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Quote:
“Courage is the discovery that you may not win, and trying when you know you can lose.”
~ Tom Krause
Branding and Social Media Marketing
Go Hand in Hand
Social media marketing
is the "IT" of the current recession struck world where wonderful,
funny, innovative and yes, possibly inane ideas come to life and take
off.
Let's just focus for a bit on the Twitter scene. It's viral potential is phenomenal and anyone that knows how to harness that power is in for the ride of their lives. Make that a "good" ride that results in humongous exposure and – more sales and recognition.
Fine you're thinking, but what on earth am I supposed to do to promote widgets? Like, who would really care about them? Interesting question and the answer is that you need to be creative. Downright playful, off the wall, quirky and clever humor with a campaign that promotes widgets in a never before seen light will win the day.
Creative widgets? Oh, yeah right! Seriously, let's just take a minute to put together a campaign for widgets. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. And here it is: create a You Tube video with your CEO handling the widget while in the kitchen. He goes to use the widget to make a Fruit Smoothie. Just use your imagination here and when he subsequently turns the widget on, he finds out the lid isn't on it.
See said CEO scrapping blueberry fruit smoothie off the kitchen ceiling while mumbling sheepishly about the First Law of Widget Dynamics – if you want to make a fruit smoothie, then make sure the lid is on the widget. This is thinking way outside the box and it really does work. Show this video on Twitter or Facebook and it will go viral in a flash. Be prepared to sell more widgets.
Another Whopper of an Example
With a tip of the hat to Burger King and their "Sacrifice a Friend for a Whopper" campaign, this type of social media marketing will get you – on average – the instant loyalty of perhaps over 20,000 potential Whopper consumers. Not a bad day flipping hamburgers is it? You can bet Burger King was on the lips of every one of those users who handed over a friend for a burger.
It's these kind of ideas that capture people's imaginations and prompt them to do something. While not a direct call to action as we would normally think of one, it was so subtly done it sparked a "virtual" stampede, until Facebook nixed it. Getting a campaign like this started is edgy and out there and will make people sit up and take notice.
Ask Me
How many times have you been by asked by a company what you think about something when it comes to a product? To make suggestions that will make a difference? Well those of you that have been asked are likely thinking – "Sure I was asked, but nothing came of it." Herein lies the lesson.
If you are a company that wants customer contact, seek customer input and then actually do something about it. Starbucks has demonstrated this beautiful principle by having customers make suggestions that other customers voted on, and then, logged in to blog all about it. Talk about personal social media marketing. Really, it only makes good sense, that if you want to know what your customers want - ask them. Sometimes the simple things in life and the ones we've been missing.
CEO Bloggers are Boffo
If the big cheese blogs about what the company is doing, does it in a friendly, funny and outgoing way, bravo, more points for the company. If that same company also has all its employees blog, then that's even better.
This has been done and is still being done with Sun Microsystems CEO who makes it a point to have the public truly informed about what is going on at his company. This is also being done with IBM and that gives the outside world an inside glimpse into corporate America. Nothing is hidden.
Make It Personal
Company blogging by the CEO and staff will usually ensure a good following, particularly if all the blogging is done in a manner that is reminiscent of talking to a friend over a cup of coffee. Tips, hints, interesting facts about the company and product and the people that provide service will propel a social media campaign into the limelight.
A good example of this is Zappos, who retails shoes online and does such a super job, that people who talk to them consider them to be great friends. This is a prime example of the "personal" aspect of social media marketing taken to a superb pinnacle.
Be There and Care
It's one thing to have a Twitter account if you are part of corporate America's sub culture and offer a service thousands of people use, but it's another thing all together to track how you are doing and who is talking about you. You don't just have to be a big company to do this type of campaign either.
The simple principle behind it is that if you keep track of who talks about you and what they say, then you are "Johnny on the spot to fix problems." Now how's that for service?
Thanks go to Comcast for blazing a trail in this area.
Comment in Real Time
Say your company has a real doozy of a problem on its hands and you need to let people know about it right away. That is step one of the problem. Step two is then making the effort to continuously update your Twitter and Facebook pages to let the public know every thing done to solve the particular problem. Not only will this avoid media fallout, but also it offers those on the outside looking in transparency.
If people know what is going on then the rumors don't fly. It's just that simple and Ford demonstrated this lesson.
Get the Picture
Words aren't the only thing that is used to communicate on Twitter and Facebook. Pictures, worth a thousand words, do that in an extremely powerful way. Pictures make a company more personal, more involved, more socially oriented and more approachable.
Take some of the company's efforts and marketing plans off line and then blog about them online and you have the perfect blend of intimate chatting and working with the community. No one knows this better than Graco who blends on and offline activities into one community.
Ka-Ching - Earn Money on Twitter and Facebook
While earning money isn't the ultimate goal of all social media users, it is certainly a possibility. Many people, small businesses and larger corporate America have done Tweeting and blogging with great success. The mere fact that there are thousands of tech savvy users online at these sites increases the potential for ROI greatly, if that happens to be the goal. Hard to resist isn't it?
Imagine thousands of people just a click away that may have an interest in your product. Dell found that out and managed to net over $1 million in revenue. In a word, WOW!
The potential to generate revenue using social media marketing is something that definitely needs to be scoped out. Don't wait to jump on this bandwagon.
Let's just focus for a bit on the Twitter scene. It's viral potential is phenomenal and anyone that knows how to harness that power is in for the ride of their lives. Make that a "good" ride that results in humongous exposure and – more sales and recognition.
Fine you're thinking, but what on earth am I supposed to do to promote widgets? Like, who would really care about them? Interesting question and the answer is that you need to be creative. Downright playful, off the wall, quirky and clever humor with a campaign that promotes widgets in a never before seen light will win the day.
Creative widgets? Oh, yeah right! Seriously, let's just take a minute to put together a campaign for widgets. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money. And here it is: create a You Tube video with your CEO handling the widget while in the kitchen. He goes to use the widget to make a Fruit Smoothie. Just use your imagination here and when he subsequently turns the widget on, he finds out the lid isn't on it.
See said CEO scrapping blueberry fruit smoothie off the kitchen ceiling while mumbling sheepishly about the First Law of Widget Dynamics – if you want to make a fruit smoothie, then make sure the lid is on the widget. This is thinking way outside the box and it really does work. Show this video on Twitter or Facebook and it will go viral in a flash. Be prepared to sell more widgets.
Another Whopper of an Example
With a tip of the hat to Burger King and their "Sacrifice a Friend for a Whopper" campaign, this type of social media marketing will get you – on average – the instant loyalty of perhaps over 20,000 potential Whopper consumers. Not a bad day flipping hamburgers is it? You can bet Burger King was on the lips of every one of those users who handed over a friend for a burger.
It's these kind of ideas that capture people's imaginations and prompt them to do something. While not a direct call to action as we would normally think of one, it was so subtly done it sparked a "virtual" stampede, until Facebook nixed it. Getting a campaign like this started is edgy and out there and will make people sit up and take notice.
Ask Me
How many times have you been by asked by a company what you think about something when it comes to a product? To make suggestions that will make a difference? Well those of you that have been asked are likely thinking – "Sure I was asked, but nothing came of it." Herein lies the lesson.
If you are a company that wants customer contact, seek customer input and then actually do something about it. Starbucks has demonstrated this beautiful principle by having customers make suggestions that other customers voted on, and then, logged in to blog all about it. Talk about personal social media marketing. Really, it only makes good sense, that if you want to know what your customers want - ask them. Sometimes the simple things in life and the ones we've been missing.
CEO Bloggers are Boffo
If the big cheese blogs about what the company is doing, does it in a friendly, funny and outgoing way, bravo, more points for the company. If that same company also has all its employees blog, then that's even better.
This has been done and is still being done with Sun Microsystems CEO who makes it a point to have the public truly informed about what is going on at his company. This is also being done with IBM and that gives the outside world an inside glimpse into corporate America. Nothing is hidden.
Make It Personal
Company blogging by the CEO and staff will usually ensure a good following, particularly if all the blogging is done in a manner that is reminiscent of talking to a friend over a cup of coffee. Tips, hints, interesting facts about the company and product and the people that provide service will propel a social media campaign into the limelight.
A good example of this is Zappos, who retails shoes online and does such a super job, that people who talk to them consider them to be great friends. This is a prime example of the "personal" aspect of social media marketing taken to a superb pinnacle.
Be There and Care
It's one thing to have a Twitter account if you are part of corporate America's sub culture and offer a service thousands of people use, but it's another thing all together to track how you are doing and who is talking about you. You don't just have to be a big company to do this type of campaign either.
The simple principle behind it is that if you keep track of who talks about you and what they say, then you are "Johnny on the spot to fix problems." Now how's that for service?
Thanks go to Comcast for blazing a trail in this area.
Comment in Real Time
Say your company has a real doozy of a problem on its hands and you need to let people know about it right away. That is step one of the problem. Step two is then making the effort to continuously update your Twitter and Facebook pages to let the public know every thing done to solve the particular problem. Not only will this avoid media fallout, but also it offers those on the outside looking in transparency.
If people know what is going on then the rumors don't fly. It's just that simple and Ford demonstrated this lesson.
Get the Picture
Words aren't the only thing that is used to communicate on Twitter and Facebook. Pictures, worth a thousand words, do that in an extremely powerful way. Pictures make a company more personal, more involved, more socially oriented and more approachable.
Take some of the company's efforts and marketing plans off line and then blog about them online and you have the perfect blend of intimate chatting and working with the community. No one knows this better than Graco who blends on and offline activities into one community.
Ka-Ching - Earn Money on Twitter and Facebook
While earning money isn't the ultimate goal of all social media users, it is certainly a possibility. Many people, small businesses and larger corporate America have done Tweeting and blogging with great success. The mere fact that there are thousands of tech savvy users online at these sites increases the potential for ROI greatly, if that happens to be the goal. Hard to resist isn't it?
Imagine thousands of people just a click away that may have an interest in your product. Dell found that out and managed to net over $1 million in revenue. In a word, WOW!
The potential to generate revenue using social media marketing is something that definitely needs to be scoped out. Don't wait to jump on this bandwagon.
Linda Belan - Your Outsource Solutions, LLC
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