It was great fun and I even won a Pinterest T-shirt. Seems appropriate that Max should model it since he has his own Pinterest board. Don't you think he makes a cute model?
Anyway, needless to say, I was excited to meet fellow pinners and talk about strategy, cool tools, what works, what doesn't.
"Were you on the PinChat when host & founder Kelly LIeberman brought in Lizze from McDonalds?" I asked a few people. My question was met with puzzled looks. "Oh big corporations are pinning?" Now I was surprised. Ah..yes.
Granted, I only spoke with a handful of people, but it seemed most were pinning for fun or using Pinterest in a very limited way for business e.g. one board among many personal boards.
My big take aways: Pinterest, as a business tool, is still in the beginning stages of adoption .. even for the pioneer pinners. Even more than the idea of pinning for business, is the concept of putting a focus on pinning for business by creating and maintaining a variety of boards that support a brand.
When it comes to social media, we learn most from the people who have stepped out before us and generously share their experiences. In this Pinterest Pinning For Business Learning Series post we take a look how a business-to-business company, Brandwatch, is using Pinterest as an inbound marketing tactic.
About Brandswatch: Launched in August 2007, Brandwatch develops tools for monitoring and analysing social media conversations. The company is experiencing huge growth in the young sector.
Our interview is with Joel Windels. Joel is the Community Manager at Brandwatch where he is responsible for all of Brandwatch’s presences online, including social networks like Pinterest.
Diva Marketing/Toby: In a world that began as a social network to share images of food and fashion Brandwatch is one of the early business-to-business brands on Pinterest. What did you see about the platform that caused you to actively participate?
Joel Windels: The key thing to remember with social media is that it is not only incredibly new, but it is also changing at a rate that is almost impossible to stay totally on top of. At Brandwatch, we’re obviously very interested in making sure we’re keeping track of all of the most popular social sites, so once Pinterest began to show itself as a rising star, we had to take notice. The meteoric rise of the network and simplicity of the image-sharing idea struck a chord with me, so I decided to test the waters.
Diva Marketing/Toby: From a high level, what is Brandwatch’s Pinterest strategy?
Joel Windels: We generally see Pinterest as a traffic-boosting network, with site referrals from Pinterest forming a small part of our wider lead generation strategy. As an inbound marketing tool, it’s an excellent place to house links to lots of our content in a visually appealing and clever way, in a way that’s not centered around our own website.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Understanding that Pinterest is still in its infancy, especially in terms of b2b, what are your measures for success?
Joel Windels: As I mentioned before, we’re just testing the waters and, for the moment at least, we’re measuring its value in referral rates. There’s something to be said for the qualitative worth in having a presence, such as using it as a resource for curious prospects and simply for broadening the visibility of Brandwatch, though the primary measurement is through number of visits to our own site from Pinterest for the time being.
Diva Marketing/Toby: With any social network initiative there are risks associated with active participating. What were Brandwatch’s challenges and how did you overcome them?
Joel Windels: One of the more interesting ways we’ve been using Pinterest is through the use of our ‘social media monitoring’ board. We’ve created it to house a board of our main competitors, as we regularly get asked about the other options in the market, so it gives us somewhere to point people to. Using our own tool, we also search the web for individuals and companies that are enquiring about SMM tools and the industry, so we often step in to offer advice, sometimes via our Pinterest boards.
While it may be a cliché, we think that our tool is the best around and that people will come to that conclusion by themselves, so in pointing our prospects to our competitors we’re not approaching marketing in an orthodox way. The risk is that we’re not as good as we think we are (very low, of course)!
Diva Marketing/Toby: If you’re not a visual thinker it might be a “content challenge” for a services business to sustain pinning over time. What is your content strategy .. In other words what are you pinning?
Joel Windels: Pinterest is a supplementary channel for us, so we don’t have a content strategy for the platform. We’ve created one-off boards, such as the monitoring one and a set of pins to support our Superbowl project back in February, though we are now using the site as a seeding channel for our main content – namely our eBooks, our case studies and our blog posts. Essentially our Pinterest content plan mirrors our general one.
Diva Marketing/Toby: In social networks there are two paths we can take: passively providing content and actively engaging within others. At this point, most people seem to be sharing content/pins but there is not a lot of conversation happening. How active is Brandwatch in terms of engagement e.g. commenting, repining, likes?
Joel Windels: This is a very good point you’ve made, as they are indeed two very different approaches. There are 1001 different social networks propping up and lots of guesswork involved in determining how to spend your ‘community time’. Therefore I decided that, for now, we’ve tried to keep our primary focus for engagement on tried and tested platforms like Twitter, whilst using Pinterest for its own strengths.
For the moment, we’ve walked the first type of path in passively providing content, though as the site progresses and we hire more community staff in the coming months, we may well take a look at the second approach.
Diva Marketing/Toby: One of the big questions that I’m asked is how do you find time to include another social network into your communication outreach? Would you give us an idea of the resource structure (people) and approximate time you’re investing?
Joel Windels: Our team is split across the UK, Germany and the USA. Understandably we’re still putting together the processes that divide the community spread, but at the moment it’s just me on Pinterest. We’ve pulled a bit of focus away from the likes of Google plus and other networks for the time being, as we’re seeing more referrals through Pinterest. We’ve had other monitoring companies repin some of our pins, and plenty of staff members contribute to the content that our pins link to, but as far as actually maintaining our profile and our uploads, that task currently sits at my desk.
Diva Marketing/Toby: In any new social media endeavor, they will not come unless you tell them. How is Brandwatch creating awareness for its Pinterest boards?
Joel Windels: Well, you know what? They have been coming anyway. Like I mentioned before, we often link people through Twitter and other sites to our collections – good articles, our eBooks, competitors when someone wants an overview. We haven’t really pushed our Pinterest presence very strongly; it seems to have grown organically, with users sharing it amongst themselves because they like our boards/content rather than us trying to draw attention to it.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Pinterest provides interesting consumer insights. From the point of view of a research company, I’d love to hear your views of what marketers can gain from analysis of pins and boards.
Joel Windels: Well, Pinterest is a bit of a pain with its API so it’s very hard to work out exactly how much coverage we offer. Obviously it’s the best possible, but we are aware of some pins slipping through the net. Useful features like sentiment analysis and author metrics can help analysts work out how companies are faring on Pinterest, and how they might be doing that.
As with all of the data we track, searching the web for social media mentions of your brand, your industry or your competitors will allow you to get a much greater understanding of what your customers are saying. Even if people are pinning and engaging positively on your brand page, doesn’t mean people aren’t indicating otherwise elsewhere. The only way of truly gleaning insight from the social web is through monitoring tools and the features they provide. Exactly what each company will discover from an analytical point of view will differ in each case.
Diva Marketing/Toby: To wrap this up. what lessons learned can you share with us about business-to-business companies coming jumping onto the Pinterest train?
Joel Windels: As with any new and untested platform, it’s quite fun to test the waters with what works and what doesn’t; it’s certainly good advice to poke your toes in before diving in at the deep end. Furthermore, we’ve found that through being open, interesting and experimental we’ve managed to get a good ROI from being on the network.
Note: #PinChat is held Wednesday at 9p Eastern Time.
In 1886, Mr. D. H. McConnell launched what was to become one of the most beloved brands... Avon.
Let’s flash back 126 years when women were expected to be housekeepers, wives and of course mothers. In steps a man who defies convention when he builds his sales force with a team of women. D. H. McConnell intuitively understood that as salespeople women could relate to other women and bring a passion to his new perfumes better than men.
Based on its direct sales approach, which was built on developing relationships and sharing conversations, Avon has been called the original “Social” Brand. However, its competition has left it in the 18th century “social media” dust.
Avon has seen a 75% decline in operating profit over the last decade. A Wall Street Journal article, Avon Is Late to Social Media’s Party, reported sales for cosmetic products have steadily moved online. Although Avon does have online channels it's not been as aggressive as other cosmetic companies.
Recently Warren Buffet and Coty experssed interest in this iconic company now in crisis. In a 5/13/12 media release Avon said it would "..consider Coty's letter.."
Update: 5/14: Coty has back off of its offer. "Your total lack of engagement with us leads us to believe that you remain reluctant to explore a friendly, negotiated combination on a reasonable timetable," Coty Chairman Bart Becht said in a letter to Avon dated Monday and made public. "Two months is enough." - Reuters
When my pal and social media colleague, Rob Petersen, founder of BarnRaisers and co-writer of this blog post, invited me to collaborate to bring Avon some 21st century social media ideas I was there. So Avon bebe .. this one is for you!
10 reasons Avon Is Not Too Late To The Social Media Party
Subtitled: But the clock is ticking, the cake is getting stale and the tinis are getting warm.
1. BUSINESS STRATEGY: Of any brand, Avon has one of the most powerful social business strategies available. They have a brand community of 5.8 million reps. There are great examples of brands that put their community to work and turned their business around. Take for example, Harley Davidson. This may seem like an odd comparison but stay with us.
On the brink of bankruptcy in the 1970's, Harley Davidson overhauled their business to realize their most valuable asset was their riders. In other words, the people were even more important than the product so Harley: 1) Spoke to the shared interest of their community before product benefits 2) brought advocates together and let them help build new relationships. Avon needs a business strategy, not a social media strategy. Now, here's what they can put it to use.
2. "AVON CALLING" ONLINE COMMUNITY: Avon's famous slogan could now be a live, online community where their sales reps offer daily advice about Avon products, deals, help customers with a cosmetic question, refer someone to the Avon rep in their area and talk about who they are as people (e.g. where they like to go on vacation).
By the way, this is what Harley does daily at HDTalking.com, a customer created content community of close to 400,000 members.
P&G also has a highly successful online community, Being Girl, for their Tampax and Always brands that has achieved a 4-to-1 ROI over traditional channels. Avon even has an online community in the UK, Avon Connects, demonstrating they are not late to the party, they just need to join in.
3. "LIKE" US ON FACEBOOK (AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS): Every brand wants you to "Like" them and Avon has a pretty robust but commercial Facebook page that 660,000 people already like. They could use their sales reps more and show a human side.
For example, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, recently produced a video called "Likeapella" to celebrate the people who like them. Not to suggest that Avon do the same thing but to make the point that major brands need to use social media to make a more personal connection. Here's what Kraft did.
4. AVON CUSTOMER APPRECIATION DAYS (VIA TWITTER SEARCH): If Avon representative wanted to build 1-to-1 relationships in larger venues, they could go to high traffic locations in their area like a mall; then, if they use Twitter Search, they could find other women in the same mall and begin a conversation they very same way with the very same techniques they use when selling door-to-door.
5. KLOUT PERKS: With 5.8 million sales reps, they must have a very large number who have high Klout scores. Why not demonstrate to how powerful they already are in social media. Put this social influence to work and see how many rewards Avon reps can get through "Klout Perks." This would show how much social influence sales reps already have.
6. AVON PINTEREST: The newest darling of the social networks, Pinterest, aligns with Avon’s targeted female demographic. Online products provide Avon with the base for creating a Pinterest page that has multiple benefits from reinforcing community with boards that highlight new and seasonal products, provide lifestyle the “Avon way” with beauty to showing the caring side of Avon through its nonprofit work. In addition, likes, repins and comments offer Avon new consumer insights.
7. AVON PINTEREST CONTEST: Taking Pinterest one step further is the idea of a “Pin It To Win It” contest. Avon has the opportunity to engage with its customers in creative ways that includes both customers and sales representatives. For example, many of Avon’s products are colorful from its nail polish to lip glow. A red, white and blue Fourth of July themed challenge could create fireworks of fun.
8. AVON SALES REP SOCIAL MEDIA TRAINING: Avon has created an innovative online training program, Beauty of Knowledge, for their sales reps. Topics range from how to start your new Avon business to money management, logistics, goal setting and traditional marketing support. However, in my research I came across sales reps who had posted on social networks the need and their desire for social media courses to be included in their training.
In April, I had the honor of speaking at the Possible Woman Conference about social media marketing. Among the brands represented, by over 400 women attending the event, were sales reps and leaders from Avon. I saw first hand their enthusiasm mixed with confusion and frustation about how to leverage social media. After one of my sessions an Avon rep spent two-hours talking about her social media efforts with a speaker from the panel.
Sidebar: Founded by the visionary Linda Wind, Possible Woman is an excting conference that brings inspiration and leadership training to women in business.
Although Avon sales reps are currently involved in social media many still have challenges regarding how to start and/or how to take their initiatives to the next level. In addition to the training we suggest that Avon consider developing a series of template models for Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
9. AVON MOBILE APP: Smart phones and tablets have opened additional eCommerce channels and created new ways to engage with customers. With the ubiquity of smart phones branded apps continue to grow in popularity. Research conducted by Women at NBCU’s Brand Power Index found that women are more likely to have gaming apps on their smart phone (75%of women versus 67 % of men). What fun it would be for Avon to explore developing a gaming app and of course, a mobile commerce app.
10. SOCIAL MEDIA MEASUREMENT: Including social media as part of a marketing communications strategy can help accelerate achieving your goals. However, with so many moving pieces, Avon doesn’t need more measurement, they to identify the ones that matter most, their Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and report, track and be prepared to take action on them.
Maybe, if Avon follows this plan, it would let Warren Buffet and Coty know just who they're dealing with .. a Top 50 Cosmetic Brand. No matter how this plays out Avon's legacy of empowering women will be part of history.
Some great brands have turned their business around by realizing and reaching out to their strongest asset .. their community. After all, they call it Social Media for a reason.
What are your thoughts? Do you think it's not too late for Avon and their 5.8 million sales reps to join the Social Media party or is the cake too stale?
There I've said it. Now I'm definitely out of the P-closet. That does sound a bit odd .. well you know what I mean.
Couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of conducting a members only web cast for the American Marketing Association on Pinterest. The approach I took was a little different than the millions (not an exaggeration!) of webinars, presentations and posts that help you through the logistics of how to pin. Important no doubt but here at Diva Marketing it's a focus on the strategy and tactics versus the logistics.
I have so much 'good stuff' to share that I thought a series on Pinterest might be fun. Oh no Toby not another Pinterest post! Well, yes but we'll look at Pinterest a little differently.
As my friend Barb Giamanco the diva of social media for sales said to me - I get B2C but other then showing the "human side" of a B2B company I'm not sure of the application benefits. So we'll explore verticals and brands that you might not think "fit" in a social visual communication network.
Social Visual Communication
Vocabulary matters. No more pinboards when you talk to the C-suite please.
A CMO of a prominent B2B company recently told me she thought of Pinterest as a game for moms and didn't consider a "pinboard" a serious business tactic. Rather reminds me of the days of when blogs were called journals or diaries. Love this quote:
However, along the way we learned that if we thought a little differently that blogs could support business objectives. The rest, as they say, is social media history.
With Pinterest it's not only a matter of looking at the world a little differently .. but repositioning to include concepts and language that the C-suite (CMO,CEO) can understand and "get." As social media becomes more sophisticated and is integrated into the life style of our customers, it is no longer is a rogue tactic that flies under the radar and suddenly becomes the darling of the company. There is too much at stake.
I'm suggesting that we use the term Social Visual Communication.
We'll talk strategy, target market, customer insights of course. However, there are so many people that are off and running that I want to start inside out. With very basic website tactics.
Six Tips on How To Make Your Website Pinterest Friendly
1. When you're planning content on your site include an image as part of each text article
2. If you're not serving videos publicly e.g. YouTube include a graphic near the video.
3. Graphics should align with your brand promise and values.
4.Consider what images your target audience will feel comfortable pinning.
5. Consider how your banner is created. If someone wants to pin your page versus an article is there a non flash image that can be taken?
6. Last, but important since people are still hesitant to pin because of copyright issues*, indicate that you encourage pinning. Best placement would be above the fold. *Poll taken during the AMA Pinterest webcast .. 80% of respondents were hesitant to go forward with Pinterest because of legal issues.
Bonus if you're really forward thinking: I do believe the Pinterest format: horizontal, graphics, sharing will become integrated into websites as the norm.
Read more .. Diva Marketing Interviews with smozy/Kotex and Microsoft
By default this series began a few weeks ago with an interview with the CEO,Yael Linen-Zuchman, of an Israeli digital agency smoyz and the brand manager of their client Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly. They launched an innovative Pinner Relations (think blogger relations) program.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing BJ O'Hare, the woman in charge of Microsoft's Mouse Design Pinterest contest.
Reach out if I can help you with a Pinterest strategy. As you might guess, I've been sipping the Koolaid on this one (smile).
This week I had the amazing opportunities to particiapte in two "taking online offline" experiences. Experiences I would never had if it were not for Diva Marketing, blogging and of course social media. Friendships I would not have made if I had not take a risk.
I joined BBF Lynn Epsteinas part of Everywhere's, a social media marketing firm, ongoing Wise Women series where women share their stories with the Everywhere staff. The other was at digital agency Engauge where I was part of a blogger influencer discussion with about 10 other women.
We had wonderful, interesting discussions. As you'd expect, if there was disagreement people were gracious and considerate.
I've been living in the digital world for almost 8 years (Diva Marketing celebrates it's 8th year in May). OMG! that sounds like something from the Matrix. The reality is, at least for me, it's more E.T.. Not as scary and if you're open to possibilities beyond your safe world magic can happen .. including new friendships, opportunities and inspiration.
Before, as Neo says in the Matrix, "anything is possible" and you can collect the benefits from socal media, you have to step out.
Talking to new bloggers this week at the Possble Women conference I was reminded that one of the risks in social media participation opens the door for people to "talk back." In the the offline world, where you are face-to-face and see expressions and body language, that usually doesn't present a big challenge.
Girlfriend, I well understand those new Jimmy Choos can be wobbly when you first try to walk in them. Shh .. don't tell anyone but my first comments I was so nervous to post I must have rewritten them at leat half a dozen times. It was with a deep breath that I clicked on the comment publish link.
Kris Ruby, in his MSN Business On Main article, asked nine entrepreneur for their advice on how to handle anonymous negative comments. Skip over and take a look .. and then come back please.
Considering different opinions, hearing new points of view is part of our on-going learning experiences .. online or offline. If you do disagree and add your voice to the converstation, please keep in mind that your words are taken to heart .. be kind. Kindness is the new little black dress!
Let's Have FUN!
MSN Business On Main/Diva Marketing Small Business Tip Contest ~ Win $100!
Your challenge is to share 1 idea on the new little black dress .. social media kindness. How can we ensure that if we if we agree to disagree we treat each other with respect and consideration?
Rules of MSN The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Mail Post.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing. Important! If youdon't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing in your comment you cannot qualify for the $100 prize.
3. Winner is at the pleasure of Diva Marketing with the help of Max, of course!
4. Contest ends midnight May 11, 2012.
5. You must be at least 18 years of age
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
This wraps up my blogger relations series with MSN Business On Main. Hope you enjoyed the contests and the added resources that MSN Business On Main provided to Diva Marketing's post. My lessons learned were it forced me to write more and to think outside of the box to ensure that the content created stayed true to Diva Marketing's mission of sharing learnings about social media marketing.
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MSN Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Pinterest, the darling of food and fashion pinners, is on a hyper growth slope with brands that at first glance have nothing to do with "life style" e.g. business-to-business, technlogy, software, finance, miliatry, staffing companies and more. Hop over to my Pinterest brand board .. Brands Beyond The Expected to see 101 (and counting!) examples.
As we've seen with Kotex (Diva Marketing interview with the brand manager and agency) brands are exploring ways to engage with customers that go beyond a pin and comment.
Contests are hot hot hot on Pinterest. When I came across an interesting sweepstakes from Micrsoft I wondered if Pinterest contests could really work for tech companies. BJ O'Hare, social media lead for Microsoft Hardware Team, graciously agreed to tell us the back-story in a Diva Marketing Mini Case Interview. Thanks to Kristina Libby for the intro.
About BJ O'Hare - BJ O’Hare is the Social Media Lead for the Microsoft Hardware Team. Over the course of her career, BJ has combined her passion for interpersonal engagement with her enthusiasm for technology to develop expertise in the realm of social media and marketing.
In her current role, BJ is responsible for the management of all Microsoft Hardware social channels including its Blog, Twitter Handle and Facebook page, which she worked to launch in late 2011. She also collaborates closely with Windows and its social channels, particularly its Pinterest page.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Of all the tactics Microsoft could have chosen to create awareness for its new mouse designs, which by the way are very cool and fun, why Pinterest?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: Pinterest is a great way to virtually express yourself and be creative. The new mouse designs are very expressive and appeal to people looking for ways to personalize their everyday life, so Pinterest was a good fit for this Microsoft Hardware campaign.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Were there other social networks/social media and/or marketing initiatives included in the campaign?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: It was promoted on various Microsoft Facebook & Twitter pages as well as Microsoft blogs. It was also a discussion topic during a Windows Tech Tuesday #winchat which is a weekly Twitter chat held by the Windows PR and social media teams from 12-1pm PT on Tuesdays. The chats cover a variety of topics from partner products to consumer trends. To participate in a chat follow @windows or @windowsblog and the hashtag #winchat.
Diva Marketing/Toby: How did Microsoft create initial awareness of the sweepstakes?
BJ O’Hare/Mircosoft: We announced the sweepstakes by partnering with the Windows team and promoting the campaign on various Microsoft Facebook & Twitter pages and on Microsoft blogs and continue to promote on those channels.
We also add new images every few days so there are fresh pins for people to use so they will continue to stay engaged with our boards.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What were your goals for the sweepstakes?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: Our main goal was to generate awareness of the new colors and artist designs through engagement with an audience that is active on Pinterest, and looking for colorful and rich assets to decorate their boards with. We also wanted to increase followers of our boards and generate repins. Diva Marketing/Toby: Can you share a high level of the results?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: We generated awareness which resulted in an increase of followers and re-pins.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Were the results what you had expected? Can you tell us why or why not?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: The audience that uses Pinterest is interested in images that they can use to decorate their boards. This was a successful campaign and allowed users to do that through repinning Microsoft mouse designs. We were successful in generating awareness and increasing our followers and repins by using colorful and stylish images.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Did you do any analysis of the pins/boards for consumer insights e.g. Designs most pinned, pin/board descriptors, etc. If so what did you consider?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: We did some simple analysis which included designs vs color images pinned, repinning the contest pin, pin & board descriptors, and group of images vs single item images. We are also doing some analysis on product images vs lifestyle images.
Diva Marketing/Toby: I noticed that the contest board is now the last board on the page. When the contest was running was it the 1st board? Also, do you plan to keep the contest board or delete it like Kotex did with theirs?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: When the contest was running it was in the first row of boards so it was clear to see. We have new sweepstakes we’ve run since Spring Inspirations and now currently Mother’s Day which is the 1st first board you see. We are building our long term strategy for what the presence of contest boards looks like after the contest has finished.
Diva Marketing/Toby: If you were to redesign the campaign, in retrospect, what would you do differently?
BJ O’Hare/Mircosoft: When using Pinterest as a platform to promote campaigns, each will have a variety of different tactical components that will work. For this campaign, we achieved what we set out to do.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What lesson learned can you share with us?
BJ O’Hare/Microsoft: Pinterest is a great way to virtually express yourself and be creative. Since we had such great artists that designed amazing art on our mice, Pinterest proved to be a great vehicle to promote this initiative.
This was a collaborative effort between the Microsoft Hardware and Windows teams and may not be representative of what other teams at Microsoft are doing with Pinterest.
To learn more about our Pinterest contest, please visit the Windows Team Blog. If you’re interested in learning more about Microsoft Hardware and Windows, please explore the following:
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend playground time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly. A time to go off topic.
Truly wonderful the mind of a child is. - YODA, Star Wars
What do children have to do with social media marketing? Nothing. Everything.
When was the last time you attempted to try something new without benefit of strategy, research or group consensus? Even outside of a work environment adults incorporate these three safe guards to make decision. Stay with me on this one.
We even use these safe guards when we're taking a fun family trip. Strategy: What will you pack? We need a (planning) list. Research: Are the reviews on Yelp more credible than on Trip Adviser? Group Consensus: Let's vote. Who wants to go to the beach and who wants to go to the mountains?
I know what you're thinking. "Hey, Toby you've been talking to us for the past 27 billion years about the importance of planning and strategy." Well, it's really been only 8 which in social media years is just about 27 billion years so I guess you're right.
Sometimes I think we think too much and the innovative ideas blow by us like danilion seeds.
Our friends at MSN Business on Main have some interesting content posted about young adults who dived into business. One is a video about how two college pals created a summer job, College Hunks Moving Junk (love the name!), that morped into a mulit-million dollar business.
At the time their risk was small .. a start-up for the summer. Sure there were learning and growing pains that might have been avoided if a plan and research had been in place but would the business exist?
The other is an article fostering entrepreneurship in young children and quotes Dr. Cathy Ashmore, founder, Consortium for Entrepreneurship Education. I had the pleasure of taking part in the intial planning session (oops! that word) for the Consortium Forum 2012, 30th year education in entrepreneurship conference, taking place in Atlanta in November. Truly an amazing event that I encourage anyone who is involved in teaching children about entrepreneurship to attend.
I can't help but wonder how many children might have followed a different path if they had been given the confidence and told it was okay to catch a few danilion seeds blowing in the wind. Innovation first. Planning second.
If you're interested in helping children explore the path of owning a business skip over to Lemonade Day a nonprofit that offers an ".. experiential learning program where communities across the nation unite to teach youth how to start, own and operate their own business through a lemonade stand."
Let's circle back .. what do dandilions, summer jobs, lemonade stands and children have to do with social media marketing? You connect the virtual dots and tell me!
That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. - Walt Disney
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MSN Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Jessica Robyn, a typical millennium and 7-year Facebook member, has not seen any of the new time lines for brands.
You see, on January 13, 2012 Jessica disabled her account and began an experiment of "Life Without Facebook."
This quasi social media reality series with Gen Y Jessica Robyn takes us into her world of Life Without Facebook where she offers her insights into the questions: Why? What now? How do you exist without Facebook?
Read Jessica Robyn's Life Without Facebook ~ A Veiw From Gen Y Interviews Part #1Part #2Part #3 Part #4
We found it interesting that Jessica's posts have been the basis for talking points for parents to discuss Facebook with their children. Brand managers have also gained insights.
We also discovered people were not only curious about how Jessica is living without her online peeps, but how her friends are reacting. We thought it would be fun to ask a few so we formalized the process into an online survey.
Here are a few comments from the question - What was your your reaction when you discovered I disabled my Facebook?
"I was very skeptical. Porter was ALL about facebook in her hayday."
"I couldn't believe it."
"I thought it was cool since I had disabled mine before in the past."
Diva Marketing/Toby: Your friends were really supportive of you disengaging from Facebook. Although some people thought it was a joke. But they miss you. Did anyone’s comments surprise you?
Jessica Robyn: I laughed a lot reading Greg’s answer that parents being on Facebook ruined it. It’s funny cause I think out of all my friends my dad was one of the first to join Facebook. That is why I was glad there were so many privacy settings.
Diva Marketing/Toby: I found it interesting that it wasn't one of your friends who want to see you back on Facebook but someone from the boomer generation , Auntie Kaye. - “Holy cow, how will I be able to see what is going on in your life?”
Why did you think that is? What are you doing to stay in touch with Auntie Kaye?
Jessica Robyn: I think Facebook is just an easier way to at a glance find out what a bunch of people are doing at once and what’s new in their lives. I know Auntie Kaye liked seeing pictures of what I was doing and who I was out with so clearly that hasn’t been happening. We have emailed and talked on the phone to keep in touch.
Diva Marketing/Toby: You’ve been off Facebook for almost 3 months now. Have you missed anything, other than chatting with your friends, from not being on Facebook?
Jessica Robyn: It’s weird cause I wasn’t really missing Facebook or thinking about it until a few weeks ago.
One of my close friends was throwing a surprise party for another one of our mutual friends and I found out about a week or so after that I wasn’t invited. She called me a few days later to apologize explaining that she and another person planned the party mostly via a private facebook event and she forgot to let me know outside of that resource.
I know at the time I wasn’t physically out or around as often (I sprained my ankle and have been recovering), but I had still been in contact with her via text message and email. I wasn’t on her mind during those conversations to invite me. To be honest, I was a little hurt, but I was also expecting something like this might happen.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Your friends have given you all sorts of suggestions for when you should go back on Facebook:
One year from the day you gave it up. 365 days of life without fb!
When you feel like you can use it on your terms. Don't get sucked into anything you don't want to!
Totally up to you. It is more a part of a younger person's world- but not essential. Certainly a nice resource to have- but not at the expense of meaningful relationships.
What do you want to say to them?
Jessica Robyn: I think the one year idea is interesting, but I have no idea if that will happen. I think a few of my friends know me well enough, are supportive, and also understanding which is why none of their responses shocked me.
I will reactive my account at some point and hopefully whenever that happens it won’t be as big of a part of my life as it previously was and I can manage my time on there better.
Recently Jay Baerasked a question on his blog that led to over 100 comments. Based on an interview that Guy Kawasaki conducted with INC Magaine, Jay wanted to know, "Is social media strategy required or redundant?" As I began to join the comment thread, I realized that my response was a "post" and not a "comment." Toss of a pink boa to Jay for inspiring this post.
From the content on Diva Marketing, you can probably guess which side of the fence I'm on. Not to make things more complicated, but especially in social media marketing, you can't expect to build a strategy without first understanding the "tools" e.g. blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. etc. etc.
Much of our learning about social media/networking is derived from experience and experimentation.
When a new social network tool hits the virtual scene making the decision to include or not to include and when takes you down a different road than if you were to incorporate email, advertising or public relations. Why? Glad you asked.
Answer: We have no history to base our decision. At the early stage there are probably few examples from specific industries or customer bases. Dare I say it, at this point in the game there are no "best practices." It's not a surprise that many marketers take the wait and watch approach.
Although I agree strategy is critical, in order to determine if a technology should be considered you must first understand the tool. Although most social networking platforms include some sort of engagement and sharing features, each new category tool is slightly different. Each also brings a unique set of benefits and challenges.
I created a 4 step, call it a road map, to help you think thought the process. Let's use the newest darling of the social networks -- Pinterest as an example.
New Social Media Network Road Map
I. Before You Begin Questions
1. Does the brand lend itself to social visual content/communication?
2. Do we have the resources e.g. time, people and budget to create and maintain?
3. Will our customers and prospects enjoy and use this tool? Note: Your answer to this may be "yes" but your customers may not be using the technology yet. Now would be a good time for early learnings and testings.
4. Is our culture open to learning without direct ROI? Note: In the early stages of a social media technology don't fool yourself that you know where the real benefits will occur.
5. What unique issues might your company face? For Pinterest that might include: Terms of service, copyright, pinabilty of your own visuals.
II. Tool Specifics Incorporated Into Enterprise Social Media Guidelines
Example social network: Pinterest
Note: We'll assume that your company has created Enterprise Social Media Guidelines. If not here are some examples.
Note: These are not strategies
1. What type of graphics are appropriate and which are not?
2. What type of sites will you pin from and which will you avoid?
3. How will you manage Terms of Service and copyright?
4. How will links to your pins be handled?
5. How will attribution be acknowledged?
III. Create A Whisper Campaign
1. To learn in a (relatively) safe environment, I encourage clients to explore and experiment with the tool by creating a page that does not relate to the company, brand or aspects of their personal lives that they don't want to share in a public forum.
Perhaps it's about a hobby, favorite sport or your favorite shoe designer. Not only will you have an understanding of the logistics but of the culture .. critical in social media/networks. Have fun, learn and when you're done feel free to delete the page.
2. Don't have time to develop your own knowledge base? Find support through a consultant who has done the ground work and understands not only the tool but how it can support your brand, your culture and that of the social network. She can share critical learnings as she guides you to avoid mishaps in a new social networking space.
IV. Strategy
Now you're ready to hit the strategy route.
You know the drill here: goals/objectives, metrics, content and the beat goes on .. Keep in mind there are two ways to incorporate social networks into your marketing or business plan.
1. Stand alone - the social network is maintained as a long-term tactic.
2. Integrated - into other initiatives e.g. advertising campaign, trade show, new product launch campaign. For the most part, integrating social media into an imitative has a beginning, middle and end.
An example is the Pinterest Kotex Campaign where the boards were deleted after the campaign was over. (Diva Marketing Post: Kotex + Pinterest + Innovative Campaign) Or for a trade show the social media/networking elements may live forever on a special micro site.
Seems we can’t turn a virtual corner without bumping into a post about the hottest social network Pinterest.
What started as a playground for mostly women to share life style images is morphing into a serious business platform. Many brands, B2b, B2C, as well as, nonprofit and even the military and higher ed are pinning.
Recently I was contacted by an Israeli agency about a Pinterest campaign that they launched for Kotex: Kotex Inspiration Day.The strategy capitalized on Pinterest in an innovative way beyond brand pins on a board. Let’s call it a “Pinterst” relationship strategy a la blogger relations. In fact, it might be the first. But I can assure you it will not be the last.
Yael Linen-Zuchman, CEO of the agency smoyz, kindly agreed to fill us in on the back-story, offer her insights about the strategy and share some lessons learned.
About Yael Linen-Zuchman, CEO of smoyz. She is a 30 year-old who graduated with a BA in business in 2009 at IDC Herztelia Israel. She established smoyz, a creative agency in 2010. She's "always looking for the next (simple yet brilliant) big thing."
About smoyz. A creative agency founded in 2010. smoyz is an agency for unique marketing on New Media, specializing in creative and novel content activities and building optimal platform for the brand on the web.
In several questions Yael asked Eran Sion, Digital Marketing Manager at Hogla-Kimberly to share his views. We have a unique view of the campaign from two perspectives: the brand and the agency.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Yael, let’s start at the beginning. How did the idea to reach out to pinners come about?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: To communicate the launch of "Kotex Design" designed pads and panty liners by Kotex. We searched for an innovative social platform where women can express themselves freely and openly in a unique way.
Pinterest, and especially pinners, were found to be the best candidates because of the simple and brilliant (and not too invasive) way Pinterest works. In one simple action (pin) you can express yourself.
Diva Marketing/Toby: So, if I understand you, it seems that before you could reach out to women to give them the unique gifts from Kotex you first had to identify them and Pinterest was how you chose to do that.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: That is correct!
Diva Marketing /Toby: Although you were going into a new area of social marketing… call it social visual communication, as marketers we seem to always be held to the standard of achieving goals/objectives. What were the goals/objectives that the client wanted to achieve for this program?
Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly: Kotex is "the underdog brand" at the feminine category in Israel and therefore we looked for a unique and unconventional activity that will encourage Israeli women to talk about the products and rethink their habits and attitude towards the brand.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Since this was a novel approach to Pinterest, what did you/smoyz want to learn from the experience that might have been different from Kotex’s goals?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: We generally think the same as Hogla-Kimberly. We were looking for an activity that would generate buzz around the product/brand. My brief was to create the conversation and maintain the brand as the creator of the move.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Creating a YouTube video to tell your story of the brand strategy was nothing short of brilliant. Note: if you have not seen the video it's worth a click and watch.
In the video you indicated that 50 women were contacted. Let’s dive into what many marketers would like to understand .. your process of the hows and whys. Now, we’re not expecting you to give away any trade secrets Yael but a high level over view would be great.
How were the women identified? In other words was it done manually or through technology?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: The women were identified by a few categories: viral, trendsetters and active on pinterest (many profiles on pinterest are open though not active enough to be relevant for this campaign). The women were identified first via social media monitoring and analysis technology and then manually picked the most inspiring ones.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Did smoyz and Kotex develop a set of criteria e.g. age, country, type of interests, etc?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: We looked for profiles / pictures that could creatively be transformed into "real life products."
Diva Marketing /Toby: I guess it goes without saying, the women were from Israel (smile). Was an “influencer” or “power pinner” part of your criteria? If so how did you define that e.g. by number of pins, followers, ect?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: Yes, an influencer & power pinner were part of our criteria; we looked for profiles which are both active and both viral (followers wise).
Diva Marketing /Toby: What were some of the challenges that you encountered?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: The main challenge was to make the pinners cooperate with a commercial activity owned by Kotex. Because we were very accurate and relevant to the Pinners, we received fantastic collaboration.
Diva Marketing /Toby: From the video it seemed as though the gifts were a surprise. I’m curious as to how the women’s addresses were located.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: After monitoring an inspiring pin we prepared the gift and pinned a photo on our Pinterest profile (Get Inspired). Then, on each pin that we monitored we commented and added a link to the gift, in order to receive the gift all they needed to do was repin our photo.
The repin was a signal of their interest, the addresses were taken via personal message approach. We used both the @ symbol and both the pin & like in order to get their attention properly.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Your results were beyond impressive; especially since the women posted across multiple social networks. How did you track the analytics? Note: almost 100% participation.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: Technical social media monitoring and manually monitoring these 50 women.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Yael , I’d love to see how the women positioned their pins? Can you share a couple of the Pinterest board with our community?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyze: The profile we created, was deleted and no longer exist, that's why you can't see the photos. We decided to open the Kotex Pinterest "Get Inspired" profile temporarily and closed it after the campaign. (Note: Eran addresses this approach further below.)
Following are some of the women who participated in the Pinterest Kotex campaign.
Diva Marketing /Toby: My friends (and I admit me too!) are so curious .. what were some of the presents that were in the boxes? That must have been a fun part of the project .. making sure the gifts reflected the pinner’s interests.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: This was the most amazing part of the campaign. After locating each womens inspiration smoyz team went out for an inspiration treasure hunt.
We went to markets, malls, searched the internet..and finally bought 50 unique inspiring gifts. After buying these gifts artists designed on these gift the new kotex design look. Among the gifts:
A women pinning cat photos received two bowls designed and with her cats names. (Note: Maxie pup approves!)
A women that pinned sweets, got a kotex designed jar full of hearted sweets.
A women that pinned cupcakes & got kotex designed cupcakes.
A young girl pinned diaries & got a pocket diary with her name painted on the diary.
A women that pinned pastry-cooking stuff received a cooking kit designed with her initials.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Yael what fun .. buying presents. I want that job! By the way, does Kotex have a Pinterest page? And if they do would you be so kind as to give us the link? If not are any plans in the works that you can share with us?
Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly: We believe that any activity on behalf of the brand, should give true value to our consumers and reflect the core values of the brand. The latest activity did just that. We are in a constant search for a platform that will enable us to provide added value to our consumers – It does not have to be a long lasting engagement, short term relations are also welcome.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Interesting approach to Pinterest and social media. Not only short term boards for campaigns but taking them down after the run of the campaign. Eran, I'm curious .. why wouldn’t Kotex want the long-term awareness that the board would bring?
Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly: The main goal of our digital platforms is to promote awareness to the brand and we support them constantly. Nevertheless it would be ambitious to create constant excitement on behalf of Kotex on a Pinterest profile; but due the success of the "Kotex Inspiration Day" activity, we will examine our long term presence on the platform.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Diva Marketing is all about learning from each other. Yael, would you please share a couple of the overall lessons that you learned?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz:
In my opinion New media marketing in 2012 is all about creating intimate moments with the brand.
These amazing platforms enable the brands to touch their audience in the most intimate way.
Conventional advertising and marketing cannot stand alone today without a simple yet brilliant touch to blow people away and create a real organic engagement.
Diva Marketing /Toby: In the tradition of Diva Marketing interviews, you get the last word. So the virtual stage is yours .. wrap it up any way you’d like.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: Would it be cheesy if I quote my most favorite one? Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication -- Leonardo de Vinci
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend playground time to be sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
If you don't have a dream how you gonna have a dream come true? - South Pacific
Social media is built by people who dream and create. Two qualities of what I think of defines the entrepreneurial spirit.
Even if you're not developing a new social widget or strategy, but are exploring and using social media, I believe you have some of that spirit. You're thinking in new ways, trying a different approach. Toss of a pink boa to you! By the way, in an innovative imitative Babson College is asking people to define "entepreneurialship."
Entepreneurs inspire. We look at their accomplishments and perhaps we're encouraged to take our dream one step further. We look at the lessons learned that they pass along and take a few to heart. Perhaps we'll stumble over one less rock in the road. I'd like to introduce you to a couple of people who took a chance and are making their dreams come true .. some beyond their own expectations.
Think that fashion and bargains are just for divas. Think again. Jason Ross, founder of JackThreads tapped into guys who want to be cool on a budget. He built an eCommerce sample site ..with a twist. It was members only. Every aspect, from the products to the photography reinforces the brand value and promise.
"We're kind of like the Robin Hood of men's clothing, minus the grand larceny and the pointy hat." - Jason Ross. MSN Business On Main has a great interview with Jack. Worth a click and a watch. @jackthreadsJackThreadsFacebook
This week in Atlanta, the Digital Divas, a SIG of the AiMA (Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association), brought together a panel of women entrepreneurs. Lynne Laube, President and Co-Founder, Cardlytics; Caroline Van Sickle, Founder/CEO, Pretty in My Pocket and Kris Zagoria, founder, Moxie Interactive shared their stories and lessons learned of taking start-up companies to multi million dollar enterprises.
I find it interesting what people take away from a speech. In tweets, here are some what the audience found inspirational.
Let's Have FUN .. You Can Win $100!
MSN Business On Main/Diva Marketing Small Business Tip Contest
Your challenge is to share 1 idea on what inspires you when it comes to tapping into your entrepreneurial spirit.
Rules of MSN The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Mail Post. If youdon't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing you cannot qualify for the $100 prize.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing
3. Winner is at the pleasure of Diva Marketing.
4. Contest ends midnight Saturday April 14, 2012.
5. You must be at least 18 years of age
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
That's it .. now it's your turn! Wouldn't $100 a great way to say thank you to You?
Looking forward to your ideas!
Thanks Rob for the edit!
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MSN Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Sometimes the smart people can be the most naive when it comes to social media and social networks.
In the post I wrote on employee personal branding I offered the premise that an employee's digital personae will likely be affilated with their employee's brand during, as well as after, employment ends. Hold that thought please.
When I teach, especially social media workshops, I make every attempt to create what I call a "social media offline environment." As with social media online, although I have material to present, listening and sharing play important roles. Adults learn best from peer-to-peer interaction and people are generous to share their own lessons learned.
I want to pass along a story that a participant, a small business owner, shared of how she discovered one of her managment employees felt his job was boring and un-challenging. Let's call the business owner Ruth and the employee Bert.
To frame this, the guy was in his early thirties and not at the beginning of his career path. He had been using Facebook, Twitter and LInkedIn for personal and professional use for several years. One afternoon at work, he dropped a seemingly innocent remark on his Facebook wall (privacy setting set to allow friends only) that he was bored with his job and was looking for a new position.
You can easily connect the series of dots and dashes. A "friend" who wanted to be helpful to his friend's job search efforts, copied the update and sent it to someone who sent it to someone who sent it to the business owner.
As Ruth told our class, sometimes the best intentions of placing what you think is the right person in the right position just don't work. When she read Bert's post she had a lot of emotions. She was angry. She felt betrayed. She also was concerned about the perceptions people might have of the company, as well as, the job that she would sooner than later have to fill.
Her company was a small business where she tried to create a trusting environment. Evidently Bert didn't feel comfortable discussing his concerns with his manager or even with her. Ruth was at a cross road at how to handle the sitution. Was she not utilizing Bert's capabilities? Should she find another opportunity for him? Hop over to MSN On Main for some ideas on how to identify "diamond in the rough employees" that you may be overlooking.
As our in class discussion continued, it was became more obvious that the bigger issue for Ruth was the trust that she felt had been broken. In social media we talk a lot about building trust in the digital world. However, sometimes we forget that trusted relationships are continuously being played out in on-line public forums. We can impact people (and organizations) casually mentioned in a tweet, update or even a pin. Often these people don't belong to our merry band of of Follwers, Likes, Friends, Connects, Pinees, or well .. you get the idea.
In this situation we have three smart people who were naive about the impact of social media. Bert of course. Ruth who should have offered training and established guidelines to her staff. The third is Bert's friend who was only trying to help find a a pal a new job.
Lessons Learned: There are no gated communities on-line. Don't post what you don't want passed along. Employers it is critical to teach your employees good social media/networking etiquette and periodically remind them of your corporate guidelines.
You do have social media/networking guidelines? Excellent! I knew you did. Just in case you want to freshen them up .. here's a post with links to many examples.
I left off the ending purposely. Wondering how would you handle the situation?
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MSN Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Do you remember Tom Peters’ innovative Fast Company article The Brand Called You?
Back in the ‘90’s Peters presented what for the time was an unusual concept: employees could position themselves, within their organizations, as though they were a brand. His idea was employees were more than cogs in a corporate wheel. By taking a lesson from how marketers branded products people could successful manage and grow their careers.
There have been volumes written about how to create a “personal brand” including right here on Diva Marketing posted in 2009. However, social media and social networks have added an interesting dimension.
What if ..
your employer helped you develop your personal brand to the benefit of both you and them?
What if ..
then you both leveraged the credibility, visibilty and goodwill of each to create a an earned halo effect that supports and aligns your values and the company's brand promise?
Answer: You have an Employee Personal Branding Strategy.
Enterprises which place a value on encouraging employee branding, experience multiple benefits. For instance it strengthens corporate branding both internally and externally. When an organization helps its employees create their brand for mutual value, from the company’s point of view, many positives can occur from decreasing business costs to increasing market awareness.
Six Benefits of Employee Personal Branding
1. Industry knowledge transfer which may decrease training costs
2. Trend identification which may present new product development and sales opportunities
3. Stronger collaboration with subject matter experts which may increase logistic efficiencies
4. Increased leadership development which may decrease recruitment acquisition costs
5. Employees can serve as brand champions increasing visibility within the industry and building important relationships with customers, prospects, influencers and thought leaders.
6. Improved corporate brand perception which can positively affect not only marketing goals, but improve recruiting top people to the organization by becoming a more desirable place to work. This is the ultimate “halo effect.”
Employee personal branding is a aspect of social business that I believe will become increasingly critical as employees take for granted using social networks, like LinkedIn, to cultivate relationship building opportunities.
On the flip side, organizations are neglecting low cost ways to increase brand awareness, credibility and goodwill through the people who know their brand the best .. their employees.
I am excited to be working with Bernie Borges to create an important training workshop sponsored by the American Marketing Association: Personal Branding within in the Corporation. Please enjoy this podcast where Bernie and I take you on a deeper dive of this exciting concept.
Update: After my conversation with John Cass, I'm adding one more
What if ..
the "halo influence" of employer/employee continues even after you leave an organization. Why not work together to create a mutual beneficial employee digital presence .. for the present and the future?
In real life, strategy is actually very straightforward. You pick a general direction and implement like hell. – Jack Welch
As BBF B.L. Ochman recently reminded me, social media has been around, and included in varying degrees (!), as a business initiative for the past ten years. Although most marketers agree social media is not a fad there is still a debate on what is social media. Is social media a strategy or is social media a tactic?
Just One Crowd Sourced Question
I was curious to understand what and why marketers thought on this issue and thought it would be a great question for Diva Marketing's sometimes series: Just One Crowd Sourced Question.
I reached out to people within social networks and invited them to reach out to their networks and answer .. just one question. It's a quick turn around .. a few days to respond. The goal, of course, is to bring you diverse opinions so we can learn together.
"Strategy and tactics are about means and ends: they bridge the gap between our vision of the future and our day to day decisions. Both strategy and tactics are about deciding the means by which a goal is reached. Ultimately the goal of strategy as a concept is to find a rigorous and systematic way of making these decisions."
Or put another way .. strategy is identifying which song to sing and tactics are identifying how to sing it.Then sing it out loud and strong!
Out of the 17 responses received, most people felt that social media was both a strategy and a tactic.
It was interesting that several marketers considered social media to be neither. They came up with their own creative descriptives ranging from "a corporate culture and state of mind to a platform and communications tools."
Is Social Media A Strategy or Is Social Media A Tactic?
Social Media Is A Strategy
1. Social media is a strategy for communicating and engaging in/expanding dialogue with your brand's consumers/advocates/constituents. Sure, it's one tactic for broadcast marketing messages, but successful use of social media includes using it as a customer service, just as much as a marketing, tool.
Developing a strategy prior to implementing social media ensures that your company has the resources/manpower to keep it running; that you have the tools in place to measure its value; that you'll know what to do with it with a crisis strikes; and that you get the bang for your buck integrating cross-departmental use (customer service department, communications department, user experience, operations, etc.). - Laura Bellinger@madamebelle
2. Utilizing social media is a strategy. Tactics are how you accomplish the goal. Interestingly the idiom for strategy is "tools of the trade". - JoAnn Hines Packaging Diva
3. Because it helps to get your name/product out in the world by a host of different means. - AmyJo
Social Media Is A Tactic
1. While you can have a strategy for your social media program, it is a tactic within your overall marketing tool kit. It should be one element of a complete business/marketing strategy that aligns with business goals and objectives. - Katharine McMahon @marketingbykat
2. I think it is more of a Tactic than a strategy. A strategy is what you need to do to implement your goal(s). The tactics are the How's. Moreover, I believe that Social Media is more of a connector - it's the glue that links the offline and the online efforts of your marketing campaigns, it connects you to your fans, would-be fans, competitors and general public. That is built-in market research right there. - Sue Duris President M4 Communications, Inc.
3. Like other forms of 'marketing' or engaging with your customer, social media exists to bring you face-to-face, either in real time or virtually. The strategy of your business needs to be finding the best ways to serve your customers - the tactic is in using social media, among other tools, to achieve that goal. - Yvonne DiVita, Lip-sticking
Social Media Is Both A Strategy And A Tactic
1. SM is a great tool (tactic) to achieve and meet goals, but it truly needs a strategy to be successful. Without the strategy, how do you know if the tool is working? - Rachel Simon @raksimon
2. Offense is strategic, Defense is tactical. I see the world of social as offense versus defense. Tactically, I see the defensive positioning of responding to comments about your brand. Strategically, I see the opportunity to remain in an offensive position - pushing social campaigns and predicting results so you can stage the next campaign (think business process flows for social campaigns). - David Favero @mdavidfavero
3. Social media needs to be addressed as part of every marketing strategy. With a coherent, cohesive strategy in hand, a tactical plan to execute social media is the next step. Hard to have any effective execution without connecting the dots to a strategy that advances the business case. - Nancy Chorpenning CSuiteAdvisors@CSuiteAdvisors
4. For most brands it is mainly a tactic that needs to be integrated into a larger marketing plans BUT, several smaller businesses are utilizing it as a full-blown strategy because of the cost barrier being perceived as being low.- Anon
5. Social is breaking down the walls in the market allowing buyers to engage in a collaborative buying process in peer to peer networks for decision support. Buyers are building a strategic business case to justify their recommended approach to solving business problems while building consensus to the decision with their teams.
If we are buyer-centric in our commitment to helping our buyers make better decisions then we need to find where strategic and tactical intersect. Tactical engagement in support of strategic relationships for business impact. – Judy Mod @JudyMod@SocialCouncil
6. Mmm.that's challenging because a Strategy (in marketing parlance) really should be an idea of how to execute a goal...like "nuke the enemy to achieve world dominance." And the tactic would be the tools you use to do this. So technically Social Media is a tactic, but surely there is some way to define social media as a strategy? Am I waffling here? – Anon
7. Social media may be a strategic marketing approach. The actual way you use SM is tactical.A marketing strategy might be to use SM to launch a new product. Actually posting your campaign on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. is a tactical exercise. - Maggie Buerger @getfamousfast
Neither A Strategy Nor A Tactic
1. Corporate culture, state of mind. For social media to be effective for a brand, it requires both the brand and its constituents to be willing to connect and engage. A brand that uses the tools just to promote misses the point of social.
On the flipside, brands that are willing to tell its story, listen to feedback, make the necessary changes AND defend certain key aspects of their 'personality' will eventually build trust and collaboration with their constituents which is the ultimate goal for any brand. - Jacqui Chew
2. Social media is a platform to communicate from one to many. Social media can be qualified as a medium for strategy or a tactic supporting a strategy if there is an objective for the platform. Without the two it is simply a Techology for publishing or consuming information. Peter Fasano @pfasano
3. Social media is a set of communication tools. Social media - media in which conversations can take place - is a set of tools in the communications toolbox. – Anon
4. It's a supporting arm of your marketing and communications goals. Not a strategy alone, but a strategic element that is comprised of many tactics. - Anon
Toss of a pink boa to everyone who shared their thoughtful insights!
My thanks to Candace McCaffery for her post that inspired this Just One Question post.
Here's my comment on her post (add me to the Both list):
I believe that social media demands a strategy of its own .. not unlike pr or marketing or customer care or (fill in the blank).
Assuming that social media touches all aspects of an organization, it's critical develoip an over arching direction that integrates with all BU/departments/employees who are impacted by its intrusion (I use intrusion not as a negative). Without that high level focus how can the brand promise or values be consistently represented internally and externally? How can we use social media to support business goals and objectives? How can we incorporate it into campaigns and use it as a digital conversation tool that becomes an asset unto itself?
Social media has evolved into more than just a channel, communication outreach or customer service vehicle. I would suggest that the "tools" of social media e.g. social networks, blogs, podcasts, blogger relations, etc. are the tactics under the umbrella of social media strategy.
Social media has evolved to command the same respect as other marketing/communication disciplines to be consider a 'strategy."
Show of hands please. When you were a kid, did your folks make you send thank yous after receiving gifts? My hand is raised.
Not a phone call. Oh no that would just not do! It was expected that I send a note. Some of you may remember those .. little letters that you put in an envelope added a postage stamp and mailed to the recipient.
MSN Business On Main has an interesting post by Ross McCammon on power of praising employees. He mentions some fascinating research from Chester Elton, author of The Carrot Principle - "The No. 1 driver of engagement is opportunity and well-being. The No. 1 driver of opportunity and well-being is recognition and appreciation."
The article set some thoughts in motion for me (always dangerous!). In a way, is not praise a way of saying thank you? Although I now appreciate the hand written thank you note (it's an amazing differentiator!), let's take the idea of saying "thanks" into the digital world and expand that praise/thanks to include both employees and customers.
For customers, let's do a little side step from the traditional customer loyalty programs that is more alturistic. We'e not going to include conditions. Not a sale. Not a referral. Not a like. Call it thank you without expectations. Sort of what Macy's did in the wonderful film Miracle on 34th Street - Diva Marketing post.
My Go Daddy story, in a tweet or two, that demonstrates Chester Elton's concepts. What began as an offline thank you phone call led to an online "share engagement."
Let's Have FUN!
MSN Business On Main/Diva Marketing Small Business Tip Contest ~ Win $100!
Your challenge is to share 1 idea on to use social media to thank or praise either an employee or a customer.
Continuing the tradition of a special guest judge for the MSN Small Business On Main contests, I am excited to introduce you to Heidi Cohen.
Heidi’s business focus is to simplify the complex concepts behind today’s evolving digital marketing challenges and to facilitate marketers’ grasp of new topics. Her blog includes practical and insightful tips that you can apply to your marketing challenges.
Rules of MSN The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Mail Post. If youdon't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing you cannot qualify for the $100 prize.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing
3. Winner is at the pleasure of Diva Marketing.
4. Contest ends midnight Saturday March 17, 2012.
5. You must be at least 18 years of age
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
That's it .. now it's your turn! Wouldn't $100 a great way to say thank you to You?
To help you jump start you .. skip over to Heidi Cohen's list of 21 Ways to Say Thank You Via Social Media. My favorite is #19 -- Interview them. Shining a pubic light on a person's expertice is a powerful way to show your appreciation while giving them something of value.
Looking forward to your ideas!
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MSN Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Over the past going, on eight years, of working in the social media industry I've had the pleasure of interviewing many amazing people. One question I often ask is,"What does social media mean to you?"
Sometimes the responses focused on the defining the tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs. Other times the answers centered on building customer relationships.
For me the tools are digital avenues to acheive the people-to-people end. As with our highways and byways, some will be around for a long time while others will be plowed under or turned back to sleepy paths seldom traveled on.
Author and strategist Brian Solis' answer was an ah ha oh yes moment. -- "We’re forming incredibly vibrant and extensive networks around relationships and interests. We’re learning how to live life in a very public, and searchable, space." Interview with Brian Solis
Brian addressed the critical relationship concept. Then he took it into a direction that most people are aware of but often sends chills up and down the spine. We are building relationships and networks in very public forums. Gone is the luxury of privacy.
MSN Business On Main has an interesting video interview with designer Camilla Olson. Her story caught my attention from a social media marketer's point of view. (Although her designs are most wonderful .. perhaps my next project will allow an indulgence for me to purchase one of Ms. Olson's pieces!)
Ms. Olson's big break came through a traditonal networking opportunity when a friend in a book club introduced her to James Franco's mom Betty Franco. Ms. Franco needed a fabulous gown for the Oscars .. and as they say in the movies Ms. Olson dressed her for her close up. Camilla Olson
In exploring her digital branding I found Ms. Olson is also active in multiple social channels. She's on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Linkedin, Blogs and Pinterest. A different world than a private book club networking connection.
Online Ms. Olson gives a glimpse of behind the scenes of in the design world. She also posts a photo of a personal moment with her daughter and Gloria Steinem. Post by post, tweet by tweet, comments that she makes on Pinterest boards give an image of a personal brand beyond her talents as a designer.
I applaud her efforts to "live in a public space." One might say that fashion designers, like models and people in the entertainment industry, should be use to living in the public. However, the social media public world is different.
It's not only traditional media that is snapping photos of stars as they walk the red carpet in designer gowns and jewels. It's you and you and you and me who has access to the most influencial media channel in history .. the Internet. That changes the game for everyone.
To the people who are authentically and bravely exploring what it's like to create and nurture relationships without the luxury of privacy .. a toss of a pink boa to you! My hope is that the agencies and companies who tap you for "brand champion" and blogger relations programs understand that it's not only "influence" you bring to party but the risk and courage you took to cultivate relationships and networks in a new world.
Perhaps the next time I interview some one instead of asking, "What does social media mean to you?" I should ask, "What does living in a public space without the luxury of privacy mean to you? How would you answer that question?
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
It's 2004. You're a college freshman. You and your friends sign up for a new internet platform called Facebook. It becomes an interactive scrapbook of your life.
Flash forward 7 years. You disengage from Facebook. Why??
This is a special Diva Marketing quasi social media reality series with Gen Y Jessica Robyn who takes us into her world of Life Without Facebook .. and offers her insights into the question Why?
Diva Marketing/Toby: Jessica, you disengaged from Facebook on January 13th. It's been about 4 weeks without the Big F. What are you missing the most?
Jessica Robyn: I miss the entertainment I got from Facebook. Reading posts, seeing pictures, and playing games via Facebook. It was a great way to amuse myself when I had down time. Now I have a new obsession for crossword puzzles. I even found a trivia app on my phone to entertain me on the go. At least my new obsessions are educational!
Diva Marketing/Toby: How has life without Facebook influenced your relationship with people who you don’t usually keep in contact with on a consistent basis?
Jessica Robyn: It’s been interesting. I've reached out more to some college friends who I have not seen in a while. I actually found out that one of my old roommates, who lives in New York, was going to be in Rhode Island. I live in Massachusetts, so we ended up meeting for drinks in Providence which was pretty awesome.
We haven’t seen each other in two years, but we still had a connection without Facebook which was pretty impressive.
Diva Marketing/Toby: What happens when those people who don’t have your eMail address or phone number need to get in touch with you?
Jessica Robyn: I perform at Rocky Horror Full Body Cast in Harvard Square. There was an occasion recently where someone from Rocky Horror had a few questions for me about something they were planning with the production.
I gave permission for people at the show to give her my cell number so she could contact me. But she never did. A couple of weeks later she told me she didn't like calling people on the phone and since she couldn’t find my Facebook she didn’t message me. I think if it was something of dire importance you could figure a way to contact me off of Facebook, even if you didn't have my contact information.
Diva Marketing/Toby: How about people you do keep in touch with on an ongoing basis. Tell us a story of how not having a Facebook page influenced you.
Jessica Robyn: Recently I had plans to go out with a friend; however, we just couldn’t agree on what to do for the evening so we ended up doing nothing. You know how that goes.
The next morning I started to miss Facebook. I am sure if I really wanted to go out I would have heard about a group of my friends going somewhere. Or I could have posted a status asking who was around and wanted to grab a drink. It didn’t really bother me about missing out on events until then.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Wondering what are the reactions from people who you meet who don’t know you’re not on Facebook and want to friend you.
Jessica Robyn: I haven’t encountered that yet. But I did meet someone right before I disabled my facebook. He was shocked I was going to disable my page and told me that Facebook was his only form of communication with his friends (I later found out he didn’t have a text messaging plan and doesn’t use his phone much. "Big L"). Needless to say, we didn’t keep in touch after that.
Diva Marketing/Toby: At this point are you glad you're off Facebook? Why?
Jessica Robyn: At this moment I would say absoultely. I have found myself being more productive throughout the day. Also instead of spending mind numbing hours sitting on facebook, like I mentioned before, I have been spending time doing cross words and trivia games ... working my mind which has been better than it turning to mush while mindlessly navigating around Facebook.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Anything that you're surprised about with life without Facebook?
Jessica Robyn: I think the most surprising element thus far has been all the exclusive deals or "you hear it first" type of deals that are promoted via Facebook. I heard of two different contests that in order to simply enter you needed to "like" their fan page, or a band releasing a song exclusively through Facebook. But for the most part, I haven't been too disappointed about my lack of Facebook yet.
Do you ever get a line from a film or a song or even a conversation playing over and over in your your mind? Some times for me it's not the exact words but the rhythm of the concept. Today the words were "winds of change" as it is portayed in the award winning film Chocolat (a def must see!)
These are the opening lines from the Storyteller of Chocolat: Once upon a time, there was a quiet little village ... So through good times and bad, famine and feast, the villagers held fast to their traditions. Until, one winter day, a sly wind blew in from the North...
I've been doing more work with organizations on what Bernie Borges and I termed "Corporate Personal Branding." I believe as sites like LinkedIn automatically pull data into a common corporate page; and employees' digital footprints continue to multiple throughout the Internet, organizations will realize this is a critical component of social business. It's an aspect that must be managed. Since it would be near impossible to review every employee's digital presence, most likely it will be managed through training and corporate culture norms and expectations.
Corporate Personal Branding Defined: The convergence of corporate branding and employee personal branding, based on the alignment of common values, supported by content creation and social media, for mutual benefit. As part of a planned strategy each (enterprise and employee) lends their goodwill and influence to the other. The result is a a halo effect that affords opportunities for common and unique goals to be acheived.
Of course the flip side is unless values are aligned and expectations set you can expect some degree of muddy footprints that might require industrial strengh cleaning.
Winds of change .. as we've seen time and again with social media as the catalyst. This time it's the fabric of the enterprise that is impacted .. the culture of the organization. Recently I've notice that more companies are taking the time to understand their corporate culture and how it impacts, not only customers, but employees.
No one understands this concept better than a small business owner. With a smaller employee base each person's impact on the work environment is felt. However, no matter how strong the personalites of your staff, culture is set from the CEO .. or the "boss." On MSN Business on Main Marcus Erp asked seven entrepreneurs for their tips on being a better boss. My favorite is #4 See employees as whole people.
Corporate Values Alignment Exercise
A successful enterprise is built on a culture that is true to yourself while also being true to the values of your brand/organization. To succeed employees must understand their own values and how they align with their company’s brand promise. To help you begin this exciting journey here are a couple of exercises that I often use with clients and in workshops.
Question 1: What 3 words would you use to describe your company's corporate culture? Example: Excellent customer serivce
Question 2: What 3 words would you use to describe your personal business values? Example: Cares about people
Question 3: What do you/can you do you to align you values with your company's brand value and promise. Example: Personal satisfaction from helping people quickly resolve their service challenges
Use the Front PORCH approach to building relationships based on corporate personal brand values.
People: Remember each person is unique and relationships are formed with “people” not a company logo.
Organize: Plan how, why and with whom you want to build professional relations (with).
Respect: Respect diverse opinions even when someone has challenges with your company's service, billing, etc.
Contact: Plan how frequently and through what media (phone, eMail, face-to-face, LinkedIn, etc.) you will keep in touch
Hospitality: Bring the culture of your organization into your relationships
Question 4: How will you build relationships that reinforce the culture of your company? Example: Be an advocate for the company brand online and offline.
Let's Have FUN!
MSN Business On Main/Diva Marketing Small Business Tip Contest ~ Win $100!
Your challenge is to share 1 idea on to use social media to support creating corporate culture.
Our special guest judge is Bill Flitter, an entrepreneur from the word go. Bill is the founder of several successful companies including Pheedo and dlvr.it.He is also a visionary when it comes to online and social content distribution .. seeing trends and opportunities before they became mainstream. When it came to incorporating social media to help support a small business I knew that Bill would be the perfect judge for this contest!
Rules of MSN The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Mail Post. If youdon't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing you cannot qualify for the $100 prize.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing
3. Winner is at the pleasure of Diva Marketing.
4. Contest ends midnight Saturday February 11, 2011.
Note: Since we know how busy you are, we're extending the deadline until midnight Friday February 17th.
5. You must be at least 18 years of age
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
That's it .. now it's your turn! Wouldn't $100 be a nice Valentine’s present?
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
This is a special interview series on what life is like for Jessica Robyn, a Gen Y-er, who disabled her 7 year old Facebook Page. We're calling it quasi social media reality! Part #1Part #3
Diva/Marketing/Toby: The big question I've been asked is, "What were the reactions from Jessica's Facebook friends?" By the way, how many friends did you have?
Jessica Robyn: I had a few of my friends talking to me (through phone calls, texts, and of course facebook messages or comments) who could not believe that Jessica, voted biggest facebook stalker junior year, the addict, and social media manager of the Full Body Cast fan page would seriously leave facebook.
People were asking how they would know what was going on in my life and I would just laugh and say "you do have my cell number, right? I know it's an awful concept, but you may need to talk to me in person." (can you sense the sarcasm in my writing?)
I currently have 410 friends on facebook, but several times have gone on what I call "defriending sprees" since there were so many people I was sharing information with who I had met one time at a party, was a friend of a friend, or a classmate I have no contact with anymore. It was helpful to do that so I could filter through who I was showing my pictures to or updating them on my week. I just am at a point when simply clicking unfriend is not enough.
Diva Marketing/Toby: We relate to people on different levels; we have various degrees of “friendship” with people. Obviously you’re not going to keep in daily or weekly contact with hundreds of people.
What percentage do you expect will maintain, let’s call it the first level of friendship, where you are in contact on a weekly basis? Oh and how do you intend to keep up those relationships (email, twitter, etc.).
Jessica Robyn: I would say out of the 410 people I am Facebook friends with there are a dozen or so who I keep in pretty consistent contact with. I text message them frequently or see them on a weekly basis. I do not foresee any aspect of our friendships changing except for the fact that our conversations won't have "Hey did you see what Jane posted today?"
Diva Marketing/Toby: What about, let’s call them the level 2 and 3 friends. What to you expect will happen with those people?
Jessica Robyn: The friendships I have with those who are not in constant cotact outside of facebook may become stronger. It may be a combination of me wondering what they are up to and vice versa. Having real-life interactions would only strengthen my friendships.
I would say that I won't become wicked close with all 410 of my Facebook friends, but there may be some who I have not spent as much time with that I would like to and may get to know them on a more personal level.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Just curious Jess. How much of yourself image was tied to your Facebook page? What I mean is when you looked at your Facebook page what did it tell about Jessica Robyn? In marketing we sometimes call this “personal branding.”
Jessica Robyn: My personal Facebook page is private, but if someone who had never met me were granted full access they would see someone who is funny, sarcastic, and does not take life too seriously. I feel most of my photos are carefree and me having fun. They would also see my Rocky Horror life: promoting the show or preshows I was in and pictures of that as well.
I may post a status and get NO likes or comments. Does that mean my friends do not approve of me or validate my thoughts? Of course not. But that is how it is interpreted to some people. If no one likes or comments on my status it's not a huge deal. (Sidebar: I wish brand marketers would take a cue from you Jessica!)
I had 410 facebook friends. Did I comment or like EVERY post they made? No. I did if I found it funny, I agreed, or had something witty to comment.
Also, having so many Facebook friends and with the new feature of a news ticker some posts can easily be over-looked if Facebook does not mark it as an "important post." If I was seeking approval or a comment from a friend it would be through a personal conversation that we were having, not a Facbeook post. - @JessicaRobyn
For the most part, social networks and social media were never really intended for business communications. Expect for LinkedIn of course. Think about it.
Facebook, Twitter and even Google+ began life helping people connect to family and friends. In that context it made total sense that you would "friend" someone you wanted to invite into your digitial world.
When savvy brand managers saw their customers were congregating aroiund these virtual water coolers, ah ha moments began. Before we knew it enterprises were stepping into the game. Some smartly. Some like a bull in a china shop. However the world of social media networks would never be the same.
The culture of social networks (transparency, authenticity, honesty and let's throw in some of that passion stuff) led enterprises down an interesting rabbit hole. One where most had never been, envisoned or intended to go.
They were now in the messy world of public conversations. Even the teeniest comment could be magnified. People from champions to the disgruntled could use the very pages that the brands built to complement or vent. Enter The Big C Word: Control. There was none. Listen and you can still hear teeth shattering in fear from many corporate ivy towers.
However, what we learned was that we could Manage. Smart marketers began to develop guidelines or house rules that set expectations for both sides of the conversation. Nicole Landguth, Olgivy 360' Influence has a terrific post that details how to create Facebook Guidelines that can be used as a basis for any social network.
We're taking care of the "brand side" of managing social media conversations. But what about the personal side?
Small business owners understand the merging of business and personal all too well. I grew up in a small business where "The Business" was almost like an extra family member. Toddi Gutner has some interersting ideas on how to keep that work/life balance in check in her MSN Business on Main article .. worth a click visit.
As our business and social media worlds converge who do you "friend?" Must you follow every client, colleauge and prospect on LinkedIn? What do you do if a person you barely spoke to an offline Chamber event wants to be your Facebook friend? Do you connect to every stranger who requests on LinkedIn? Managing the personal side of your social media experiences is as important as the brand side.
Here's an exercise I use to help clients think through the process.
At the end of the day, brand or personal, it circles back to your comfort level. What works for you, your brand and your culture may not be right for everyone. Isn't that really the name of the social media game?
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
More than 800 million active users has given Facebook the enviable status of the golden child of social networks. With multiple generations sharing photos, updates and videos Facebook might even be considered the biggest digital family reunion ever!
However, as with any 'family' sometimes you need a bit of a break. That's what's happening for the people who 'grew-up' on Facebook .. the Gen Y or the Millennial Generation. They're signing off from Facebook. Some for forever. Others for a few months.
One of the 20-somethings who disabled her (7 year) Facebook page is my niece Jessica Robyn. Ironcially it was Friday the 13th when Jessica said good bye to that part of her virtual life. I had so many questions Why? What would it be like for her? How would she keep in touch with her friends? What did her friends think?
Jess had kindly agreed to a series of interviews .. let's call this quasi reality social media. Over the next weeks she'll share with us what life is like without Facebook.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Tell us a little about Jessica Robyn.
Jessica Robyn: I am 25 and work in the mental health field during the week and spend my weekends performing Rocky Horror with the Full Body Cast in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA. I graduated with a degree in psychology a few years back and when I am not busy with work or Rocky I spend time going out with my friends for drinks, dinners, concerts, going to movies, or finding some way to entertain ourselves.
Diva Marketing/Toby: You’ve grown up on Facebook. You connect to your BBFs on Facebook. You have a history built on your page. Why did you disengage from Facebook?
Jessica Robyn: The entire idea of leaving Facebook began a few months ago when I ended a relationship. It was difficult to move on since our entire history was on Facebook in the form of mutual friends, photos, and wall posts. This was the first "long term dating" I had been in since high school (back in the day when Zuckerberg was just a regular guy). The idea crossed my mind to disable my account, but I have been such a huge social media addict I quickly threw it out of my mind.
When I was ready to start dating again I became slightly frustrated. I would be out and start talking to a guy and he would say, "Oh yeah we should hang out some time... find me on Facebook." I would give most of these men confused looks since at that point I was 85% sure we had not even exchanged last names. After a few of these instances I began to seriously consider disabling my Facebook while I began to date again.
I would rather someone get to know me than add me as a "friend" (I use quote since clearly I would not consider someone I JUST met a friend.) then simply have a baseball card of facts like my birthday, where I went to school, my favorite movies, etc.
Since I've been on Facebook from when I was 18 there are also pictures of the past 7 years of my life. If someone who has just met me, doesn't know who I am now, is judging me from snap shots of my past ... when I was out at a party, or being a goof with my friends ... well it could be a turn off. I admit I'm guilty of doing that too when I initially met someone.I judged them based on what I saw or read on their posts without getting to know their personality.
I can be a sarcastic person which means some of my posts should not be taken seriously. Now most people who know me pretty well can decipher the difference whereas someone who just met me may not sense the sarcasm and make the assumption I am just a heartless jerk.
Diva Marketing/Toby: I was intrigued by your tweets. What were you nervous about and why?
Jessica Robyn: It's a HUGE change for me. When I am sitting in the doctor’s office or stuck in a long line at the store I can just grab my phone and see what people are up to on Facebook, make some comments, post some pictures. I don't play a lot of the games on Facebook, but it is a great way to occupy my time when I am bored at home. Now I won't have that option.
I have had a very strong relationship with Facebook. For over 7 years and it has been a daily part of my life. If you ended a 7 year marriage wouldn't you have a weird feeling waking up without your partner? I'm not trying to say I am THAT obsessed with Facebook that it feels like a marriage, but it's the daily usage that will be weird to live without.
Diva Marketing/Toby: How did you “Do IT?” Were you all by yourself? What were you feeling? What were your thoughts when you clicked the disengage link?
Jessica Robyn: I did IT while I was alone. It took me a while to find the disable button and then, of course, Facebook says "Are you sure you want to deactivate your account?" Below it were pictures of 5 of my Facebook friends saying they would miss me and asking if I would like to send them a message.
Two of them were people I am friends with through Rocky Horror, one was a friend I made while in Israel, one was an old family friend, and the last was my old college roommate. Only one out of the five I would not see on a regular basis, but I am sure they will all miss me on Facebook.
I guess initially I felt very numb and empty. I didn't really have a reaction. It hasn't been long, but I will go to my phone when I would usually check my Facebook on the go and just feel sort of lost and confused thinking, "Well what I am supposed to do to occupy these next 30 seconds of time?"
Within the past week three people from three different industries (advertising, internal branding and higher education) asked me to contribute to posts they were writing about blogs.
Of course I was honored by their requests. However, what was especially interesting to me was every person was concerned (in varing degrees) about the viablity and longevity of blogs in a world of social network clutter.
In 2004, I stepped into the blogosphere with Diva Marketing and soon after began developing workshops for the American Marketing Association on a national and local chapter level. I wondered how different my point of view about blogs was back in the day versus today. So I pulled out a deck I presented to the AMA Oklahoma Chapter in 2005 (!). I thought I would have a Friday the 13th joke on me and I would be appalled at my naivity.
What I found was an evergreen presentation. Sure a few of the slides are out dated and a some of the blogs I used as examples, like Michelle Miller's Wonder Branding, have a more sophisticated look and feel and extended navigation but the concepts still hold today.
10 + 1 Blog Take Aways -- from 2005
1. People talking to people – no corporate talk
2. Easy to maintain, update & publish website
3. Blog elements encourage real-time interaction, creates and maintains relationships
4. Focused on a topic, industry, niche or personality
5. Establishes the author as a subject matter expert
6. Provides readers with renewing sources of credible, trustworthy information, insights and commentary
7. Blog writing is different from other customer communication forms – relevant, informal conversation
8. RSS allows content to be pulled by readers
9. Blogs must be integrated into your marketing strategy to be effective: goals, objectives
10. Blogs promotion includes traditional/internet and blog-specific (social networking: linking, comments, trackbacks; organic search optimization)
Plus 1 Bonus: If you do nothing else – read blogs & monitor the blogosphere
Adding one more responsibility to an over flowing plate of marketing "stuff to do" is overwhelming. When you include additional tactics to your plan there must, of course, be some type of return. Blogs can help you support your goals and bring the human aspect of your business to life.
IMHO there is no better way to establish, reinforce and sustain a thought leadership positioning especially in a Business-to-Business environment. Yes, girlfriends a blog takes longer to create than a 140 tweet .. as my dad use to tell me, "You get what out of something what you put into it."
Some how it seems fitting that the last in Diva Marketing's 2011 Shining A Light on smaller nonprofits series should highlight an organization that helps courageous women find hope at the start of a new chapter in their lives. Somehow it seems fitting that this NPO goes by the name of AWE.
Molly Corbett is our story teller for this special post.
She is the founder and executive director of Asylee Women Enterprise (AWE). Molly has worked in the nonprofit sector for 20 years. She started as a community organizer and has worked with various social service and social justice organizations. Prior to AWE she was the Director of Programs and Grants at the Ventura County Community Foundation prior to moving to Baltimore. For the past ten years Molly has worked as a consultant to social justice organizations in the Baltimore area.
Molly Corbett - Most of us are very familiar with the Christmas story of Mary and Joseph. Mary was pregnant, they were far from home and no one would take them in. Well, last year I lived through a modern day Christmas story.
It was the week between Christmas and New Years, I received a call from the former board member of an organization that I was currently working with that serves people seeking asylum in the United States. She answered the Help Line at United Way and had received a call from a small nonprofit that was inquiring about homeless shelters.
A young, very pregnant, Afghani woman had appeared on their doorstep and they had no place for her to stay. The former board member said she had called several other nonprofits and they were closed for the week or working with a very small staff and were unable to help her.
She told me that Amina* had just arrived in the United States. She was forced to flee Afghanistan because she was a pregnant, unmarried woman and her life was in danger. We both knew that Amina would be re-traumatized by going to a shelter and that she was most likely very fearful of men. I said I would call the Benedictine Sisters of Baltimore, a small women’s religious community, which I had been working with for many years.
The Sisters agreed to take Amina and give her shelter. Little did we know that six days later she would give birth to a beautiful baby boy. Amina and her son continue to live with the Sisters.
What I realized when I saw the connection between Amina and the Sisters was that what many asylee (A non-citizen of a country who has been granted asylum in that country.) women need is a sense of community – a family. Mary had Joseph with her and now I saw how important it was for Amina to have a new family with her.
Women and men who come here seeking asylum are here legally but do not receive any government benefits until their asylum has been decided. They are not even eligible for a work permit until at least 180 days after their first asylum hearing. The asylum process for most people takes 2 years. During this time they are vulnerable, lonely and destitute. They flee their homeland with little more than the clothes off their back. They were nurses, teachers, business women and community activists back home – now they have nothing.
The Asylee Women Enterprise helps find safe and nurturing housing, provides a community of women to help them on their long journey to freedom here in the United States. They fled because they were persecuted back home for their religion, gender, ethnicity, political beliefs or sexual orientation. For Amina and for the thousands of other women like her, she did not come for a better life – she came to save her life.
My personal experience with Amina helped me to vision the possibility for AWE. We now house four women; there are 13 women currently on the waiting list for housing. In addition, we have 10-15 other women who join us regularly for a sense of community and family.
Social Media Lessons and Challenges
Since we are a new organization we are careful in planning our web presence and social media strategy. We hope to use social media to educate and engage others. Utilizing Facebook, VolunteerSpot and the website will allow me to maximize my time in spreading the word about Asylee women and AWE and attract others to our organization.
Backstory from Toby: When Molly and and I were planning this post I asked for a couple of photos. She was hesitant to show the women's faces. Not that it would necessarily intrude on privacy, but that it might put the women in danger. We decided that photos of "hands" might be the way to go.
Somehow it seems especially fitting that a photo of "hands holding hands" end our special holiday series that brought some wonderful smaller nonprofits to your attention.
Our hope is that one NPO may have touched your heart and that led to you opening your purse (or wallet) to help make other's 2012 travels just a little gentler.
One of the aspects of social media that I like most is what is at the very ♥. Try as we might (and we certainly keep trying!) we can't corral it.
Social media is not the beautifully wrapped box you might have opened last week. It's not the gift that you knew exactly what to expect from the shape or size of the package.
The ribbons on our social media package, just as beautiful as that perfect gift, are slightly skewed. The paper is held together by all sorts of different tapes. And when you rip open the package it's not quite what you might have expected. You see Girlfriends, social media is a messy, magical gift.
Sometimes it's playful and brings innovative new ideas. Sometimes it holds a mirror up to help you understand how the operational side of your business is working .. or not. Sometimes it's comforting with friends supporting your efforts.
At it's ♥ social media is our teacher.
Our friends at MSN Business On Main posted an article highlighting characteristics of successful entreprenurs. Steve Strauss identified the Top 3 Traits of the World’s Best Entrepreneurs: Idealistic, Teammates, Character with Character. Steve's post held an ah ah thought for me.
Take this back to social media. The Internet has given (most of) us, for good or for bad, a digital footprint trail. Your presence, especially on open social networks e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and let's add blogs and blog comments, is so easily findable. You have, by default, let loose into the world .. your personal brand .. along with your digital business card.
Your digital footprint trail provides insights into who you are: Idealistic, Teammate, Character with Character. Even if your social media presence is not tied directly to your company, in an adjunct way, you are part of its digital tapestry and it to you. One more way that you can't corral social media.
During 2011, I began to build personal branding workshops that help organizations leverage the benefits from their employees' personal brands while aligning with the company's brand values. My thoughts are this is a critical piece of the social business puzzle. Bernie Borges termed this "corporate personal branding."
Clara Nelson, one of the awesome project managers at the American Marketing Association, understood the concept. She asked if I would team with Bernie Borges, CEO Find and Convert, to develop a 2-day workshop for AMA: Personal Branding Within The Corporate Workplace. Our podcast offers tips on how to begin your corporate personal branding strategy.
So you see, Divas and Divos, although when you first unwrapped your social media present you might have assumed it was simply a Facebook game or Twitter chat. Social media is so much more. Where it will take us in 2012 is anyone's guess. The one thing I do know for certain ..
At it's ♥ social media is our teacher.
With just hours away from bidding 2011, either a fond good bye or a kick in the derriere .. from the Sound of Music --
So long, farewell
Auf Wiedersehen, adieu Adieu, adieu To you and you and you
Thank you for your support and friendship. Max and I look forward to continuing the conversation with you in 2012. In the meantime, wishes for a healthy, happy and prosperous year where all that you wish comes true.
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
As 2011 comes to a close, some people may sigh with relief and then smile with the thought of a new year beginning. If your dental care has been neglected those smiles may be few and far between. However, there is a unique Atlanta nonprofit that is giving smiles back.
Today's Diva Marketing's Shine A Spotlight on smaller nonprofits goes out to the Ben Massell Dental Clinic. Although, it's parent nonprofit organization, JF&CS, might not be considered "small", BMDC is a stand alone entity with it's own staff and budget .. so in our book it counts as a smaller npo.
The Ben Massell Dental Clinic is the only resource for comprehensive, quality dental care available at no cost to Atlanta's neediest population. The clinic provides the most advanced dental care available to thousands of patients each year.
Its 140 volunteer dentists dedicate their time and expertise every month to people who otherwise would not have access to the services it offers. In 2012, the clinic will celebrate its 100 year anniversary.
The BMDC, part of Jewish Family & Career Services of Atlanta, provides people with basic care not only for their mouths but for their overall health – from general health screenings to counseling. Its dentists come from a variety of backgrounds and faiths, as well as all the major dental specialties, including endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics, dentures and oral surgery. In the last fiscal year, they provided nearly $2.5 million worth of procedures that restored smiles and literally saved lives.
Joseph L. Smith, LMSW, the social services program manager at the BMDC, is our story teller. He graciously takes us behind the scenes and shares his experiences of what it's like to work at the Ben Massell Dental Clinic.
A graduate of the University of New Orleans with a bachelor’s degree in sociology and psychology, Joseph was part of the wave of residents forced to leave the city by Hurricane Katrina. He knows what it’s like falling on hard times and then being picked up by the generosity of others.
After receiving a master’s degree from Clark Atlanta University in social work with an emphasis on mental health, Joseph joined the BMDC staff in June 2007. He is responsible for connecting the clinic’s patients to social services in the community and facilitates mental health testing, support groups and psychoeducational sessions at the clinic.
Rachel Simons, JF&CS Program Manager, asked Joseph what inspires him and this is what he told her.
Joesph L. Smith - As the social worker at the Ben Massell Dental Clinic, my job is to help connect patients with sometimes life-saving resources.
Over the past five years, I have had the opportunity to help thousands of patients, but their perseverance and fortitude in the face of economic, mental health, health and other adversities have helped me the most. They constantly remind me of the power of the human spirit.
I admire each and every one of the clinic’s patients. One of the patients who I admire the most is fighting the battle of her life -- stage four cancer. This patient faced eviction, hunger, cancer and the six to 12 months her doctor gave her to live. We were able to connect her with food, resources to improve her life circumstances and a counselor to whom she could talk to help her through her tough situation.
It is now a year later and she is in remission.
This patient’s life-altering experience has truly changed my life. It has caused me to look deeper inside of myself for the fortitude to continue to fight and advocate for the clinic’s patients.
I am generally a happy person, but she has taught me the true value in smiling in the face of adversity, never giving up hope and living each day to its complete fullest. Patients like her are the reason why I love being a social worker at the Ben Massell Dental Clinic.
We continue our special December series that shines a spotlight on nonprofit organizations that are often in the shadows. Today's nonprofit pulls back the curtains and exposes horrific abuse to children. Shedding light on the secrets begins the healing.
In 1987, Baltimore Child Abuse Center (BCAC) opened as a non profit in response to growing awareness that sexually abused children not only suffered from the abuse they endured, but they were also being re-victimized by the lengthy and often repetitive investigative process intended to help them. Last year, BCAC saw more than 850 children and their families.
Jennifer Noparstak, Director of Development - Each child who comes to BCAC decorates a butterfly that hangs in the center. There are too many butterflies. BCAC is committed to ending child sexual abuse in Maryland. It can be done if we, as adults, learn more about this crime of secrecy and take responsibility for protecting our children.
The story teller for this story is Jacquelynn Kuhn.
Jacquelyn is deeply dedicated to improving the lives of children, volunteering with both the Baltimore Child Abuse Center and with Art with a Heart (AWAH), a nonprofit agency that focuses on teaching art to underserved communities in the Baltimore area. She has served as the Assistant Director for the Center for Ethics, Service and Professionalism at Michigan's Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and has worked for the American Cancer Society. She has received many awards including the 2009 Appreciation Award from the Oakland County Bar Association's 15th Annual.
Ms. Kuhn is committed to telling her story of child sexual abuse and healing whenever and wherever she is invited to share it. She does this to spread hope to victims and survivors and to help to prevent this crime from happening to more children.
Note: We are honored to have Jacquelynn help us understand the world of abuse through her own story. Please take note that Jacquelynn does not sugar coat her tale.
My name is Jacquelynn Kuhn, and I am an adult survivor of child sexual abuse.
My abuse began when I was 5 years old. Just like a typical case of sexual abuse, my abuser was someone my family knew and trusted. He was 16 years old, and lived next door to my family. There were a lot of kids in our neighborhood, and we all played together.
My abuser would take me up to the tree house in the yard behind my house and molest me while all of my friends played below us. No one else knew what was happening, and I never told. Abusers are masters of manipulation, and he used many different tactics to keep me silent.
He threatened me. He told me if I told anyone or stopped letting him abuse me, he would bring my older brother or younger sister up to the tree house and do worse things to them.
He made me feel ashamed. He told me if I didn't like what was happening, I would not keep coming outside to play with him and my other friends.
He convinced me that I'd be the one to get in trouble. When I finally got brave and threatened him that I would tell my father and that he would go to jail for the bad things he was doing to me, he laughed and told me that I was doing the same bad things, and I would be the one to go to jail because my father would be angry with me that I hadn't told him earlier.
When you're 5 years old and experiencing something so vile, and heinous, and shameful, it's not easy to tell anyone about it. That's why the work Baltimore Child Abuse Center (BCAC) does is so important.
I've trained with BCAC to give Prevention Workshops. After attending a few and sharing my story, I've seen what a difference prevention education makes. Getting this information in front of parents and educators is crucial for the safety and protection of our children against abusers who relentlessly look for new victims.
I was never taught about my body in school, not at such a young age. And we never talked about our bodies in my family, unless it was to make us feel ashamed so that we didn't do anything "wrong" or "bad" with our bodies.
If I had been given the correct vocabulary-the proper anatomical names for my body parts-and if I had been told over and over again that I am in control of my body and no one should be touching me in a way that makes me feel uncomfortable or confused, I would have had the knowledge in the beginning stages of my abuse to know it was wrong and that it wasn't my fault. And I would have been empowered to tell someone, instead of feeling powerless to tell anyone.
My abuse ended when I was 7 years old, and only because my father was transferred to a new location. I didn't tell my family about my abuse until just recently, after I was well into my 30's and after I went through a very painful divorce from a man who also abused me. And even then, I was still afraid to tell my family about my abuse.
That's how powerful the shame and guilt can be for a victim who doesn't get help through treatment and community support. Without reporting their abuse and receiving acceptance, support, and empowerment from a caring community that surrounds them, victims end up with lives much like mine, where they continue to be abused in different relationships and even abuse themselves.
That's why I designed the butterfly mosaic mural in BCAC's family waiting room. It's there to symbolize the hope for healing in every victim and survivor of child sexual abuse.
As a survivor, to be able to see myself in the reflective mirrors of one of those butterflies and know that I am on a path of healing, self-expression, and beauty is a powerful thing.
Many people in the community banded together to work on the mosaic, putting broken pieces of tile that symbolize the broken pieces of my life-and the lives of all sexual abuse victims-together in a way that makes sense and creates a beautiful picture from something that happened that didn't make any sense and was extremely ugly.
Knowing that a community of such caring individuals expressed concern for the healing of victims and survivors in such a tangible, loving way has taught me just how valuable I am.
The epidemic of child sexual abuse in our nation and in this world seems very overwhelming at times, but it's just as Helen Keller once said: "I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do."
I will continue to promote BCAC and its incredible work so that I can help spread hope to victims and survivors and work to prevent this crime from happening to more children, and I hope others will read this and be inspired to do the same. We each have a voice that can be used to speak out against child sexual abuse to help victims and survivors heal.
None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something.
Social Media Lessons and Challenges
BCAC uses its Facebook and Twitter pages as a means to build an online community to raise awareness of the issue of child sexual abuse and the resources it offers at the center.
One of the goals is to make the Facebook page a platform for discussion on the issue and to inspire others to open up and speak their mind. We post content on our pages to engage our followers and to encourage open conversation. By engaging our followers we are able to expand our social reach on these networks and further raise awareness to a broader base.
Through our social media efforts we also would like to convert more of our followers into donors. We have multiple platforms online and directly through Facebook for accepting donations, and are currently working on ways to further encourage our supporters to make charitable donations to BCAC. As a non-profit, we thrive because of our supporters and ultimately our programs and services are not possible without their support. Donations can be made online.
December is Shine A Light on Smaller Nonprofitsmonth on Diva Marketing. I hope you're enjoying the stories and perhaps learning about an organization or two that might not have been on your radar.
Nonprofits depend on many resources from funding sources to kind donors. However, one of the most important is volunteers.
Our lives are to be used and thus to be lived as fully as possible, and truly it seems that we are never so alive as when we concern ourselves with other people. – Harry Chapin
MSN Business On Main: News On Main highlights an interesting organization, Catchafire, which pairs volunteers with nonprofits in need of their specific talents. Catchafire charges nonprofits an annual fee and is free to volunteers.
As we've seen in many of our Diva Marketing Shine A Light on Smaller Nonprofits, NPOs are incorporating social media as part of their communication strategy. However, there is another way that social media can be utilize .. as part of a volunteer initative. Who better to help pass the word about an NPO's programs and mission but through the people who are passionate about the cause to the extend that they are giving of their time .. its volunteers.
One of the best examples I've seen is from Taylor's Tale: Project E-Warenss. All the ways that volunteers, and people who just want to help speard the word, are consolidated in an eBook. By the way, Taylor's Tale was the inspiration for Diva Marketing's Shine A Light on Smaller Nonprofits holiday series. Here's their story told by its founder, Laura King Edwards.
In this time of giving, let's make this a two way street .. something for you and something that will help nonprofits.
MSN Business On Main/Diva Marketing Nonprofit Tip Contest ~ Win $100!
Share 1 idea on how a nonprofit can incorporate social media + volunteers to expand awareness of the NPO.
When it comes to social good marketingGeoff Livingston gets it from the heart. Award winning author, strategiest, photographer and proud dad Geoff understands the unique needs of nonprofits and is devoting his talents to helping "mindful companies and nonprofits."
Rules of MSN The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Main Post. If you don't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing you cannot qualify for the $100 prize.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing
3. Winner is at the pleasure of Diva Marketing.
4. Contest ends midnight Saturday January 7, 2011.
5. You must be at least 18 years of age
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
That's it .. now it's your turn! Wouldn't $100 extra be nice to help with those holiday bills?
Drum beat please .. winner is .. Greer. Congrats!
" Give thanks! Thank your volunteers, donors, staff members, other organizations, etc. Non-profits can't do it alone and thanking people in a public way, such as through social media, is a huge compliment to those who have donated their time, money and energy to your cause."
Here's what are uber cool guest judge, Geoff Livingston had to say about why he chose Greer's tip.
OK, so here it is, I am going with Greer's comment. Here's why:
"Thanking volunteers is a critical act of recognition that fosters long term health in a nonprofit. Peer recognition is pretty much the only thing these people get for thanks in exchange for providing time and expertise. Social media is the ideal way to do this in a very public way. Consider that these people are a 501(c)3's lifeblood, providing critical human resources for cash strapped organizations.
But it goes further. Volunteers do more than provide bandwidth, they also serve as word of mouth ambassadors and their households donate twice as much as the average Americans. Social recognition allows them to wear their honors publicly (similar to a badge) by retweeting, Likes, +1s and reshares creating more word of mouth, more good will and more donation."
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
While I bake one last batch of cookies and put the finishing touches on the cheesecake, I invite you to enjoy this "classic Diva Marketing post." Variations of this post have become a holiday tradition on Diva Marketing beginning in 2007. I believe ..
This Xmas morning after the presents are opened, while the goose is roasting (does anyone really make a goose?) and the sugar surge has just begun .. settle back and enjoy a holiday story of a time long ago. It's about a magical shoppe where there was ..
"No high pressuring and forcing the customer to take something he doesn't want. We'll be known as the helpful store. The friendly store. The store with a heart. The store that places public service ahead of profit. The plan sounds idiotic and impossible...consequently, we'll make more profit than ever before."
No, it's not a new social media customer service strategy. It was an innovative sales program launched in 1947 by Macy's Department Store. In this Miracle On 34th Street Mr. Macy took chance on a different way to conduct business. Customers would not be coerced into buying what they did not want and if another store had a better, less expensive product Macy's would send them there.
If we listen closely we learn that to succeed in 2010 or 2011 or 2025 or .. or .. or .. is dependent on what we've always known. It's not all about the brand .. it is all about our customer. As with so many lessons, we seem to keep relearning this one.
Fast forward 64 years. The insights from our customers come wrapped in many ways. From customer interactions to traditional research to digital platforms with funny names like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Google+, LinkedIn and Flickr.
However, with social media, when we pull off the pretty red bows, we find that the impact reaches far beyond marketing, customer service or sales. This time the entire enterprise is in the game along with our customers. It's a world where to succeed we have to go beyond a one-off sale to creating opportunities for all involved (enterprise & customer) to create the brand experience .. together.
In the world of conversational marketing there is no room for high-pressure sales techniques. Adding a relationship focused social media strategy to your master marketing plan can be a powerful initiative which demonstrates that you place your customers' needs above a one-off sale.
The digital relationships that the people (not departments) who are the heart of your brand can set off a chain reaction.
Continuous listening -> leads to continuous learning -> which leads to understanding -> which leads to trust -> which leads to loyalty -> which leads to the cash register bells ringing. And every time a cash register bell rings a marketer gets a bonus or gets to keep her job (!).. oops wrong film. Sorry.
Corner grocery store digital relationships that are build not only with you and your customers, but among your customers, could never have been imagined when Kris Kringle entered Macy's in 1947. However, even as we approach 2012, for many organizations open conversations still seem like a Miracle on (insert organization name here) or like the ghost of Xmas future (oops wrong movie again. Sorry.)
The plan sounds idiotic and impossible... consequently, we'll make more profit than ever before.
As we begin 2012, technology developments spin even faster taking digital business into areas that were impossible in '47 or '57 or even '2011.
Imagine a digital destination that holds current inventory and pricing, allows for on-line financing and results in better, faster cheaper processing.
Imagine a digital destination that allows for product customization the way you want it.
Imagine a digital destination where you can start a conversation with a real person about what matters to you regarding a product or service.
Imagine a digital destination where you can talk to a real person who doesn't respond with a scripted answer.
Imagine a digital destination where you can actually help change the direction of a product or service before it's even launched.
Imagine a digital destination where you can include your review of the product, service or customer care that influences your friends' buying decisions.
Imagine a digital destination where you can chat with people about their experiences and learn from each other .. in real time during your shopping experience. The result is smarter purchases.
Imagine multiple digital destinations (screens) that are interwoven where you can accomplish all of these crazy ideas whether you are at your local coffee shop, home, office or at the beach.
Imagine an organization that works in partnership with its customers and employees to create a brand experience that is relevant, innovative and imaginative.
Imagine an organization that cares not simply about for for its customers.
The plan sounds idiotic and impossible...consequently, we'll make more profit than ever before.
I believe in the kindness from social media ..
It's interesting to compare a 1940's film, where finding solutions to customers' problems was perceived as unique, to 2011 where finding solutions to customers' problems is considered ingenious.
The techniques may have changed. New buzz words may be added to the mix. Bells and whistles may be a little louder. However, after all is said and done, the premise remains the same:
-Listen
-Understand
-Add value
-Do what it takes to go the extra mile to delight your customer
I believe .. in the little miracles from social media that are changing how we conduct business .. leading to a time when people matter.
The plan sounds idiotic and impossible...consequently, we'll make more profit than ever before.
And with that Max and I wish you a year of little miracles and joy .. and all things wonderful .. and all that jazz!
At this holiday season we are encouraged to look beyond face value to the heart of the people who may touch our lives .. directly or indirectly. "Looks" of nonprofits may also be deceiving at first glance.
For the first time we are opening Diva Marketing's Holiday For Small Nonprofits Series to a couple of special programs offered by larger nonprofits. These initiatives often have unique budgets and dedicated staff .. much the same as smaller nonprofits.
This story is told by John Pollock who manages this unique program. As Jennifer Pelton, Director of Development, proudly told me, "John brings strong leadership -- and helpful tools -- to the National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel (NCCRC.)"
John Pollock - This Coalition seeks to address a severe justice gap in this country. People who can afford private counsel will hire a lawyer when something critically important to them – such as their home or the custody of their children – is at stake. Too many people do not have that choice. In what is a surprise to many, the right to a lawyer (in civil cases) is not guaranteed.
Private counsel is unaffordable and civil legal services (or other “free”) counsel meets only 20 percent of the need. Further compounding the problem, all too often,indigent litigants face an opponent who does have a lawyer. This justice gap especially hurts families of color, families headed by women, children and the elderly.
In 2004, attorneys and advocates from around the nation created the NCCRC to expand recognition and implementation of a right to counsel in civil cases. The Coalition is led by the Public Justice Center, a legal advocacy organization based in Maryland. As the coordinator, I oversee services to coalition participants by providing advice, information, testimony and other support. I also managed a vast amount of information through a newly created wiki and bibliography.
Judge Annette Marie Rizzo talks about civil rights to counsel in foreclosure cases.
One of the major problems faced by the Coalition was its lack of an easy way to share its massive research and case-related resources with all 200+ participants in an organized fashion, particularly given the wide levels of familiarity with technology within the Coalition.
Additionally, because of the lack of organization and the fact that few knew the full extent of documents in existence, key resources would go unutilized and reinvention of the wheel (with respect to repeating existing research) was not uncommon.
Social Media Lessons and Challenges
The Coalition chose a product called PBWorks which was obtained at a very steep discount thanks to the generosity of the PBWorks company. I established the wiki and stored the documents in an organized system, then used web-conferencing software to train coalition participants on how to access and navigate the wiki.
In addition to ensuring that Coalition participants could remain aware of all of the Coalition's resources, the wiki has solved other problems as well. In the past, when documents to be shared were emailed, Coalition participants that joined the Coalition later on would not have access to such documents without combing through the email archives.
Now, both new and old participants need only visit the wiki to see a complete picture of the Coalition's resources. Also, the wiki provides a weekly summary to all Coalition participants about all documents on the wiki that have changed, thus allowing them to know if Coalition staff upload newer versions of memos, case briefs, or other important documents. Finally, the wiki provides one centralized location for the entire memory store of the Coalition. For all of these reasons, the wiki has empowered advocates in the various states to benefit from the collective wisdom and work of the Coalition.
Welcome to Diva Marketing's Holiday For Small Nonprofits Series. Seems we have a tradition going on. This is the third year that Diva Marketing has given the virtual stage to smaller nonprofits to tell their story .. their way. It's our way of giving back by honoring the people and the organizations who make a difference in the lives of so many others.
It is my special wish, through your kindness in passing along the posts to your networks, together we can give the present of increased awareness, a new volunteer and a extra donation or two.
Throughout December you'll be meeting some amazing people and NPOs.
Story told by Mike Craycraft who is a survivor and founder of the Testicular Cancer Society. He also has helped treat hospitalized patients for over 16 years as a clinical pharmacist.
The Testicular Cancer Society is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to raise awareness about the most common form of cancer in men ages 15-35. We are dedicated to increasing awareness and education about testicular cancer and providing support to fighters, survivors and caregivers.
A little over five years ago I received a membership into a group that I never asked to join but I would now never trade for anything in the world. I was given a membership into the world of young adult cancer. Being young and feeling completely healthy, minus a small lump on my left testicle, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer.
I had spent the previous 7 months knowing that I had a lump, but not going to the doctor or telling a soul about it. Instead, I made peace with the fact that I was going to die young from cancer and went about enjoying what little time I “thought” I had left.
As a healthcare professional and now a cancer survivor, I felt I had the unique ability to help make the world of testicular cancer and young cancer in general a better place than it was when I joined it. I wanted to make sure that other guys didn’t make the same mistakes I did when I was diagnosed and delay going to the doctor.
During my ordeal, I also realized there weren’t many resources out there about testicular cancer and it took a long time to find the resources that were available. From the moment you tell your doctor about a lump, to having surgery and then facing decisions about further treatments it can be just a few days, so I wanted to make sure other guys had those resources quickly.
With the Testicular Cancer Society we focus on being the hub of a wheel that brings all the spokes together.
On our web site young men have access to a lot more than just information about the disease. We point them in the right directions to find one-on-one support, survivor forums, information on fertility issues, tools for fundraising as well as their individual treatment options and access to expert physicians in the field.
Social Media
Early detection is key. With early detection, testicular cancer survival rates are close to 100%. Our message needs to reach young men all across the country so we use social media because of its reach and cost effectiveness.
However, our challenge remains getting the people we reach to become engaged in our cause. While our followers might be listening to the message they aren’t active in promoting it. Even when we do get social interactions we find that many times it is the same handful of people interacting and our message is not expanding past this small group.
Not just expanding the reach of our message, but making those reached engage is going to be our challenge in the upcoming year.
TCS needs your help to set a Guinness World Record™ .. collecting the largest donation of sports balls in 24-hours! Decemeber 9th at 5p - December 10 5p, 2011. The balls will be given to the Marines Toys For Tots. Details are on the TCS site.
Quick. What comes to mind when you read these words? Women. Social Media.
My reactions: Women help and connect to each other by sharing their experiences; results are influencing brand perceptions and purchase behavior.
But then I'm a marketer so my response is skewed towards business .. well .. a little shopping too ;-)
Curious to what other people would say, I posted the question to my social networks, including the Atlanta Women in Social Media group.
Answers fell into 5 buckets:
1. Women focused in general
2. Women are naturally better communicators
3. Women don't think of social media as an 'obligation'
4. Women build on relationship skills
5. The number of women speakers on soical media is disporportionate to that of men
My favorite was from Des Walsh ..
On the MSN Business On Main community for small businesses, Joanna Krutz has put together a comprehensive post that is packed with facts and figures aboutselling to women in the digital world and how women are using social media.
Did you know .. women use their phones to “tweet” and “friend” 10% more often than the dudes?
Did you know .. women average about 30% more sent and received texts/month than guys? - Source: Nielsen 2010 data Worldwide
Did you know .. women are on social networks an average of 5.5 hours/month while the men are on about 4 hours?- Source: ComScore
So now that you know .. whatcha gonna do about it?
MSN Business On Main/Diva Marketing Small Business Tip Contest ~
~ Win $100!
Share 1 idea on how a company/brand can use social media to connect with women.
The idea that Max, I and Yvonne DiVita, our very special guest judge, choose will win 100 dollars! Just in time for your holiday shopping.
When I think of marketing to women, top of mind is the amazing Yvonne DiVita. Yvonne is the founder of LipSticking one of the first blogs that championed women in business. Among her accolades Lipsticking was acknowledged by Forrbes as one of the best blogs on marketing and social media written by a women.
Pets are a passion too. Yvonne launched the first pet blogger conference BlogPaws. BlogPaws is supported by a very active community.
Rules of MSN The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Main Post. If you don't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing you cannot qualify for the $100 prize.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing
3. Winner is at the pleasure of Diva Marketing
4. Contest ends midnight Friday December 16, 2011.
5. You must be at least 18 years of age
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
That's it .. now it's your turn! Wouldn't $100 extra be nice this time of year?
Update: and our winner is .. Molly Carter Gaines! Thanks to all who participate.
Comments from our guest judge Yvonne DiVita regarding Molly's tip:
"Molly seems to get the concept of networking – make friends who will introduce you to their friends; and who better to do that than women? Molly says, ‘when a blogger backs a brand, it’s a powerful thing.’ Along with her mention that ‘female blog subscribers tend to trust the sincerity and authenticity of the bloggers they follow,’ Molly demonstrates the reason blogs are a positive way utilize social media to connect with women.'
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
