Lately I’ve had several people ask me about adding social media to their marketing mix. Here are my three essential rules for social media:
It’s still marketing
Expect conversations on difficult issues
Regular updates are key, so plan accordingly
It’s still marketing
Social media is new, exciting and sometimes intoxicating. Before you jump in remember, the fundamentals of marketing still apply. You must still be able to answer:
What is my goal or objective?
Who is my audience?
What message am I trying to convey?
What tactic is going to be most effective?
What can happen is that because it’s new and cool you think you need to join in. However, just because Twitter is in the news right now doesn’t mean it’s a solution to your problems. Social media isn’t a case of “if you build it, they will come.” Start with the basics and look to see if social media tactics are right for your situation.
Expect conversations on difficult issues
Be prepared to talk about the weaknesses or difficult issues of your organization or product. Social media creates a town hall atmosphere where critics are certain to voice their opinions. It’s more productive to allow these opinions in an arena where you have a opportunity to respond than other forums simply where you have no voice.
Regular updates are key – plan accordingly
Unlike a new brochure, social media efforts will have a long life. People expect you to update them and respond to comments that they share. Creating a social media channel requires a time commitment. If you don’t update regularly, it will appear that your organization isn’t active and thriving. Your social media presence will affect how people view the quality and vibrancy of your organization in the same way your traditional marketing materials do.
Questions or comments? Leave them in the comments.
If you want to succeed as a business or organization, consistency is crucial.
Last week one of the blogs that I follow had a post that was different than the type of content they normally publish. The blog has a strong following in its specific niche so after reading a post that didn’t have anything to do with their niche I was left scratching my head. It was a clear case of “one of these things doesn’t belong.”
Consistency does three main things:
Turns a one-time experience into repeat users
Builds trust in your organization and messages
Creates the basis for your brand image
Consistency = Repeat users
When a new restaurant opens its doors, people will come just because it’s new. If customers enjoy the experience, they’ll come back. The second visit makes the difference between a trial and a customer. Can you deliver the same experience twice? If so, you’ve earned a repeat customer.
A single great performance will fail when compared to lesser but consistent performances.
Consistency = Trust
Trust comes from meeting expectations over time. People want to trust you. They value trust because it streamlines their life. They don’t have to hedge against you not delivering. As a result they are willing to pay for the ability to trust. Consistency impacts the bottom line because people who trust you are willing to pay in order to continue trusting you.
Consistency = A Brand
When you combine repeat users with trust, you have the beginnings of a brand. This also gives you the opportunity to expand with the goodwill that you’ve created carrying over. You can easily create a brand that stands for not meeting expectations and turning people away after one try but it won’t be around for long.
Find what you can do consistently
In order to succeed find something you can do consistently. Start small and consistent and then build or expand.
My current working theory of marketing says that there are two core elements, stories and relationships.
Stories
Stories are the threads that tie all the pieces together. Packaging, distribution, pricing and advertising are all parts of a story that is being created about a brand, product, organization or person.
Relationships
Relationships are how people see themselves tied to a brand, product, organization or other person.
Best Stories
The best stories are those that bring a person into a relationship or further develop the relationship.
As a marketer, you should be looking for stories that create a relationship between what you’re promoting and the audience you’re targeting.
In 2006 Business Week magazine published an article entitled, “Smashing the Clock.” The article detailed electronics retailer Best Buy and a new work environment they were promoting – Results Only Work Environment (ROWE). The basic premise is companies and workers are tied to a old mind set of a forty hour work week. The mind set is wrong. Companies actually want specific amount of work out of each worker and the number of hours is just an artificial hold over from assembly lines. ROWE says that as long as you get your work done; it doesn’t matter how, when or how long it takes.
On the surface this seems like a very elegant statement. Companies pay for results and employees deliver results.In turn, companies give workers the freedom to do their job in the way that works best for them. As long as the results are delivered every one is happy.
I think the difficulty with ROWE is in the implementation. Cali Ressler and Jodi Thompson have written an book about the program called “Why Work Sucks.” The book discusses some of the mental roadblocks to a ROWE mindset but is light on important issues like setting the “outcomes” for the first time and how to avoid being given too much work. The two authors left Best Buy and created their own consulting firm that sells implementation kits.
Have you ever walked into a consumer electronics store only to be overwhelmed by all of the choices?
I have.
You want to spend your money wisely. But, this sea of products seems to ensure you can never be certain about your purchase. If you’re like me, you probably walk away from your purchasing experience frustrated.
Research tells us that in order to compensate for vast array of choices the average consumer now spends 12 hours researching online for each consumer electronics purchase.
OTB is a retail website that sells a single best-in-category product in popular consumer electronics categories. By researching and selecting only the best products, OTB guarantees consumers will make a great purchase.
For example if you visit the OTB website looking for a digital camera, the only camera you’ll find is the Canon PowerShot SD1100. OTB has done the research for you. All you do is click buy.
In addition OTB will build strong relationships with it’s consumers by providing the most comprehensive information on our products and suggesting complementary products. These additional services will
ensure that OTB continues to provide value to the consumer even after the purchase.
What do you think?
So, there is the core of my business idea. Let me know what you think in the comments. We’ll look at some of the numbers supporting the concept in the next post.
I bought a Kodak Zi6 recently. It’s a no-frills HD video camera that only costs $150. The camera takes 720p video, has a 2.4 inch view screen and a SD memory card slot to store your videos on. It uses 2 AA batteries for power and stores the videos as QuickTime movie files.
The camera’s biggest draw is that it’s point and shoot. It’s one of a new category of video cameras pioneered by Flip.
The camera also has a few drawbacks, like most of the point and shoot category, that are important to know going in. First, there is no optical zoom. The camera does offer a 2x digital zoom but it degrades the quality, so it’s best to avoid. Second, there is no image stabilization. This means that if you don’t use a tripod then your video is going to look a little shaky. The popularity of this category of video camera has resulted in Apple adding software stabilization to the latest version of it’s iMovie software.
Walking our dog twice a day gives us plenty of time to look around our local streets. Lately we’ve started collecting what we call speed bumps. They are the little plastic pieces glued to the concrete that seperate lanes. We later learned through the marvels of the Internet that these bumps are officially called “Bott’s Dots” after their California inventor. Now before you accuse us of causing wrecks we have developed strict rules regarding our collection practices. First, we only pick up bumps that have already been knocked out of position and are now just littering the road. However a good kick maybe nessecary to ensure that a bump is still stuck to the road. Second, you can only pick up one bump per walk. It is allowable to swap a better bump for an less favorable. It becomes important to remember where you dropped the swapped dot though in order to pick it up on the next walk.
My first task for my “Starting a Business” class was to think of a business I wanted to work on for the entire semester. I brainstormed for about a week and half about potential ideas. I found the most useful formula for plausible ideas came from combining three things:
Something I’m interested in
Something I know how to do (or at least have a clue about)
Something that people will pay for
In the end I settled on an e-commerce website that sells consumer electronics. I’ve always been interested in gadgets and gizmos so consumer electronics matched that interest. A large part of my current job can be categorised as “web stuff”. While my skills are much more refined on the marketing and content side, I understand the programming side enough to be dangerous. So, creating an e-commerce website isn’t too much of a stretch for the something I know how to do category. In order to figure out something people would pay for I needed to find a good angle about purchasing consumer electronics. We’ll explore that in the next post.
James VanDyke is the author of this blog. During the work week you can find me in the E-Marketing team at SMU in Dallas where I create presentations and do assorted web stuff. I recently completed my MBA with a concentration in Marketing. At night, I hang out with my wife, read magazines and walk our dog Tigerman.
My first task for my “Starting a Business” class was to think of a business I wanted to work on for the entire semester. I brainstormed for about a week and half about potential ideas. I found the most useful formula for plausible ideas came from combining three things:
James VanDyke is the author of this blog. During the work week you can find me in the E-Marketing team at SMU in Dallas where I create presentations and do assorted web stuff. I recently completed my MBA with a concentration in Marketing. At night, I hang out with my wife, read magazines and walk our dog Tigerman.