there are probably 100s of reasons to blog and to get involved in social media, if it works for your business you may want to try to Skip the First Meeting.

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow @willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

For those of you who read Marketing Trenches regularly, I promise this is the last time I will post something about Twitter for at least one month.  There are more pressing topics to cover, topics that are more relevant to your various business missions.  That being said, given the relative popularity of my last post - The Only Rule of Twitter: Be True To Yourself - I decided to finish a post that I started conceptualizing weeks ago.

I am a small business owner, and from what I can gather from sources like Entrepreneur or Inc. Magazine, that makes me about as unique as a White House party crasher these days.  Being a small business owner means a lot of fun and exciting things, but it also means you wear many hats, and you often wear all those hats in the span of your 10 - 20 hour (come on, only college football coaches work 24/7) work day.

One important hat that I wear is that of a marketer, for both my own business and my clients.  Part of that marketing hat at the moment typically includes using Twitter.  And part of my usage of Twitter involves finding ways to cut through the clutter in order to give and receive useful information.

Here’s how I handle the clutter - I unfollow people on a daily basis, and I consider it an art.  Here’s how and why I unfollow:

• If you read my last post, you know I use Twitter for business only and I only tweet when I feel compelled to.
• I typically scan Twitter, either in Hootsuite, Ubertwitter or Twitter itself (gasp!) a minimum of once a day, maximum of 3-4 times.
• When I do these scans, I spend no more than 5 minutes scrolling through tweets, in the hopes of finding 1 or 2 pieces of useful material.
• When I find this useful material (and sometimes I don’t), I read the linked article, reply to the request for information, send a direct message, retweet, or some other action.
• I then proceed to unfollow at least 2-3 people or companies that have consistently contributed to the clutter.  I know which ones contribute to the clutter, because I don’t follow a lot of people.

The why part should be obvious.  If I have 10 - 40 minutes to spend on Twitter daily, I’d rather spend my time paying attention to a group of people that have been vetted than wasting that limited time trying to fight through clutter.  Think about it - is it all that different than choosing which sessions to attend at a conference, which companies to target with a business development strategy, or which industry publications to read?  Last I checked, there are still 24 hours in each day, 7 days in each week, and 52 weeks in each year…and you can’t possibly pay attention to everything and everyone.

Talk to anyone who uses Twitter on even a semi-regular basis, and they (if they’re being honest) will admit that there is a LOT of clutter to cut through.  I have a mere 174 people that I follow, which is about 4,826 less than some of my Twitter followers.  I can’t even begin to imagine how someone following 5,000 people fliters the clutter, and if you are one of those people I encourage you to leave a comment at the end of this post and tell me how you do it and why you do it.

About the Author: Mike Sweeney is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Mike a comment on this post.  Follow Mike on Twitter for more marketing commentary.

It’s been three weeks since I wrapped up teaching a course covering Interactive Marketing at Georgetown’s School of Continuing Studies.  The topic for our last session was a doozy - social media, and in particular how social media can be used to achieve business or career-related objectives.

I saved Twitter for the latter part of the lecture, thinking that its stature as the hottest and yet most misunderstood social media property would generate some lively discussion.  I started with a very simple question:

Who here uses Twitter either personally or professionally?

Of the 18 students, 6 hands went up.  That’s it.  Only one-third of a group of mostly young professionals using Twitter?  And here I thought Twitter, much like an iPhone, was a status badge for the 20 - 40 something marketing professional crowd.  The follow-up question was an obvious one:

OK.  For those of you who don’t use Twitter, why not?

And the responses:

Student 1:  I already have Facebook, I don’t need another one. (I don’t even need the first Facebook.)

Student 2:  I don’t need to know what everyone is eating for breakfast. (Ah…the most common refrain from anti-Twitter folks.)

Student 3: I don’t have the time.  Who does? (As it turns out, quite a few…like in the millions.)

Student 4: I see these people - professionals - that tweet all day.  Sometimes every half hour, sometimes every 5 minutes.  How the hell does a person generate income when they’re tweeting their day away?  (I love this one, and often wonder the same thing.)

These responses generated a lot of side chatter and giggles.  As the Twitter-bashing calmed, I made the following statement:

You guys are absolutely right.  Twitter is not for everyone, and not built for every purpose.  However, at this moment, the business value of Twitter - if used appropriately - is indisputable.  That may change as Twitter goes through the typical flooding stage, but again right now the business value is indisputable.

Wow, I just got queasy writing that.  Did I really just represent that a business or a businessperson using Twitter is the proverbial “no brainer”?

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Often when we discuss social media, one of the first questions that comes up is something along the lines of “That’s great, but where’s the ROI?”  We talked about this before in Businesses: Stay Away From Social Media If You Meet The Following Criteria and Social Media: Justify Your Love With the Right ROI Approach.

There are many reasons companies are involved in social media, and many find great value without even thinking about measuring ROI.  Recently though, I saw this video from Socialnomics, a social media blog as well as a book by Erik Qualman.  I’m about halfway through the book now — Socialnomics: How social media transforms our lives and the way we do business — and I’ll post more about it when I finish.

One of the things that grabbed me about this video was its tight, fun presentation including clear ROI examples from B2C, B2B and nonprofit uses of social media including brands such as Burger King, Dell, Genius.com, Intuit, Susan G Komen for the Cure and more.

Many thanks to Kevin Lynch from Banking on Social Media for being one of the first to bring Socialnomics to my attention (That’s a strong hint to go check out Kevin’s blog).

As the audio track says, “check it out..”

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow @willdavis on Twitter for more commentary like this.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of studies about the lack of success of small businesses in social media.  In one eMarketer article alone they reference not one but two of them:

Small businesses are not hitting it off with social media, according to an August 2009 study from Citibank.  More than three-quarters of US small-business executives surveyed did not find social networks helpful for generating leads or expanding their business

According to an online survey by Internet2Go and MerchantCircle, 45% of small-business owners use Facebook to promote their business, and 46% have a Twitter account. In total, 53% had created a social network profile.

The article goes on to speculate that the lack of time or manpower may be the biggest impediment to success, but I think it runs much deeper than that.  I think many people think that if you can count yourself as one of those cited above that “have a Twitter account” and “created a social network profile” that you should start to see massive success in social media.

The reality of course is very different.  Sure, like anything else time and manpower is a factor, but I think it’s a pretty small one.  And my view on social media is, either you’re in or you’re out.  If you want to be involved in social media do just that – be involved.  Don’t expect to set up a profile somewhere and the truck full of cash immediately starts rolling up to your front door – it doesn’t really work that way does it?  (Note: If I am wrong, you have done this it did work, and you aren’t required to hide from the authorities in countries that won’t extradite, call me – we should talk).

The fact is — and try not to be too shocked here — the individuals and businesses that have the most success in social media have a strategy.  Social media fits in as a part of their overall business and marketing strategy, and they have a defined social media plan.  Now this doesn’t have to be a 30 page plan — maybe it’s a simple one pager that outlines goals, associated tactics, daily/weekly activity, etc.

You may start by getting your feet wet in social media and seeing what it’s like, which I’ve seen many folks advise as a first step.  Listen first, then begin to engage, then evaluate.  The “Ready, Fire, Aim” solution if you will.  This is a start, but it will only get you so far.  At some point you need a clear strategy, and then you can go and execute against that strategy.  That’s the most likely path to success.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to share your thoughts in our comments section.

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow Will on Twitter for more commentary like this.

Whenever a conversation starts around the topic of social media, inevitably I find a number of people that immediately question the value and want to see some ROI numbers before getting involved.  We’ve talked about both sides of this discussion before in many posts, most notably Businesses: Stay Away From Social Media If You Meet The Following Criteria and Social Media: Justify Your Love With the Right ROI Approach.

Just today I came across this research in B to B magazine, which seems to once again prove some value to social media activity, particular as it relates to search

Social media searchers seek out ‘lower funnel’ terms

Internet users exposed to brands via social networks subsequently search for “lower funnel” terms associated with those brands, indicating a higher propensity to convert, according to new study.

The study, “The Influenced: Social Media, Search and the Interplay of Consideration and Consumption”-conducted by digital marketing company comScore and social media agency M80-found Internet users exposed to a brand in a social media setting were 1.7 times more likely to later search for that brand using keywords associated with a high level of loyalty and propensity to buy, compared with searchers not engaged with social media.

The study also showed a 50% increase in paid search click-through rates when Internet users were exposed first to social media mentioning a brand. The online survey, which drew 2,000 respondents, was conducted from May through July.

One of the basic tenets of branding is to build recognition and loyalty.  And, whether online or off, we’ve known for a long time now that building a strong brand can feed search engine success.  Social media is just one more place where that can happen, and as the study above proves, the payoff can be big.

So, what should you do about it?  I think there are 2 key takeaways:

1). If you have waited to develop a social media strategy until you have had the justification, this might just be it.

Note: Throwing it to the intern to figure out is not a strategy.  While that person may help you to execute on a strategy, the strategy itself shouldn’t come from someone rental companies don’t trust enough to rent a car to for four more years.  Social media should have a  role consistent with your overall marketing plan.

2). If your social media activities are generating more highly qualified searches, make sure you are maximizing your ability to be found there.

Do everything you can from a Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing perspective to ensure those highly qualified searchers will find you.  We know they will be out there looking and you need to maximize your opportunities to capture these high value searchers.

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow Will on Twitter for more commentary like this.

We’ve written on this blog previously about the importance of content and how writing is often undervalued, whether for a press release, website, social media, email or really anything else.  Just as important as having the right content and writing well is having the right tone.

People connect with – and buy from – people, or at least the brand’s personality.  Make sure your approach to your content represents your company’s personality.  If you are a creative services company and a bit irreverent, your tone should reflect that.  At the same time, you probably don’t want your medical institution to attempt to be hilarious.  And, if you don’t know what your company’s personality is, this exercise did a great job fleshing out a bigger issue.

Then, make sure you are consistent.  Mike talked about this a bit earlier this week in his post Fall Cleaning: Clean Up Your Online Brand.  Ensure your content and tone carry over from one vehicle to the next, from your website to your emails, to your interviews.  Too many times we see this sacrificed — the classic mistakes of needing to get an email campaign out now and not having  the time to make sure it’s written right, or the belief that you need as much content as we can throw up there to help our SEO, it doesn’t matter how it reads are just two common examples.  Make sure you take the right approach and stay consistent.

Earlier this week we had a great meeting with a firm.  One of the first things they mentioned was that they wanted to meet with us because our website read just like it was written by them, that the tone was right in line with theirs.

Too often I end up reading content that reminds me of the boring guy in the corner at a party.  Sure, that person may have a lot of facts and information, but with zero personality it’s tough to really make an impact.  Think of that next time you write content yourself or hire a writer, it demonstrates that the tone is often even more important than the content.

After all, didn’t everyone like Norm better than Cliff Claven?

About the Author: Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing.  Don’t hesitate to drop Will a comment on this post.  If you liked this post, follow Will on Twitter for more commentary like this.

As part of my normal procedure before meeting with a prospective partner, I explore as many of the company’s marketing vehicles as possible.   Sometimes that list is short - a website and a brochure.  Sometimes that list is longer - a website, brochure, blog, social media profiles, search engine listings, executive LinkedIn profiles, etc.

Over the weekend I went through this process to check out a prospective partner, and ran into some good news and bad news.  The good news is that this company has clearly embraced the idea of expanding its footprint by using a variety of offline and online marketing tactics and properties.  The bad news, however, is that as the company has expanded that footprint, it seems to have lost control of its brand and core messaging.

Here’s a sampling of what I found:

• Archaic website design
• Outdated content on all properties
• Disjointed messaging and copy
• Inconsistent color schemes and logo usage
• Mismatched fonts
• Broken links
• Blog created from “packaged” industry-specific software
• 5-6 different company descriptions on website, brochure, search engines, etc.
• Links to other poorly-branded companies
• Sporadic social media usage
• No consistency in messaging across social media platforms

You get the point.  Some of these things, when considered as individual items, might seem nit-picky.  Combining them all, however, took me from legitimately excited for the meeting to nonchalant about the meeting at best.

That’s branding folks. Or in particular, that’s how poor branding and brand management can negatively impact your chances of landing that next big account or partnership.

It’s time to do some fall cleaning.  Don’t wait for the recession to end.   Make no mistake: business people are making decisions now, and your brand and overall identity is likely removing you from consideration sets on a daily basis.  The fact that you don’t know about it doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

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