Branding your cash cow: It only hurts for a second

June 16, 2008 – 1:09 pm

by Mallory Dash

Chris Brogan has an excellent post on his blog today listing his top 100 personal branding tactics. While it won’t be necessary to go through each and every one here (although I recommend you do on your own time) there are a few that are particularly pertinent to successfully marketing not only yourself, but your business as well.

From Chris’ list (His points are italicized, followed by some of my own added thoughts on each):

• Comment frequently (and meaningfully) on blogs that write about you and your posts. This should be a no-brainer by now. Spew crap, and crap will cometh unto you. If you can provide great commentary on the blogs that influence you and your audience, then you can expect some credibility (and maybe some customers) in return.
• Don’t forget the conversations hiding in Twitter (use Summize.com) and Friendfeed. Be sure to stay aware of those. We’ve talked about Summize before, and we all know how I feel about Twitter. Marketers need to stay on top of the buzz, and not just in the traditional media and blogosphere.
• Listen to others in your area of expertise. Learn from them. There’s no better way to understand your market than to listen to your competitors and see how THEY are attracting (or repelling) customers. The same goes for those you are trying to target in the first place: There’s no point in talking at a crowd if you aren’t listening to their needs.
• Home base is your blog/website. Not everyone needs a blog. But most people who want to develop a personal brand do. If you don’t have a site for your company yet, for shame. As for a blog, we’ve written on this in the past. But if you’re reading our blog, chances are you already have one. Moving on.
• Twitter.com is a must if you have a social media audience. It also connects you to other practitioners. I know, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again- if you’re ready to bring your business to the social media realm, you must-must-must employ Twitter. It’s a great resource for honest feedback on announcements, points of view, and other random thoughts.
• Create new content regularly. If not daily, then at least three times a week. As this is something we here at DB need to get a handle on as well, I’ll refrain from calling the kettle black. But your message/impact/worth to society can become irrelevant if you don’t put the time in to update.
• Brevity rules. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Enough said.
• Remember that community and marketplace are two different things. The idea behind using social media to build a brand is to place yourself in a thought leadership role. The more credible and unique your thoughts on the industry are, the more credible your business will be. The sales will come when people can trust the core of your business.
• Be human. Always. It’s true- no one likes talking to a machine, unless you’re in 2001: Space Odyssey (then you just HATE it). Companies should use blogs to put a personal touch on corporate messaging.
• And my personal favorite, albeit a little too L’Oreal for me: Never doubt that you are worth it. Chris gets a little mushy here- but I think the point is important. If you have a story worth telling, a little hard work is all you’ll need to get social media to work for you.

And in another bit of Brogan-related goss- he’s got the first-ever Twebinar going on June 26 titled “Game Changing Moves - Doing Business with Social Media.” I’ll be listening, and so should you.

If you’ve had success using social media for marketing purposes, personal or otherwise, what methods have you used? What has worked, what hasn’t?

Posted in Blogs, Branding, Communities, Digital Marketing, Events, Social Media, Social Networking, Strategy | No Comments »

Burning Down the House: The Webbies

June 12, 2008 – 10:04 am

by Mallory Dash

We’re a little late on this, but I’m going to try to make up for it with blazingly insightful commentary and the occasional Talking Heads reference. (My God, what have I done?)

Here we go- some of the more notable Webby winners and what we can all learn from them:

• Wired: Best Copy/Writing. Can’t argue with that- And the important thing to take away here (besides hiring brilliant PR people to get you INTO Wired) is that its the content that matters. Wired is renowned for not only its flashy covers, but their great writing and relevant features.
• PostSecret: Best Blog: Cultural/Personal. PS exemplifies the beauty of the web, and the raison-d’etre behind so many personal blogs. People LOVE to overshare (even when they’re Psycho Killers- qu’est-ce que c’est?), and they love to do it anonymously. There is a lesson here: Building a great blog for your business with emotions and real people behind it is the best way to find the human in your customer.
• HEMA: Best Viral Campaign. All’s I gotta say is- if this isn’t the coolest thing you ever saw, then I don’t know what is. If you can build your company an online-based Rube Goldberg machine, have at it. I don’t speak Dutch (Russian? German?) but if I did, I’d be looking for whatever that site was selling.
• TED: Best Podcast. This goes back to the human element of communications- people go to TED to HEAR people tell them important, thought-provoking and inspiring things. Consider teaming up with a prominent podcaster (or better yet, vlogger) to get your product/spokesperson/thought leadership in the eyes AND ears of your target market.
• CNN Mobile: People’s Voice Winner for Best Mobile News. You can’t avoid it anymore- mobile marketing and content delivery are definitely here to stay. If you are lucky strategic enough to get on CNN, then good for you. This just means your content will reach more people in new ways. But in the meantime, and this goes back to marketing via Twitter- you need to perfect your message to a short enough one-liner that will stick with mobile viewers. For an example, check out the “TwitRelease” here.
• Yahoo! Sports: Best Sports Site. This has nothing to do with digital marketing, but I whole-heartedly agree, especially in the fantasy arena. Just saying.
• And of course, the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award went to David Byrne. Apparently Byrne “serves as a vivid role model for musicians and artists of the future on how to merge culture with technology.” That and he’s a total badass.

More on Webby Award winner Stephen Colbert later. While the Webbies ain’t no disco, or CBGB, they certainly were a party.

Posted in Digital Marketing, News, Social Media, Uncategorized | No Comments »

LAPD Blogs - What’s Next?

June 11, 2008 – 3:12 pm

by Matt Clark

The LAPD has a blog...Government 2.0 anyone?

This is a great step for the blogosphere. Corporate America has accepted the medium and it’s time for the government to do the same. There are 20 million people living in LA county and the area has almost as many news outlets as New York. A blog is a good way for the LAPD to connect and communicate with a wide range of audiences. They are able to update people on arrests, statistics and internal improvements using a forum that the general population has accepted.

If done right, it will open up line of communication between the citizens of LA County and the people sworn to serve them. My first negative thought, though, was what happens if there is a controversial incident? Will the LAPD blog about it? Will the lawyers let them?

I didn’t find really controversial on the blog, but I did see that they blogged last weekend when 10 people were murdered. It was a clear response from their PR team, as pointed out by the LA Times Blog, but at least they were willing to put it out there and talk about it. They didn’t deny the issue. They said this is what happened, this is how, and this is what we are doing. I am sure in a few weeks they will also post arrests from the weekend.

Currently, it seems to be more of a newsroom than a true communication vehicle. No one is leaving comments, and I’m not sure that the LAPD would comment back even if people did.

The LAPD Blog has a long way to go and I think utilizing some other social media and digital marketing tactics (VBlogs perhaps?) would increase their profile. It’s a good first step though, and it’s interesting to see blogging in this context. How cool would it be to see Bush blog about policy or the White House have to answer directly to the people via blog comments?

Update: Chicago, Dalton and Amherst Police Departments also have blogs…The NYPD does not.

Posted in Blogs, News, Social Media | No Comments »

Make mine digital: Online marketing overtakes traditional approaches

June 9, 2008 – 4:01 pm

by Mallory Dash

According to a few new reports that came out in the last week, digital marketing is becoming more and more established as an approach to strategic marketing efforts. Marketers are increasingly choosing an online approach over traditional media. And within online media, advertisers and marketers are relying more and more on social media, viral and mobile marketing as opposed to banner ads.

The first report, the Online Marketing and Media 2008 survey, indicates that although there is distinct growth in social media and viral marketing campaigns, what marketers need most (and continue to lack) is a definitive measurement scheme to understand the impact of their work. This problem of measurement is common to many aspects of marketing, especially PR and advertising .

In another report from eMarketer, a survey makes it clear that advertisers are overwhelmingly choosing to increase their online ad budgets - around 90% said they would put more money into these efforts. These funds will come from money previously allocated towards print marketing. According to the survey, 55% of respondents said “they will probably decrease print ad spending in the next three years.”

Even Google’s Eric Schmidt says the trend is heading towards more digital approaches, especially on the mobility side. Sure, he has some vested interest in propagating online advertising through AdWords, but not even the fiercest small-town newspaper editor can deny the increasing comprehensiveness of online marketing.

And the stats just keep on coming. In an article outlining a recent IDC market research survey, InformationWeek states that “Internet advertising in the United States will grow eight times faster than the overall market, surpassing newspapers, cable TV, and broadcast TV by 2012.” Efluxmedia, in another article on the IDC report, speculates we are entering the “Internet advertising era.”

The Yankee Group also released their own report about growth in online advertising. They expect this market to reach $50.3 billion by 2011, twice the amount of 2007. The report points to a growing number of users, new methods of advertising, and new business models for publishers that will facilitate the implementation of more interactive ads as catalysts behind this change.

All of this is great news for digital marketers. The field is becoming more robust, more money is pouring in, and the tools available for marketers are only bound to grow in number, scope and usefulness. It will definitely be exciting to keep and eye out and see what the future holds for the space.

Posted in Digital Marketing, Measurement, News, PR, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Stopping a Blog Swarm

June 5, 2008 – 9:37 am

By Matt Clark

As Paul Gillin said in The New Influencers, a single reference from a top blogger is sometimes all it takes to kick off a blog swarm, a massing of blog activity around one topic. Most PR professionals aim to create a swarm. We look for the “viral nature” of the blogosphere to extend our clients brand and name recognition. We know that one hit with an A-List blogger, can morph into hundreds of hits by mid-and-longtail bloggers.

But what happens when it turns bad? What do you do when bloggers get information wrong? What if you gave the bloggers the wrong information, or leaked a bad story?

You’re overcome by pure terror. A knot forms in your gut and your heart sinks. It can appear out of nowhere and can seem unstoppable. Check out Daniel Lyons “Attack of the Blogs” in Forbes from 2005.

When PR pros say the wrong thing or are so ambiguous that bloggers take it in the wrong direction, danger is ahead. When wrong information gets out there it’s hard to reel it back in. Not all bloggers fact check, like paid journalist do. So it’s on the PR pros to be very clear when communicating with bloggers. Within minutes it can spread to Wikipedia and is therefore fact to the internet community.

The first thing to do is reach out to the A-List bloggers. You know them right? No? Then why are you reaching out to them? The blogosphere is the same as traditional media relations. It’s about networking and relationship building. If you let the wrong information get out, and you don’t know the people you sent it to, skip this section.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Blogs, PR, Social Media, Strategy | 1 Comment »

Funny Social Media and Digital Marketing Videos

June 2, 2008 – 9:08 pm

By: Matt Clark

Microsoft’s digital advertising solution video

Tech Bubble Bust video by Richter Scales. Yes, I posted this before, but it never gets old!

The Shel Israel puppent on the Microsoft Deal

Posted in Digital Marketing, Web Video | No Comments »

Review: GetSatisfaction a Win-Win for Customers and Brands

May 30, 2008 – 2:50 pm

By John Cantwell

GetSatisfaction.com is an excellent new website that can help companies and brands monitor and manage their online reputation from a centralized location. By combining aspects of social networks and the traditional customer service experience (i.e., interacting with a living human), the site offers a deeply personal experience that allows customers to resolve their problems and brands to put out fires before they spread wildly.

The concept of GetSatisfaction is simple. Users seek out the companies and brands they use. If they’ve got a problem, a question, or a related idea, they just post it to the company or brand forum. It’s up to the company what happens next. The more active players on GetSatisfaction - companies like Apple and Seesmic - have a number of different employees that monitor the feedback posted in the forums and respond accordingly.

The site, then, offers a win-win scenario for both the consumer and the supplier. The customer (hopefully) gets the feedback they’re looking for, and the company gains the advantage of a positive interaction that helps it boost and manage its image. And because conversations can be viewed by all community members, there’s the potential for a long tail effect - users can see the companies that provide excellent service over time, meaning the company’s performance on GetSatisfaction can speak volumes about its dedication to customers.

There are limitations to GetSatisfaction. It is a relatively new site, so there are a lot of people that still don’t know about it. That, of course, may change over time. The idea of GetSatisfaction ultimately implies that a paradigm shift will need to occur with consumers. Instead of going to the company or store where they purchased the item - as they’ve likely done all their lives - or to a brand-specific forum (as more Web-savvy users may do), customers must begin to think of GetSatisfaction as THE resource for their customer service needs.

Whether or not this happens will depend largely on whether companies decide to adopt GetSatisfaction as a service platform. The site is pretty Web- and tech-centric right now. Companies like Skype and AT&T don’t even have any employees monitoring conversations right now. (They may want to consider getting on board.)

GetSatisfaction is a step up over many of the brand management and impression-monitoring tools we’ve seen. For one, nobody seems 100% sure about how to cull impressions from across the vast expanse of the Internet. Centralizing the experience for the user and the company makes things simpler on both ends. And the site is definitely a step up over the algorithm-based services that attempt to gauge overall user sentiments and impressions (check out Matt’s post from last week about some of the wacky results he got on Summize where Osama Bin Laden, apparently, is quite popular.) And because GetSatisfaction is independent, it has the advantage of impartiality that many company-run online forums lack.

Everybody knows by now that monitoring and managing your brand’s online reputation is a crucial aspect of any marketing or PR campaign. GetSatisfaction is a promising way of simplifying this (oftentimes daunting) task.

Posted in Branding, Digital Marketing, PR, Reviews, Service, Social Networking, Strategy | No Comments »

Around the Web from Sin City

May 29, 2008 – 2:49 pm

By Matt Clark

Hey Guys, I know we’ve been out of it for a while. I’m currently in Vegas at the World Series of Poker for a client and got held up. I’ll look to see if I can find some interesting posts while I’m out here, but in the meantime I wanted to pass along some interesting stuff I’ve been seeing this week:

• comScore just brought M:Metrics for $44.3 million and the issuance of approximately 50,000. This will allow comScore will increase the size of the metered panel and will offer measurement of combined Internet usage across both PC and mobile-based online access platforms. I would start looking into comScore to help measure digital traffic. Although it’s expensive, they are clearly willing to invest in R&D and expand its offering.

• Playboy just hired Dan Smith as Senior Vice President, Marketing for its digital media group. According to AdWeek, Smith will be responsible for marketing Playboy’s premium products as well as stewardship of the overall brand across digital and mobile channels. Since playboy launched its digital efforts in 2005, it has sold some 1.7 million digital issues and has saved $1.2 million from lower manufacturing, distribution, paper and postal costs. Check out Zino, they have helped move Playboy and other larger magazine publications digital.

• A press release from InsightExpress announced the expansion of its Digital Media Measurement team. InsightExpress is a leading provider of high-quality, digital marketing research and plays a preeminent role in the measurement of advertising effectiveness across online, mobile and other media, has expanded its Digital Media Measurement team. InsightExpress, like comScore, uses consumer surveys to measure the impact of company’s digital efforts.

• According to TechCrunch, Pinch Media is building tools for iPhone and iPod touch developers. One of the main offerings is a product called Pinch Analytics. Pinch Analytics tracks iPhone application’s unique vistors and active users. This should help justify mobile marketing costs to clients. Pinch Analytics, which is free, will help measure the success of mobile marketing application with metrics showing how much time users spend on the app and where they are located geographically.

Thanks all for now from Sin City. ..

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Summize.com Falls Short of Past Hype

May 22, 2008 – 2:37 pm

By Matt Clark

It’s not easy to cultivate brand equity in a world where candid customer feedback and conversations increasingly dominate news and search results around products. But a proven method of success is using social media to embrace customer engagement. But how do you track everything?

Summize.com allows PR and Marketing pros to search attitudes expressed towards their brand within online conversations.

Summize currently tracks real-time conversations only on Twitter, allowing you to see who is saying what about your brand at any given moment. This could be a useful tool, but with millions of tweets a day, you need to be consistently monitoring Summize. In theory, PR and Marketing pros can search their brand by name and see what people are saying and look at how to adjust their message and respond to complaints.
So let’s say I’m head of marketing at Google (HA!) and I want to see the reaction to Google Site after the uproar over the Apps Engine. I just go to Summize and search “Google Site” and get a list of recent Tweets.

Marketers need to manage their brand’s identity within online communities. Often, these people have a strong voice among brand faithful. It’s the idea of marketing to, and engaging, the Brand Us. For non-social media and digital marketing specialists, it’s too hard to manage all online communities out there, but you can at least use Summize to follow Twitter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Communities, Reviews, Social Media, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Google Launches Full War on Facebook - Friend Connect May Force Marketers to Change Social Network Strategies

May 15, 2008 – 8:14 am

By: Mallory Dash

I am 100% convinced Google is trying to take over the world. Google recently announced the launch of Friend Connect, a service designed to turn any website into a potential social network. While previously believed to be a direct Ning competitor, Friend Connect is instead a way to Web-2.0-ize already existing sites. According to the release from the Googleplex, “visitors to any site using Google Friend Connect will be able to see, invite, and interact with new friends…”. With the added clout of Google’s API capabilities and affiliations with existing social networks like Facebook, Myspace, Plaxo, hi5 and iLike, Friend Connect has a lot of potential to aggregate the disparate social networks out there, while eliminating some of the more minor ones.

According to Google’s director of engineering, David Glazer, Friend Connect brings its own social magic to any old Web 1.0 site. “Many sites aren’t explicitly social and don’t necessarily want to be social networks, but they still benefit from letting their visitors interact with each other.” Good point- I’ve always wanted to know who looks at the same food porn sites I do. (Who needs JDate when you can have bacon?)

While there are obvious exceptions to the kinds of sites that would want to get down with the 2.0 (Dunder Mifflin Infinity, anyone?) Friend Connect could be pretty neat. Instead of having to make tons of different log-ins and passwords for random websites, Google handles these using OpenSocial, oAuth and OpenID, which allows users to bring their data with them wherever they go.

This could essentially spell the end for smaller social networks. The ability to view the activity of your Facebook and Myspace friends elsewhere on the Web could remove the need for individual, niche networks. Google is quickly becoming the Vladimir Lenin of the Internet era, socializing everything in its path (minus the serfdom and unpaid labor- that’s for Wikipedia).

For marketers, this could signal a huge change in current practices and market research. Many marketers already are using Facebook and Myspace to reach their target audience. However, Friend Connect may lead marketers to curtail their Facebook-only approach in favor of a more global strategy. Now marketers can focus on more targeted sites, and reach their desired demographic directly from those outlets, cutting out Facebook and Myspace’s networks as a middleman. Friend Connect could be a serious catalyst for change in any marketing strategy, should it take off.

For a more skeptical view on Google’s latest foray, check out Marshall Kirkpatrick at RWW. Regardless of the how selfish Google may or may not be- I, for one, am excited at the prospect of meeting more bacon lovers, online or off.

Posted in Digital Marketing, News, Social Networking | 1 Comment »