Twitter Social Responsibility: Sean Garrett’s Public Relations Blunder

February 24, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Perhaps you heard about Twitter’s attempt to pay lower payroll taxes to the City of San Francisco. Twitter is threatening to move the company to Brisbane, CA, which is only ten miles away, if the city doesn’t meet their demands. I don’t begrudge anyone for trying to lower their taxes, but I do believe Twitter’s Public Relations response to the public criticism is obtuse.

"Twitter VP Communications Sean Garrett"

Twitter VP Communications Sean Garrett

Sean Garrett, Twitter’s VP Corporate Communications, unfollowed Tom Foremski, Publisher of the Silicon Valley Watcher, after he wrote “Twitter is a company that loves to tout its commitment to social responsibility but clearly this is just public relations chatter.”

"Tom Foremski"

Tom Foremski, Publisher, Silicon Valley Watcher

A strategic “unfollow” in the Twitterverse, especially after criticism, simply means “I don’t want to hear your crap anymore.” It’s an indelicate insult and means one of two things: Twitter, artificially ballooned by a perception of it’s own value, believes it’s above criticism or Sean is just angry at Tom and wants to give him the virtual middle finger. Either way, PR professionals should “unfollow” Sean’s public relations approach in the face of criticism.
When Sean accepted the position at Twitter a year ago, he wrote in this 463 Blog post “I’m…eager to dust off my front-line media relations chops after spending most of the last nine years focused on the shadowy, back-room strategy thing.” Looks like Sean is still much more comfortable with the shadowy, back-room strategy thing.

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3 things Larry Page Needs to Change about Google

January 21, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Big leadership change at the world’s largest search engine. It is estimated that over 2 Billion people on earth have internet access and that at least 50% of those use Google. Not a bad market share. According to Matt Preschern, VP Marketing at IBM, a recent study by IBM reveals that 92% of Americans with computer access use the search engines to inform their purchase, whether it’s a B2B or B2C purchase. With this level of loyalty and influence, Google has a responsibility to improve its service. Here’s what I’d recommend:

1. Too many companies are gaming search results using “black hat” techniques and Google appears to be passively accepting these violations. Link spamming, black hat boot camps and many people unfortunately consider influence pedaling ethical. A woman recently had to return a $50,000 grant to Pepsi because she allegedly hired a company to boost her vote totals in the contest. She justified her actions as “marketing”. This is a pervasive mentality with individuals and companies trying to game results and Google must take more aggressive action against it. The results you see in your search are heavily influenced by these illicit techniques.
2. Google’s mantra “Do no evil” requires a higher standard of business, especially in light of China. Reversing its decision last summer, Google agreed to allow the Chinese government to censor search results. Worried about going “dark in China”, Google acquiesced to the Chinese government, thereby celebrating commercial gain over freedom. Larry Page can become a better business leader by understanding the shareholder value that will come from setting the highest bar for humanity. Short-term losses in China would occur, but Google’s brand value would have soared.
3. Protect more children from pornography and predators. Google’s SafeSearch Lock is an excellent tool that very few parents know about. Move the SafeSearch button up to the homepage where it will be visible. Since SafeSearch (thankfully) filters advertising content too, I suspect that’s why few people know about it. If you don’t want your children to get their sex education from the (raw) internet, turn this feature on.

Larry Page is in a position to build Google’s value, both to users and shareholders. As one of the creators of this life-changing instrument, let’s hope he understands the power he wields to improve both the value of the Brand and the value of the human experience.

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5-Point Guide To Creating An Effective Social Media Strategy in 2011

January 4, 2011 By 1 Comment

Despite all the attention social media marketing is getting within the marketing and PR community, we’re finding most companies are still apprehensive about leveraging social media to help tell their stories. By applying traditional marketing disciplines to your social media plan, you can successfully attract new, relevant audiences without the risk associated with an “open forum”. If executed well, social media can add significant awareness and search engine visibility to your marketing programs. To this end, we recommend every company add a social media component to their marketing plans in 2011. Here is a simple, 5-point guide to help you kick-off 2011 using social media best practices:

1. Start with your own employees. In an information vacuum, employees will make up their own rules so make sure they know what’s appropriate and what’s not. Lay a positive foundation by providing social media guidelines for your employees. Always start with your legal team to review your corporate non-compete and Intellectual Property policies. The legal team can help with trademark and domain questions that often arise. You don’t want anyone tweeting about a new product prematurely. You want the legal team involved early to help inspire social programs that encourage employee participation within the rules of your existing communication policies.

2. Next, consider your best customers. Focus on your primary marketing objective, and include them in your social networking. They’ll be flattered and contribute great insight. Define your social communications program as an extension of your business strategy. Give customers a chance to respond to new ideas. Content that is relevant to your best customers is also relevant to prospective customers. Apply this discipline and I guarantee it will shape your program with intelligent rigor.

3. Monitor other social media sites that are relevant to your business. There are great tools to follow company names and keywords to help you stay in front of opportunities. These will help you stay relevant and help you contribute to the quality of the conversation.

4. Develop a crisis strategy in advance and anticipate eventualities and how you will respond. Time is of the essence in social media and your response time will determine your ability to successfully participate in the conversation.

5. Build measurement tools into back-links so you capture the data that will help you determine success or failure. There are powerful link strategies that allow you to gather data beyond “follows” and “friends”. Even if your measurement goals are more perceptual than quantitative, you need to establish goals. Unless you have your eye on a target, you’ll never know whether social media is contributing to your business.

By applying these marketing disciplines to social media, you’ll bring more credibility, accountability and innovation to your marketing and Public Relations plan.

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How to Choose the Best Marketing Plan for 2011

December 14, 2010 By 3 Comments

There are so many ways to promote your company, it’s difficult to decide what marketing options to choose and how much to spend. With signs of a mild economic recovery occurring in 2011, I’d like to suggest a few techniques to help you determine the best marketing mix for your business next year. As marketing strategies go, increasing your investment during a recovery is smart. You’ve heard the argument about investing in a down market to double your share, but I haven’t found that technique to be particularly effective. Many companies are planning to increase their marketing budget next year, primarily because it accelerates awareness and trial.

There have been many studies that prove increased investment increases awareness, but there are several variables that effect success. This chart simulates the results of Company A and Company B, which spent half as much as Company A. It took Company B twice as long to achieve the same level of awareness as Company A, which spent twice as much as Company B.

You also need to conduct a marketing analysis to determine your audience segments and media habits. This will help you increase your marketing effectiveness and your marketing ROI. Here’s a quick guide to help you determine which strategic marketing model to choose:
Objective- Channel

Announcement – Public Relations
Expert Source – Public Relations
Acquire Customers - Advertising
Acquire Customers - Direct Marketing
Acquire Customers – SEO/PPC
Build Awareness - PR + Advertising
Launch – Event Marketing
Increase Credibility - Public Relations
Stimulate Purchase - In-Store/Packaging
Increase Share – Loyalty Programs

How you approach your marketing mix modeling will also determine which marketing tools you use to improve results. If you pay close attention to these disciplines next year, you’ll reach more customers and accelerate your growth. Have a Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday and a prosperous 2011!

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Transform Your Kitchen for $500. Really.

December 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I don’t usually blog in an overtly promotional way but these new Rust-Oleum products are so helpful to so many people that I must give it my personal “Tell Everyone About This!” award.

I’m going to guess that 75% of all homeowners want to update their kitchens, but don’t do it because of the significant cost to achieve a high quality makeover. A kitchen remodel is $25,000 and up – right? I’ll go even farther and guess that many people avoid hosting family gatherings or neighborhood parties because they’re embarrassed by their kitchen. Sound familiar? Today, finally, Rust-Oleum has introduced an inexpensive cabinet and countertop do-it-yourself product, available at Lowes and Home Depot, that will transform your kitchen with an eye-popping quality that will make your family and friends compliment your taste and respect your financial savvy.

Rust-Oleum Countertop Transformations and Cabinet Transformations are easy to use and will add significant value to your home with a minimal investment. THIS IS NOT PAINT! You won’t believe how good this looks. It will change your kitchen and change your life! You’ll have friends again ;)

Filed Under: Web Design

The Hyper Dash

November 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Call me old fashioned, but something has concerned me for quite sometime – how digital and social media are affecting the quality of our writing. Look at what I just did. I used a dash instead of a semicolon. This hyper use of a dash has snuck into our writing and bypassed the poor little misunderstood semicolon. This is not the end of the world, but a bigger issue is looming behind the “Hyper Dash.”

About 20 years ago I started noticing a slow, but dramatic way in which schools were not emphasizing traditional grammatical structures for writing. They were teaching what I called, “conversational sentence structure”. People have become comfortable with writing like they speak; but those are two very different communication forms, unless you are writing a play! I would like to see if people could again be taught how to diagram sentences! Oh how Miss Crammer, my 7th grade grammar teacher, would be proud of me.

Then came email, texting, Facebook and Twitter. These immediate forms of communications are great but they have changed the way we write, edit and even proof our work. They have made us rather sloppy in our grammar, spelling and sentence structure. Most would argue that these forms of communications allow for “bending the grammar rules.” And I agree, but these “less formal” structures have made their way into more formal writing.

There is still a place for formal English writing. Formal writing increases understanding and persuades extremely affectively. However, it is more difficult to go from the informal to formal than it is from the formal to informal. In other words, if we don’t know the proper rules it is nearly impossible to go from Tweeting to writing a formal position paper.

Let’s not forget the basics; they are there for a reason (notice how I used a semicolon properly this time?). English continues to be the primary international business language. When we use it properly; we persuade, inform and inspire. So use the dash when you Tweet, but the semicolon when you write!

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Advertising Death

November 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

I always laugh when I hear those extraordinary warnings at the end of pharmaceutical commercials that explain how your intestines might bleed out your naval or a tortuous, agonizing death may result if you take the medication. I’m in!!

Next year the FDA is going to take ‘truth in advertising’ to a new level. Cigarette companies will be required to advertise death much more graphically. I think the most disturbing image is the cadaver with the staples up his chest, suggesting death after unsuccessful lung surgery. You can still see the antiseptic that was swabbed onto the victim before surgery. Ouch.

The FDA is going to enforce the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) in June next year (2011). It requires that cigarette packages and advertisements use these larger and more visible graphic health warnings.

While I’m a free speech guy, I’m in favor of these warnings because of the human toll from smoking. I am also in favor of the law that makes it illegal to play Russian roulette. Some people want to play, but at some point our society has to discourage stupidity. In most cases, it’s not the law that prevents people from doing really stupid things, but rather, it’s peer pressure. Smoking is still celebrated as a rebellious, self-gratification that’s powerful enough to surpass the horrors that result from smoking. Did you know 20% of Americans die from smoking-related illness? I have personal experience.

In a recent story in the Los Angeles Times, the “true” cost of a pack of cigarettes is revealed by the American Lung Association via researchers at Penn State University . The cost varies state-by-state depending on different taxes but the ultimate cost is simply death.

Truth in advertising will always surpass untruth. No matter how ugly it looks in pictures.

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How to Succeed in Business Now that the Economic Recovery is Stalling (part 2)

August 26, 2010 By 1 Comment

When the economy is poor, the best marketers make the sale. In my last post we were seeing signs of economic recovery; increased manufacturing, the unemployment rate dropping, a strong US dollar, optimism on Wall Street. Since that post, “double dip” seems to be the phrase of the day. So it’s important to use marketing tactics that are more likely to help you grow efficiently, especially in a tepid economy. Here are five strategies that should be part of every great marketers toolbox:

1. Customer Research
I’m surprised that many marketers lack basic or updated research about products, industry trends, customer behavior or competitors. The marketplace is dynamic and marketplace knowledge needs to be current. Your whole business reason to exist emanates from the customer’s needs and competitive gaps. If you don’t know exactly where your services fit in that marketplace, you can’t strategically build your business. While creative differentiation helps brands become memorable, even the best remembered brands have a product point-of-difference that is at the heart of the brand. Leverage existing research about your industry from associations or published results available free and online. With a little time, you will reveal resources and knowledge you never knew was available.

2. Affiliate Marketing Programs
Most people associate affiliate marketing with online, retail promotion but it is much bigger than that. In short, affiliate marketing is when you pay other companies to promote your products or services for you. Most of the time, it only costs when someone makes a purchase. Identify possible business partners who have a strategic, yet not competitive, relationship to what you sell. It’s possible to make a lot of money from affiliate programs, as you can see from these case studies http://bit.ly/dfq9om

3. Employee Retention Strategies
Perhaps the first marketing investment you should make is in your best employees. Retaining clients is even more important in today’s economy and great employees keep great clients. Even though cash is tight, consider rewarding your best employees with money or perks. The best employees will almost always be able to find another job, so make sure they’re happy and engaged. Since a lot of new revenue comes from existing customers, incentivize your employees to increase sales or bring in new clients. They may be your best marketing investment no matter what shape the economy is in.

4. Strategic Partnerships
Align your business with another company selling complementary services and sign a strategic partnership agreement. That means you will only do business with them in their field and they will only do business with your business. While this sounds limiting, it opens the door to new business that never would have come your way if you had kept that door closed. Branch out too. A technology security company could align itself with different companies in different industries (banking, bookstore, software, music, clothing, etc). Open your mind and form partnerships that will expand your clientele.

5. Actionable Measurement Plans
Now is the time to add metrics to your existing marketing investments. Take a close look at your marketing investments and consider how they’re being measured. Are they increasing your business? If you’re not sure, then you need to revaluate how you’re measuring performance. Look at your analytics data. Read customer comments and take them seriously. Look for patterns in what clients are buying. Read comments from your Facebook or Twitter feeds. Change your service or product offerings to align with buyer values.

If you follow these suggestions, your business will grow, regardless of the status of the economy.

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How to Succeed in Business Now that an Economic Recovery is Arriving (part 1)

June 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Manufacturing is increasing, employment is stabilizing, the dollar is gaining strength and orders are starting to appear. Now is the time to reinvigorate your sales and marketing to take advantage of the economic recovery. Don’t make the mistake of following traditional paths to growth. The world has changed and so has your customer’s behavior. Anyone running a successful business must leverage their customer’s use of the Internet in their buying process. Integrating simple keyword research into all your sales and marketing programs is a good start (as I have integrated keyword research into this post), but the opportunities to grow your business using today’s state-of-the-art marketing tactics is often overlooked. If you want to attract the first and best customers that are venturing into your business after a long hiatus, we offer this list of the top 5 sales and marketing strategies to help you maximize the current business climate:

1. Unique, differentiating positioning
You must own a unique and persuasive point-of-difference that is the centerpiece of all sales and marketing (including SEO). Even if you lack a tangible difference, you are still able to create a personality or unique identity that will attract new customers to your brand. Think of all the categories where there is very little product difference and yet brand personalities abound: chewing gum, water, news, professional services, paper, etc.

Unique, differentiating positioning

2.  A content syndication program
One of the biggest, most cost-efficient sales and marketing programs that any company can employ is a content syndication program.  Seeding links to your business throughout highly relevant online destinations is one of the best ways to grow awareness and drive traffic.   If you’re investing in other marketing programs and don’t have a content syndication program in place, you’re not maximizing your effectiveness.

3.  Customer solutions/sales program
A well thought out customer interaction plan that leverages keywords used most often by both current and new customers will increase your customer satisfaction and make you more visible in search results.  Identify the top reason customers contact you, especially for conflict resolution, and turn those complaints into increased sales.  Customers often search for solutions online before contacting customer service and this is a way to be the first to solve their problems.

4.  A sales and marketing integration program
Smaller companies do a much better job bridging the gap between sales and marketing. The sales team knows a lot about customer preference, pricing and buying behavior. The marketing team knows a lot about buyer values, positioning and measurement.  All of this knowledge needs to be fully integrated into sales and marketing plans.   While these disciplines have grown somewhat independent of each other, don’t forget the adage “sales is marketing and marketing is sales”.

5.  A social media strategy
Social media is simply an excellent new sales channel.  We have not found an industry or business that does not have an opportunity to grow through social media.  It is not necessarily the most important sales or PR channel, but it is almost always an excellent source of awareness and product trial.  We have clients transacting business everyday through Twitter and Facebook. The question isn’t whether you should be in it, but rather how you should be using it.  Balance investment and resources with the potential profit, just like you would any other marketing channel to ensure a healthy ROI.

A social media strategy

Use this checklist for all of your sales and marketing (not just your internet marketing) and you will grab the first customers venturing into your business.  It will also help you gain visibility and attract new customers, especially as the economy continues to recover.  In my next post, I’ll discuss five other important components that you need to adopt in order to succeed in today’s marketplace.  Start with these five first and you’ll be the first to experience the recovery.

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The Future of Marketing 3: The Greatest Marketing Challenge of our Age

May 11, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Welcome back to the third and final installment of The Future of Marketing series.  I believe the greatest marketing challenge (and opportunity) for the future is mastering “channel strategy.”  What’s channel strategy?  It’s the strategic deployment of a marketing budget into media channels that will most effectively attract the largest number of customers.

Today’s marketing options can seem innumerable and the number of choices in the future will only increase. Marketers have to choose not only which channel to utilize, but how much to invest in each channel to achieve success.  The diagram below shows an example of some of the choices available to attract customers today:

The Greatest Marketing Challenge of our Age

Looking at this diagram reminds me of playing darts. Darts may be a more effective method of allocating budgets because multi-channel measurement is still in its infancy.   Even when we have data from all the individual channels, we still don’t know how the combined formula impacts the bottom line.  It’s alchemy and it can blow up!

According to an InfoTrends study on Multi-Channel Communications Measurement and Benchmarking, multi-channel campaigns using email, customized landing pages and print yielded a 35% higher response rate than print-only campaigns: http://www.outputlinks.com/html/columnists/Barb_Pellow/infotrends_Multi-Channel_Communications_042009.aspx)

Multi-channel campaigns are simply more effective.  How can we know the efficiency of each individual channel and what the ratio of investment should be in each?  Investment in one channel naturally takes money away from other channels so every decision either approaches or detracts from the optimal formula.

Currently there is no standard CPM to measure channel mix, although several companies have proprietary solutions that attempt to attribute cross-channel results.   Companies like Alterian (www.alterian.com ), Radian6 (www.radian6.com ), Nielsen Business Media (www.nielsen ) and Mobilestorm (www.mobilestorm.com) are a few.  These software solutions are a great step toward ROI transparency, and their sophistication will improve as time advances.

Most companies aren’t aware or can’t afford these software solutions so Marketers need a disciplined planning process with clear steps to help you increase your chance of success.  To be clear, let’s revisit Jessica, our 25-year-old professional working in the year 2020.  We’ll use a day in her life to explain how you might make better channel marketing decisions for your business.

Jessica

Here’s how to evaluate the right channel strategy:

6:20 A.M. – After snoozing through one alarm, Jessica grabs her Cloud Acquisition Device (CAD) and drops it in the cradle in the bathroom where she’ll listen to news, weather and sports while she gets ready for work

Step 1. Segment your audience according to profitability.  Understand the financial impact of adding X percent of new customers within each segment.  Jessica is a high-end digital consumer who buys the maximum data plans to support her voracious information-access needs.  Analyzing your customer segments will help you focus on the channels that will deliver the highest ROI.  If you don’t fully understand your target segments, drop everything you’re doing and get this data.  It will change everything you do.  When I worked at Ameritech Cellular, we knew 15% of our customers delivered 80% of the company profit.  While it was tempting to put the majority of our budget and resources into the retail consumer promotions (only 20% of the profits), that decision would have had terrible financial consequences.  Instead, we invested in high-end business packages that sold our best customers more services, driving up EBIDA.

There are several businesses today that tier their content offerings, charging consumers for content that’s free of ads.  Check out Pandora and Uber Twitter: http://bit.ly/cyC8fa (Pandora).  http://bit.ly/bexZT2 (Uber Twitter).  We’ll see more of this as everyday, basic content changes as time progresses, so start organizing your product or service offerings now.

Step 2. Make sure your data supports threshold levels of investment based on your targets use of that channel before you add that particular channel into the mix.  “Innovation” (otherwise known as cutting edge media with no proven performance) should be kept below 10% of the budget.

7:15 A.M. – Jessica grabs her CAD from her bedroom CAP and brings it into the kitchen where it wirelessly connects to the Cloud Acquisition Portal (CAP).  Her mother calls her to remind her about her father’s upcoming birthday, and the CAD seamlessly transitions between news and the video chat session with her mother.  Since all video is now web-enabled, Jessica will use the top online gift store to search a variety of gift options for her Dad.  More about this when Jessica comes home tonight.

Each channel will be much more segmented, persuasive and effective.  B2B channels will even be fully integrated with search engine optimization (SEO), video, email, promotions, ads (banner and PPC), mobile, print, direct, PoP and social.  Support for this trend can be found in the study by EConsultancy: http://bit.ly/9oyo5V

7:45 A.M. – Jessica jumps into her electric car and drives to work.  Electric cars, and all the cottage industries that support them, will grow exponentially in the next decade.  Popularity will increase electric car market penetration to 50% by 2020.

9:30 A.M. – While doing research for a 10:00 A.M. client meeting, Jessica reads a news update regarding one of her supplier’s new contracts.  She clicks on a link and receives an un-branded case study that can be used in any presentation.  Packaging case studies for viral distribution, with links back to the source, will become a rich source of lead generation in the future.

Noon – On her lunch break, Jessica scrolls through mobile ads she’s cached for future use.  She’s opted into certain ads so she can save money on the things she likes.  The cache app allows her to save ads she wants to save and retrieve when she is near the store.

  • Mobile, location-based marketing will improve targeting for marketers and convenience for consumers:  http://bit.ly/blNt2B

2:30 P.M. Throughout the day, Jessica receives alerts about a variety of information according to her pre-approved preferences.  These alerts represent highly targeted opportunities to reach consumers.

5:30 P.M. - A good friend calls Jessica and invites her to a business association meet-up that night where business celebrities talk live and interact with attendees from far-off locations – using sophisticated streaming technology.  Branding and social media opportunities abound.

6:30 P.M. - Jessica uses her CAD to buy admission and dinner while at the event.

8:00 P.M. - Once home, Jessica plugs in her CAD and selects from a list of high quality resources that will deliver relevant news, cases and data to her business account in the morning.  This information will make her more informed and articulate when the discussions and debates occur throughout her business day.  If content is King, Jessica will have a crown by noon.

11 P.M. - Once in bed, Jessica voice-enables her alarm and reads from her wireless reader, which drifts to sleep-mode after Jessica.

The only way to ensure you’re maximizing your marketing investment, knowing that it isn’t perfect, is to measure every channel.  Start with individual measurement tools and add software that integrates channel metrics.  Analyze the data and you’ll find valuable insights that will grow your business – guaranteed.  Too often we shrug our shoulders and believe its too complicated and there aren’t accurate resources to measure effectively.  This attitude leads to complacency and sloth.  It’s possible today to dramatically increase your marketing ROI.  Get granular and you’ll make a mountain out of a molehill.

I hope you’ve been motivated by this series and make the effort to rise above the standards of this day to lead the future of marketing.  I looked ten years into the future but I believe we don’t have to wait to achieve the kind of effectiveness that technology and strategy will surely bring. I’m excited about the future and can’t wait to see what YOU will contribute.

Filed Under: Uncategorized
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