More recently, comedian Gilbert Gottfried lost his "duck voice" gig for insurance company Aflac by tweeting more than a few tasteless jokes about the disaster in Japan. While I do not condone, or excuse, such thoughtless public commenting, the blame should not land squarely on a renegade AE or spokesperson. The culture starts with the agency leads. The trust ensured to agencies with access to corporate accounts, or to spokespersons who represent a brand, should not be taken lightly. Poor choices of the right team member(s), or affiliate talent, are to blame. The unfortunate tweet that left one agency without a Chrysler account: "I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to fucking drive." Among the tasteless tweets about the disaster in Japan from comedian Gilbert Gottfried: "I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, 'There'll be another one floating by any minute now.'" To avoid the pain we've recently observed in the social media marketing space, adhere to the following rules. 1 - Work Harder, Not Smarter In the case of corporate account maintenance, using Tweetdeck or Splitweet to manage multiple accounts is not always a good idea. Especially for mobile, on-the-run solutions, where the slip of a finger can post one message across all accounts. Also, while ensuring 24/7 client support by giving access to multiple team members is effective, every decision to add a team member with full access must be made with great care. 2 - Mother, May I? For brands (and even comedians) a social media messaging protocol should be in place. And, no -- I'm not kidding, Gilbert. For agencies, their marketing and communications teams usually coordinate the approval process. Before sending out any message, have the explicit consent to do so, in real-time. Time and time again, we see that deleting the offending tweet does not save the day. For public figures, have a person to run messages by. Maybe your management team, to make sure you will not be knowingly, or unknowingly, dissing a corporate partner or an entire city on your next tour stop. NBA player Dwight Howard's ex found this out too late. Her seemingly innocent tweets about her son violated a confidentiality ruling and could potentially lose her millions promised in support. 3 - The Golden Rule For the love of God, you do not have to dig deep to ascertain the "moral compass" of a team member or spokesperson. Whether or not someone calls other human beings "douche bags," or uses profanity in public spaces, can be recognized in less than 60 seconds simply by checking their social media pages. 4 - Sixth Sense Before launching any corporate campaign, discuss a protocol for damage control. Any AE can make a mistake, even a huge mistake. Sometimes it's not the mistake, it's the attempt to cover it up -- or the pretense that it is not a huge deal -- that sends the client into a tizzy. The agency should overcompensate by being proactive with a solution at hand: an apology to the Facebook community may or may not have been in the works. If, instead, everyone passed the buck until they found out who did it -- or worse, the client discovered the retweets before the agency pointed it out -- that is a relationship ender. An hour of cover-up and hand wringing isn't a very good use of time. It's best to have a plan in place to apologize and then fix the issue at hand, for all parties concerned. And, yes, the "fixing" part means taking the guy with the bad attitude completely off the "feel-good, Americana-focused" account. Although this AE actually got fired, he's now wide open for the Charlie Sheen intern gig. 5 - Don't Tweet and Drive Seriously. What struck us about the Chrysler post that no one else has mentioned yet is this clearly seems like a case of road rage. Are we to believe that he pulled over to tweet this, or tweeted this over a calming cup of tea at Starbucks? He surely can't say Oprah didn't try to warn him. 
I'm not sure how it is in your city, but in mine, I have Facebook Folks who don't get Twitter and yet those of us who are using Twitter productively are really seeing the benefits in relationship building, customer service and communication.
That being said, Here are 5 rules for Business Tweeting from Mediapost:
5 Rules For Maintaining A Twitter Account by Tynicka Battle,
Unanimously, agencies have weighed in with torches and pitchforks for the account executive who made the unfortunate mistake of tweeting the message that lost his agency the Chrysler social media account.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Business Tweeting
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Starbucks & Twitter
One of the benefits of using internet based marketing programs is there usually is a lot of raw data generated for research purposes.
Brian Solis took a look at Starbucks customers from Twitter data:
The Interest Graph on Twitter is Alive: Studying Starbucks Top Followers
Posted: 08 Feb 2011 04:41 AM PST
Social media is maturing as are the people embracing its most engaging tools and networks. Perhaps most notably, is the maturation of relationships and how we are expanding our horizons when it comes to connecting to one another. What started as the social graph, the network of people we knew and connected to in social networks, is now spawning new branches that resemble how we interact in real life.
This is the era of the interest graph – the expansion and contraction of social networks around common interests and events. Interest graphs represent a potential goldmine for brands seeking insight and inspiration to design more meaningful products and services as well as new marketing campaigns that better target potential stakeholders.
While many companies are learning to listen to the conversations related to their brands and competitors, many are simply documenting activity and mentions as a reporting function and in some cases, as part of conversational workflow. However, there’s more to Twitter intelligence than tracking conversations.
We’re now looking beyond the social graph as we move into focused networks that share more than just a relationship.
Bringing the Interest Graph to Life
To demonstrate the value of interest graphs, I worked with the team at ReSearch.ly, a unique Twitter search platform that has indexed the last three years of Tweets to instantly provide a real-time and historical analysis of activity around keywords and also the people that Tweet them.
ReSearch.ly visualizes the interest graph, and also provides the ability to search within the search to sort activity by demographics and psychographics, sentiment, bio data, profession, and the list goes on. Essentially, it’s a product that anyone can use to learn about what’s really taking place on Twitter to better understand behavior and earn greater relevance by making more informed decisions.
As an example of audience profiling or competitive intelligence, we used ReSearch.ly to review the followers of @Starbucks, one of the most celebrated brands actively using Twitter today. We started by extracting 1 million follower profiles, sorted by follower count. The results were then further filtered to include only those who published a complete profile. ReSearch.ly provides the option to then organize the resulting information any number of ways, which in this case, we sorted the accounts by bio, location, and gender.
The Interest Graph
While we are what we say in our Tweets, our bios also reveal a telling side of who we really are. In this study we reviewed the complete bios of 50,000 of the top @Starbucks followers to learn a bit more about how they present their life story as well as their interests, opinions, and preferences.
Using the ReSearch.ly Twitter index, we created a word cloud to amplify the most common words used in each of the bios of these connected social consumers. Followers tended to use expressive words that suggest sentiment runs rich in the Starbucks interest graph. Top words include:
1. Love
2. Life
3. Friends
4. Music
5. World
We can also learn a bit more about Starbucks influencers by analyzing what interests them. Looking a bit deeper into the cloud, we can see that not only do emotions rise to the top; other revealing themes also surface:
1. Family
2. People
3. Mom
4. Wife
5. Husband
This is just the beginning. The words associated with the brands demonstrate the emotional and personal connections Starbucks holds with these tastemakers. Campaigns are a direct beneficiary of such data. As we submerge ourselves one level deeper into the study, we find that this information becomes paramount when we link it to individuals through demographics and psychographics. An import footnote is that the word coffee is among the least used words in the bio, but used nonetheless.
Studying Bio’graphy
With a 50,000-person sample in a traditional research survey, it may be difficult to organize individual responses. Here, we further reviewed each of the bios to find the commonalities in how each person presents who they are in a few precious characters.
Of those, we found that…
- 42 percent expressed strong ties to family, religion, and love
- 29 percent boast special interests, which is further discernible
- 22 percent are professionals who state their current place of employment and position
- 7 percent are students
Additionally, we can extract the attributes of @Starbucks followers further to better symbolize their digital persona. Further review highlights that followers…
- Identify themselves as enthusiasts, geeks, addicts, junkies, creatives
- Define the most popular areas of interest as Music, Food, Coffee, and Fashion
- Potentially favor dogs to cats (2 – 1 as per their mentions)
- Work in either Social Media and Marketing (Note: If we were to change the scale of followers, we would open up the sample to a much broader set of professions)
- Also are still studying. Despite the lower percentage, students account for more than any single professional field
Geo Location: Where in the World is @Waldo?
Brands are more than aware that no one marketing strategy reaches and moves everyone in the same way. Beyond demographic marketing, brands must also focus on driving traffic regionally. Having access to location data isn’t new, but using Twitter as a collective stream of intelligence to identify higher and underperforming locales and associative word clouds allow teams to surface the 3 W’s of real-time geo loco marketing:
Where is negative/positive activity taking place?
Why is it leaning in that direction? And,
What can we do about it?
To give us an idea of where the top @Starbucks followers are Tweeting, we zoomed in to their point of reference. We found that top users tend to Tweet from…
1. California
2. New York
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Washington
Combining London and UK, we find that The United Kingdom would actually join the ranks of the most often cited cities.
Grouping locations provides a holistic view that provides regional marketing metrics and also areas in need of attention.
Here we can see that the top Tweeps are located in…
- US East, 30 percent
- Non US, 27 percent
- US West, 22 percent
- US Midwest, 21 percent
Tweeting from the Gender Lines
Over the years, I’ve studied the gender makeup of social networks and have consistently found that women outnumber men in some of the most popular networks including Twitter and Facebook. On Twitter, women represent the majority share with 57 percent.
Working with the team here at PeopleBrowsr and ReSearch.ly in conjunction with Klout earlier in 2010, we uncovered en masse, women are more influential than men on Twitter. In fact, the average Klout score within the general Twitter population 34 to 31 in favor of women.
Reviewing Starbucks top followers in ReSearch.ly, it comes as no surprise to see that the women are the predominant source of Tweets, 63 percent women vs. 37 percent men.
The Tweets Have It!: Introducing the Starbucks Brand Graph
The interest graph is defined by connections, but it is brought to life through self-expression. When we combine brand-centric relationships and conversations, the interest graph eventually evolves into what is essentially a brand graph. Within each brand-related graph is a group of highly connected individuals that serve as a company’s network of influence. The ReSearch.ly team extracted 50,000 of the most recent Tweets that included a mention of Starbucks. We then analyzed the connections between people and identified the top 100 individuals and the number of their followers who also mention Starbucks within the 50,000 mentions. We can then bring to light Starbucks influencers as a representation of its brand graph and influential hubs. As we can see, the difference between monitoring and gathering intelligence allows Starbucks to now identify relevant networks and introduce personalized campaigns to further spur advocacy and loyalty.
Here are the top 100 most connected people within the group mentioning Starbucks and the number of their followers also discussing Starbucks:
Accordingly, we can visualize the interest graph as connections, showing how influencers are not only interconnected, but also capable of disseminating relevant information and influencing behavior to varying degrees beyond the traditional reach of Starbucks. Social consumers and their place within the social consumer hierarchy determine reach and ultimately outcomes. Everything begins however, with recognizing who they are and what inspires or motivates them.
Conclusion
The era of analysis paralysis is officially over. Instead of just listening, companies can now study people and their interests based on what they say and do and also how they color their profiles. This goldmine of insight gives brands the potential to improve marketing, promotional and advertising campaigns to start. What we’re talking about here is the ability to personalize experiences that go beyond demographics and start to employ psychographics and behaviorgraphics – the ability to connect with groups of people by interest and how they interact.
As this practice develops, brands can also gather the intelligence necessary, and widely available, to improve products, services, and spark new waves of tweets gushing with positive sentiment. Doing so over time helps to build the social, and more relevant, business of the future while improving relationships to convert followers into stakeholders.
Brian Solis is the Chief Data Analyst at PeopleBrowsr and ReSearch.ly and author of Engage, the complete guide for businesses to build and measure success in the social web. Follow him on Twitter, @briansolis or read his blog, BrianSolis.com
Sphere: Related ContentMonday, December 20, 2010
Facebook Friends vs. Twiiter Tweeps
This is a follow up to a survey that I conducted earlier this month.
On December 14th, I shared the results of a survey I conducted about people who use Twitter.
You can read what I wrote here: http://sclohonet.blogspot.com/2010/12/intelligent-tweeps.html
The first survey was shared only on Twitter. A few people (Tweeps, as people on Twitter are sometimes affectionately known) commented and a local University asked if I would also be doing a survey of Facebook Users.
Sure, I said to the folks at the University of Saint Francis. Also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/USFFW/
So I created a nearly identical survey and only sent it out via Facebook.
Please realize that this is not a scientific survey, there was no "Control Group", however there was a safeguard that only allowed a person to take each survey only one time, unlike American Idol where you can vote as many times as you can get through!
This is a snapshot taken in December 2010, sent to the 1200 people who are listed as my followers on Twitter, and 600 people who are friends on Facebook.
Now that I've given you the disclaimers, let's compare...
My theory was that People who Tweet are smarter than People who use Facebook. And one way to test this was to compare which internet browser they used.
UPDATE: Let's amend this to say "More Internet Savvy" instead of the generic "Smarter".
Ever since the days of Windows 95 from Bill Gates and Microsoft became the standard for personal computing 15 years ago for most of the general public, we've had a big blue "E" on our computers which we would click and connect to the internet.
The last few years the dominance of Internet Explorer was dwindled, with the rise of alternative Internet Browsers and the reluctance of "Smart People" to trust Microsoft and/or their Browser.
1st Question:
Which Internet Browser is your favorite?
The Facebook answer:
And the Twitter answer:
Now, I am going to make the Big, Bold, Brash statement that people who use Explorer are dumb.
UPDATE: Let's amend this to say "LessInternet Savvy" instead of the generic "Dumb".
Not about everything, mind you, but at least when it comes to computer usage, using Explorer instead of the other options, (that are FREE) isn't very wise.
21% compared to nearly 4% gives Tweeps an edge in my book.
2nd Question:
What other Internet Browsers do you use?
Facebook answer:
Twitter answer:
What I notice most is the use of Chrome is much higher with Tweeps than their Facebook counterparts.
50% vs. nearly 13%.
Chrome was introduced by Google a few years ago and is pretty cutting edge compared to others.
Now, for the Facebook survey, I decided that I better ask an extra question, that I did not ask on the Twitter Survey:
3rd Question:
Do you also have and use Twitter?
Facebook (only) answer:
From my experience, the most important answer is the second line which shows that less than 10% are using Twitter at least once a day.
My experience with Twitter is any less that once a day is irrelevant. You are not using Twitter, you are playing with Twitter and deciding if it is worthy of your time. And your level of commitment is so low, you'll never really know unless you step up your activity.
4th Question:
Feel free to add your thoughts...
Facebook answer:
Twitter answer:
Now that you've seen the results and my commentary, feel free to add your own two cents in the comments.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
The Intelligent Tweeps
I have had a sneaking suspicion that if you took the I.Q. of Facebook users and compared them to Twitter users, Twitter users would score higher.
So last week I launched a two question survey on Survey Monkey and promoted it exclusively on Twitter.
(I realize that most of the folks on Twitter also have a Facebook account, but the opposite is not true. I am not a fan of Facebook, but I am there because of the massive number of people who are there.)
Of course this is unscientific for many reasons, but at least for the people who responded in the past 6 days, I see a tendency to be more computer literate, which is one way of gauging I.Q.
Let's look at the first question and the results:
Simply by choosing Firefox or Chrome, as their favorite internet browser, demonstrates a knowledge of these options and knowledge that Windows Internet Explorer, which has maintained a 50% to 90% lead by the general public, is not the best or safest way to hop on line.
UPDATE: Due to a request to "source my info on the general public" I'm adding this link.
With the second question, it gave those taking the survey to mention as many as they use and you'll see that Explorer and Chrome were being used too, but often times to simply check for compatibility issues since so many people use Explorer, and because Chrome is an up and coming option.
And for further proof, check out some of the comments:
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Teen Truths
Wednesday I posted a story about teen spending habits.
Here's a few more revelations:
Teens are a unique audience. They have their own needs and social drivers that are unique to their stage in life. Many marketers assume that, because teens are young, their needs are the same as Millennials and that they will interact with brands in the same way.
New research is showing that teens have their own needs and behaviors that are different from other generations. If you're a marketer looking to reach teens, it's vitally important that you always have your finger on the pulse of the teen audience. As technology evolves, teens are finding their own uses for it that are unique to their personal and social needs.
There are some myths about marketing to teens that every marketer can learn from.
Myth #1: All teens want smartphones
While it is true that teens want phones, smartphone adoption has only reached 31% as of 2010. If 90% of teens own a cell phone, why aren't they buying smartphones? The answer is actually pretty simple: texting. Teens send an average of 3,339 texts per month, and typing that many messages on a touch screen is a lot more difficult than typing on even the most basic phone keyboard. That's why BlackBerry is one of the most popular phones for teens.
Myth #2: Texting is the way in
We already know that teens love to text. What some marketers fail to realize is that teens only love to text with their friends. Only 10% say they want companies to contact them via text message. There are some instances where a brand can use a texting campaign to engage this audience, but most teens see texting as "too personal," and aren't inviting brands into their personal space.
Myth #3: Teens use Facebook the way we use Facebook
Don't count on just your Facebook page to reach teens. Teens interact with brands on Facebook if they feel there is a real benefit to them for doing so. They're not "liking" every brand on Facebook that they purchase, and even if they do, they're not likely to come back to your page after the first visit.
Myth #4: Teens are going to join Twitter
Recent findings from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project show that only 8% of teens have embraced Twitter. Other studies also show that most teens don't have any interest in joining Twitter in the future (76%). By the time they decide to use Twitter, they probably won't be teens anymore.
Myth #5: If you build it, teens will come
Great ideas go to waste when no one knows about them. Many marketers believe that creating a social experience for teens will spread itself through word-of-mouth and online sharing. A good social media activation can always benefit from a mass-media driver.
Myth #6: Teens are online all the time
Teens spend roughly two hours per day on the Internet, and almost half of that time is spent on entertainment. Teens don't need the Internet to interact with their friends -- they see them all the time, and if they're not with them, they're texting them. If you want to reach teens online, you have to find a way to bridge their online and offline experiences.
Myth #7: Teens don't watch TV
Teens watch over 100 hours of television per month -- most of which is not viewed on TiVo, Hulu or Netflix. They may be texting or playing games while they watch TV, but they're definitely still watching it.
Myth #8: Teen word-of-mouth happens online
Teens do not spend most of their online time communicating with their friends. In fact, over 80% of teen word-of-mouth happens offline. If you want to tap into teen word-of-mouth, find a reason for them to talk about your brand offline.
Myth #9: Teens love online video
Teens use the Internet for entertainment, and online video is an important component of that. Branded video can be a great way to engage with teens as long as it doesn't come off as one long commercial. Teens aren't going to be tricked into thinking that your "viral video" is anything more than an advertisement.
 | David Trahan is a strategist at social marketing agency Mr Youth in New York, which was named one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Marketing Companies in the World by "Fast Company" magazine. |
Sunday, August 22, 2010
So, What's a Tweep?
Answer: Someone who is active on Twitter.
Like me.
You can find me here. http://twitter.com/ScLoHo
And here's important info about us Tweeps:
A new study released by ExactTarget finds consumers who are active on Twitter are three times more likely to impact a brand's online reputation through syndicated Tweets, blog posts, articles and product reviews than the average consumer.
The study supported the general findings that microbloggers have many reasons to follow brands they like. Though discounts and sales are toward the top of the list, news and information about a company and its products are primary. The survey of more than 1,500 consumers identifies top motivations for following brands on Twitter and provides new insight into consumers' expectations for interacting with brands online.
| Reason to Twitter Company or Brand (% of US Twitter Users) | |
| Reason to Twitter | % of Users |
| Get updates on future products | 38% |
| Stay informed about company activities | 32 |
| Receive discounts and promotions | 31 |
| Get updates on upcoming sales | 30 |
| Ger free samples, counons, etc | 28 |
| For fun or entertainment | 26 |
| Get access to exclusive content | 25 |
| Learn more about company | 25 |
| Show support to company to others | 23 |
| Share ideas, provide feedback | 20 |
| For education about company topics | 14 |
| Recommended | 14 |
| Get direct message from company | 10 |
| Source: ExactTarget, August 2010 | |
eMarketer estimates there are 26 million monthly users of Twitter in 2010. That makes users of Twitter a relatively small minority of internet users, at 14.6%, but their voice is disproportionately loud.
Morgan Stewart, principal, ExactTarget's research and education group, says... "what happens on Twitter doesn't stay on Twitter... the number of active Twitter users is less than Facebook or email... (but) the concentration of highly engaged and influential content creators is unrivaled-it's (the) gathering place for content creators whose influence spills over into every... corner of the internet."
According to the report, daily Twitter users are about three times as likely as internet users on average to upload photos, four times as likely to blog, three times as likely to post ratings and reviews, and nearly six times as likely to upload articles.
| Monthly Online Social Activites (April 2010, % of Daily Twitter Users vs. General Internet Users) | ||
| Social Activity | Twitter Users | General Internet Users |
| Comment on photos or videos | 80% | 36% |
| Upload photos | 76 | 27 |
| Post to forums | 75 | 25 |
| Blog | 72 | 14 |
| Comment on blogs | 70 | 23 |
| Post ratings and reviews | 67 | 20 |
| Comment on news | 61 | 15 |
| Update own site | 59 | 13 |
| Upload articles | 56 | 10 |
| Upload video | 53 | 10 |
| Upload audio | 50 | 12 |
| Post to wikis | 50 | 7 |
| Sell online | 49 | 14 |
| Post coupons | 48 | 10 |
| Source: ExactTarget, August 2010 | ||
Key findings of the research include:
· Twitter users are the most influential online consumers; 72% publish blog posts at least monthly, 70% comment on blogs, 61% write at least one product review monthly and 61% comment on news sites.
· Daily Twitter users are 6 times more likely to publish articles, five times more likely to post blogs, seven times more likely to post to Wikis and three times more likely to post product reviews at least monthly compared to non-Twitter users.
· 23% of online consumers read Twitter updates at least monthly.
· 11% of online consumers read Twitter updates, but do not have a Twitter account themselves.
· 20% of consumers indicate they have followed a brand in order to interact with the company, more than become email subscribers or Facebook fans for the sake of interaction.
· Men are more than twice as likely as women to follow brands on Twitter to interact with the company (29% compared to 13%).
· Nine out of the 10 most common motivations for consumers to follow a brand on Twitter involve consumers seeking information from a company.
Tim Kopp, ExactTarget's chief marketing officer, concludes that "Twitter offers marketers an unrivaled opportunity to instantly and personally interact with customers on behalf of a brand... "
For additional information from ExactTarget, please visit here.
Sphere: Related ContentSaturday, May 15, 2010
That Tool Called Twitter
from MarketingCharts.com:
Complaints, Trademark Violations and Retweet Requests: How to Handle Anything on Twitter
There are a lot of examples of companies that handle the unexpected well on Twitter; there are just as many, if not more, of companies that didn’t.
Don’t be in that latter group. Following is a brief list of expert suggestions on how to handle several common issues related to marketing via Twitter.
You Get a Complaint, Legitimate Or Otherwise
First distinguish between the two, Lisa Barone, Chief Branding Officer of Outspoken Media, writes on the company blog. Barone, in fact, was discussing what to do when your company gets a negative review on Yelp, but the theory is largely the same for Twitter.
“Not all bad reviews are created equal,” writes Barone. “Sometimes going in and engaging a disgruntled customer will help them see your company in a new light and other times you’re just opening yourself up to more negative attention.”
Respond contritely if you genuinely need to make amends, advises Barone. “It often doesn’t take much to smooth over one bad experience.” Respond as well if they are misstating the facts, she says. “Speak up and politely let them know that they may have simply misunderstood something …if it’s a matter of bad facts, you should step in to correct them.”
Take all of the complaints seriously, even the ones that seem frivolous, because they all have the potential to develop legs, Barone concludes.
You Spot A Possible Trademark Violation
The law on the use of trademarks in Twitter and Facebook is not any different from their general application on the web, according to Finnegan attorney Jon Gelchinsky. As reported by MarketingVox, Gelchinsky says that in some cases, if the infringement is benign, it may the company’s best interests to leave it alone, considering how quickly cease and desist letters can go viral. But if the use is likely to cause confusion or dilution, then the brand owner should take action.
Gelchinsky says that now that Twitter and other social media real-time feeds are becoming archived - and searchable - it is more important for brands to be vigilant about trademark protection on these sites.
Someone Asks You To Retweet Them
Of course, many companies automatically retweet positive comments about their products or services. Each situation is different, depending on the company and industry. But it is worth considering a purist’s view of retweeting before you indiscriminately hit the send button.
Peter Shankman has at least 50,000 followers that he attracted, he says, following a simple formula reported by MarketingVox: “Honesty, transparency, brevity, relevance, and top-of-mind presence – i.e., offering you valuable information in exchange for you letting me into your life. The day I start shilling for other people is the day my Twitter stream becomes nothing more than advertising, or than a press release submitted over a wire.”
His formula for retweet requests: polite honesty, or the following excerpt of his form letter.
“As we get closer to the date of the conference, I will make mention that I’m keynoting your event, in a way that benefits my followers. I will not, however, advertise for you to my followers, who sign up to receive valuable insight from me, not blatant advertisements. I tweet about all my keynotes. But I do it in my voice, on my time, in a way that’s not blatantly advertorial, self-promoting, or self-serving. Those are my rules. I don’t violate them. Ever. I’m sure you understand.”
Sphere: Related ContentSunday, May 09, 2010
Twitter for Business Stats
Yes, I use Twitter. You can find me at: http://twitter.com/ScLoHo/
This is from Mediapost:
Is it Really Worthwhile to Market on Twitter?
A new study by Edison Research provides a complex and multi-layered picture of Twitter - along with some interesting data points that suggest it may not be worthwhile for some companies to focus their online marketing efforts on the micro-blogging site.
This, of course, contradicts other studies - at least about social media, not necessarily Twitter - as well as what has become conventional wisdom on how to advance a brand, according to MarketingVOX.The other studies include a small but now infamous study by Vitrue that found one fan on Facebook is worth $3.60 and a Facebook Page with one million fans is worth a minimum of $3.6 million in earned media annually.Then there is a study by Hubspot.com, which found that many B2C and B2B companies are successfully using social media networks to acquire customers, with more than four in 10 companies overall having acquired a customer from four major social media channels.
Brand Aware
The Edison study doesn’t discount the popularity of Twitter - in fact it reports that 87% of respondents have heard of Twitter, compared to 88% who had heard of Facebook. The findings also suggest that Twitter users are hyper-aware of brands on Twitter. The study found that 42% learn about products and services via Twitter and 41% provide opinions about products/services. An additional 19% seek customer support. A grand total of 49% follow brands or companies.
“Twitter users talking about marketing and brands far exceeds the usage on the other social networks,” said Tom Webster, the VP of Strategy & Marketing at Edison (via Social Media Today).”Combined with their above average income and above average education, Twitter users’ propensity to interact with brands make them a huge potential source for Mass Influencers,” Social Media Today concludes.
Does Not Convert into Interaction
Here is the rub: the data also suggests that Twitter users do not necessarily convert brand awareness to usage, Social Media Today says. Although 87% of Americans have heard of Twitter - only 7% actually use it. Compare that to Facebook, where 88% have heard of it, and 41% have a profile, which is a conversion rate approaching 50%, Social Media Today notes.Clearly some companies belong on Twitter - namely brands that are seeking to shape consumers’ opinions and possibly engage them in a conversation.
Who Shouldn’t
And just as clearly some companies don’t belong on Twitter - or at least shouldn’t be spending a significant portion of their marketing budget on it. These include:
Companies that don’t have a mobile strategy or presence.
There is a strong tie between Twitter and mobile, Social Media Today notes, with 63% of Twitter users accessing social networks via mobile phone, and 73% sending SMS text messages multiple times per day.
Mass-market brands with straightforward products.
Gillette is a good example, says Fast Company. Brands such as Gillette that are positioned based on functionality superiority are not likely to benefit from a social campaign, according to a study by Vivaldi-Lightspeed.
In that study, 96% of respondents in the study tout Gillette’s good quality and reliability. At that point, Gillette should take that goodwill and run, the study goes on to say.”Conversation might lead to a discussion of downsides such as price and alternative products,” says Markus Zinnbauer, a director Vivaldi. (via Fast Company).
Small businesses that don’t have a significant online or social media presence.
That group is far larger than one might realize, according to a recent Citigroup study. Most small businesses today aren’t leveraging the basic online tools readily available to them to help grow their businesses, the study found.
Namely, in the last year 37% of small businesses have not used a website for marketing or expanding their business and 84% have not used e-commerce to sell their products or services. Additionally, 62% aren’t using basic email for marketing their business.Before such a company jumps on the Twitter bandwagon it would be far better off to master these fundamental online marketing tools - particularly email marketing. Local reputation tools such as Yelp would be the exception.
Sphere: Related ContentFriday, April 16, 2010
Social Subs
from Mediapost today:
| Subway Taps Celebs for Twitter Promo, TV Spots |
| Karlene Lukovitz, Apr 15, 2010 11:19 AM |
Subway's latest marketing thrust combines a celebrity-focused advertising campaign with a Twitter engagement effort offering chances to win the chain's gift cards. Between April 14 and April 27, a "Tweet to Eat" promotion will focus each day on a famous Subway fan, encouraging people to tweet @subwayfreshbuzz to weigh in on why the "famous fan of the day" "is a great fit" for the Subway brand. Tweeting qualifies consumers to be entered for a chance to win $10 Subway gift cards (five cards will be awarded per day). The celebrities, mostly sports figures, will also be tweeting to Subway fans from their own Twitter handles, a Subway spokesperson tells Marketing Daily. Also during April, two new 30-second broadcast/cable television spots are featuring montages of the same famous Subway fans touting the chain's $5 Footlongs. Both spots emphasize the "everyday value" of the Footlongs, although one version overtly uses the theme, while another uses the premise of celebs sharing their "secrets" related to their favorite Footlong varieties/makings. Featured celebrities include the NBA's (Los Angeles Clippers) Blake Griffin, the MLB's Ryan Howard (Philadelphia Phillies) and CC Sabathia (N.Y. Yankees), Olympic gold medalists Michael Phelps and Nastia Liukin, Fox sports commentators Jay Glazer and Michael Strahan, professional boxer Laila Ali, NASCAR driver Carl Edwards, and Subway spokesperson/weight management speaker Jared Fogle. While timed to create synergy for the Twitter promotion, the TV spots do not actually allude to the social media contest. |
Saturday, April 10, 2010
How Mama Shops in 2010
from Mediapost:
She's a savvy, price-comparison shopper who uses technology, offline media and, most of all, her peers to stretch her buying dollar. She was once only a mom on a budget but the recent shift in economic climate generated a conversion of moms from disposable income queens to coupon divas.
She's tasted the thrill of saving, the fulfillment of reclaiming control of her debit card and the excitement of hearing the clerk say, "You just saved $101 today." Sixty percent of moms we surveyed said they have used coupons for the first time in the last year.
Although the economy seems to be turning around, she's not turning back to her old spending behaviors. Why would she? She's learned that if she visits Coupons.com, she can increase her arsenal of savings and if she reads Mommysnacks.net's blog before leaving the house, she can design a road map among retailers, who are all competing for her business.
She plays The Grocery Game more than she plays cards. The Mom Frugalista is here to stay, and it's time for retailers and brand managers to win her loyalty.
Before I share the "How to Connect" with a Mom Frugalista, let's understand mom's desire to share news of a great deal. Moms share money-saving opportunities because it's a way to nurture relationships with other moms. It deepens their relationship to save another mother a dollar or two.
It also shows a mom's shopping prowess. If she finds a deal and shares the news, it demonstrates her personal skill in shopping, thus elevating her status among her peers. It's friendly competition at its best, the kind that nurtures relationships and fulfills her need to share. Here are a few tips to leverage these innate behaviors and connect with the Mom Frugalista:
- Engage the mom influencers. Sounds basic, but it's amazing how few marketers are engaging with coupon, consumer and frugal social media mom influencers. Each week these women communicate the best deals for moms in their blogs, tweets and Facebook pages.
- Developing a relationship, one with a real dialogue, with Moms like ConsumerQueen, PennyPinchingDiva and Deal Seeking Mom can give marketers the opportunity to have influential moms deliver their message. Do you know Stephanie Nelson? If not, you should if your brand ever offers coupons.
- Search Twitter for your consumer. It doesn't take much effort to find moms who are looking for your product. Go to Summize.com each morning and search your brand's name or solution. When you find moms seeking your product or one like it, offer them the opportunity to try it at a discount.
Let's say you sell pasta. A search of "dinner ideas" may reveal a mom tweeting to her peers, asking for a suggestion for a five-minute meal. Here's where the pasta brand jumps in. A smart marketer might direct-mail that mom and offer her a link to a recipe. A great marketer would offer to send a link to a recipe and a downloadable coupon: Relevant and valuable content delivered in the nick of time.
- Recognize that all types of moms love to save, then put your money saving deals in the right hands. Seek out fitness fanatics like Mizfitonline.com and Themojocoach.com if you are a brand offering low-fat or low-sugar solutions. These women can be a great resource in distributing your saving information to other health-conscience moms. They don't have to be saving bloggers to help you spread the word.
It takes a coupon to persuade today's mom who is loyal to a brand. Eighty percent of moms in a recent BSM Media survey of 3,000 moms said that it takes a coupon for her to try a new brand. Moms know that they can find the means to save on the brands they love so it takes the same value to motivate her to test a new product. Find a way to get a sample or coupon in her hand.
The Mom Frugalista is smart and savvy and is looking for the savings on your products.
 | Maria Bailey is CEO of BSM Media, www.bsmmedia.com and author of "Marketing to Moms," "Trillion Dollar Moms" and "Mom 3.0: Marketing With Today's Mothers." She is also Host of MomTalkRadio, www.momtalkradio, co-Founder of Newbaby.com, MomTv.com and BlueSuitMom.com. For more than a decade, Maria and BSM Media have connected brands around the globe with the mom market. Contact her at Maria@bsmmedia.com or follower her on Twitter @momtalkradio. Follow her on Twitter @ MariaBailey or reach her here. |
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Social Media Control
Somehow those three words don't work well together. Drew explains:
Social media = letting others in
Posted: 18 Jan 2010 11:32 AM PST
One aspect of embarking into the waters of social media that seems to give most of them some sort of tick is the idea that you have to relinquish some control.
You can't take advantage of the connectivity, reach and viral nature of he beast without also being willing to connect, reach many people and let others share. It's like wanting to enjoy the sensation of flying over the water in a boat at high speed but without the engine noise. It' the "other people" part of social media that provides its power.
Here's what I think of as social media's price of admission:
You have to be willing to spotlight and amplify other people's voices:Many business owners seem to want to mute their employees and customers. That doesn't work in social media. Not only do you need to "let them" talk but you need to invite it. You have to allow comments. You are the topic of conversation somewhere. This is just about allowing it to happen (and encouraging it) in your digital home.
You have to be willing to be imperfect:You need to be willing to be imperfect (like Dominos). You need to be transparent and that takes some courage. But let's be honest here. Everyone already knows you're not perfect. And...will actually respect and love you all the more for just admitting it. It's not how or whether you screw up. It's what you do next that matters.
You have to be willing to let others change your direction:Viral means letting go. It means tossing an idea or program out into the social media space and inviting other people to pick up the ball and run with it. Sometimes, they go where you think they'll go...and sometimes they'll surprise you.
I'm pretty sure the FourSquare folks (a location based social network) hadn't anticipated that Marcus Brown would create the International Day of the Toilet -- and encourage his worldwide network of friends to all create "water closet" venues on Foursquare. The interesting thing is -- will FourSquare shudder at the news or help promote the idea?
There are plenty of other things you need to do to create a successful social media presence. But...if you can't swallow these three, don't even get started. Social media is nothing if it's not about inviting other people into the party.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Why they Follow/Friend You
from Marketing Sherpa regarding Twitter & Facebook.
Click on the chart for more details:
Friday, December 11, 2009
Twitter Moms
Lessons to learn about how you should tweet:
You Should, Too
For many moms, Twitter has become a search engine on steroids because of its ability to return recommendations from a peer group you trust and who knows your preferences, lifestyle and life stage. This personalized delivery of relevant content is a dream come true for both consumers and companies trying to connect with them.
Unfortunately, companies have entered the Twittersphere haphazardly and without any real thought to how best utilize this powerful marketing channel. It's not enough to just set up a Twitter account and tweet out the promotion of the week or newest press release. In fact, there's been much tweeting about this lately among moms on Twitter.
"Why do companies flood my Twitter account with garbage I can't use?," tweeted one mom last week. Another tweeted, "I spent 4 hours blocking companies who send me only marketing messages." A marketer can do a very effective job in connecting with moms in 140 characters or less as long as they follow a couple of key strategies.
So to support these points, I did what I do most when I want to gain the prospective of moms, I tweeted this question out to my 13,000 followers: "What would you tell marketers about using Twitter when marketing to moms?"
1)It's called social media because it's social. For a woman, this means speaking back. Moms will quit following you if the dialogue is not a two-way conversation. @Gomominc tweeted: "Companies shouldn't ask your opinion and then just go off ..."
2)Twitter shouldn't be a platform to only broadcast promotions and sales. @ameladramaticmommy tweeted: "Be a person first and a company second. I would follow more companies if they tweeted out something interesting about them first." If you want to see how a company representative can support a brand and allow their personality to shine through, follow @comcastcares or @babycenterPR.
3)Take part in Twitter events. If you are surprised that there are "events" on Twitter, you probably aren't using Twitter to its greatest potential. There are lots of events in this virtual space ranging from #FF (Follow Friday) and Twitter Parties. @Resourcefulmom created the former which have proven successful in gathering thousands of moms. Just last week BSM Media and @Resourceful hosted a Twitter Party for Zhu Zhu Pets. The event attracted over 1,000 moms and generated almost 9,000 tweets with the hash tag #ZhuZhuPets.
4)Don't wait for moms to find you. Timing is important in delivering relevant content. Pick a few key words that fit your brand and search for twitter conversations on Summize.com, www.summize.com. In maintaining a Twitter account for one of my toy clients, we search daily for tweets that contain the word, "birthday," "gift" and "toy." Often we will find tweets that say "Need a birthday gift idea for 5 yr old boy," to which we reply, "Have you seen the new (insert appropriate toy) which is on sale at (insert retailer)" Relevant content delivered when a mom needs it.
5)Fear not! The conversation will happen with or without you, so you might as well join in. Many companies tell me they fear setting up a Twitter account. "What if moms have something negative to say and say it to me on Twitter?" Well, guess what? They are going to say it whether you are there or not, but at least if you are Twitter, you have the chance to engage in the conversation. Think back to the '80s before social media existed and moms used to talk about products on the physical playground. Marketers were often blindsided by guerilla consumer chatter and only had the opportunity to react after it had reached the masses. With Twitter, if you see a mom complain about your product, you have 140 strokes of the keyboard to rectify the situation almost immediately. Customer service at its best.
I invite you to follow me on Twitter. I'm @momtalkradio. You can DM me or List me and if you don't know what I'm describing, it's time to learn. Today's moms are doing more than just talking about brands, they are tweeting them, too.
| Maria Bailey is CEO of BSM Media, www.bsmmedia.com and author of "Marketing to Moms," "Trillion Dollar Moms" and "Mom 3.0: Marketing With Today's Mothers." She is also Host of MomTalkRadio, www.momtalkradio, co-Founder of Newbaby.com, MomTv.com and BlueSuitMom.com. For more than a decade, Maria and BSM Media have connected brands around the globe with the mom market. Contact her at Maria@bsmmedia.com or follower her on Twitter @momtalkradio. Follow her on Twitter @ MariaBailey or reach her here. |
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Twitter for Business
I was glad to see some updates last week from one of my favorite sales/marketing blogs last week, Small Fuel Marketing. Here's one of them:
How to Leverage Twitter for Your Business
Here are some tips for those just starting out: Getting Started With TwitterThe first step to leveraging Twitter for your business is to set up a Twitter account. You want to pick an account name that is relatively short — it’s preferable to use your company’s name, but an abbreviation can make it easier to communicate effectively on the site. You’ll also want to fill out your bio as completely as possible: link to your website, describe your business and put up a logo or other image. From the start, you’ll also want to use a few external services to help you keep an eye on who is saying what — unless you want to spend hours a day on the site. Luckily, these tools are free as well.
There are thousands of other free Twitter tools, but deciding which ones can help you requires first deciding just how you want to use Twitter. Sharing Information on TwitterSuccess on Twitter is measured — at least by prospective customers or clients — by your authenticity. As a matter of course, most Twitter users have no interest in following an account that is nothing but links and company announcements. Instead, they’re looking for a little interaction. There’s nothing wrong with including announcements, but you want to respond to comments that other Twitter users make about your business or your industry. You can jump into a conversation very easily on Twitter, especially if you have set up alerts about topics relevant to your business. If you see that someone is talking about your industry, for instance, take a minute and look at what he has said: agree or disagree, you probably have an opinion about the topic that you would like to share. On Twitter, there’s no need to wait for an invitation — just jump in and start sharing. The same holds true if someone mentions your product on Twitter. Good or bad, you should acknowledge the mention. If it’s bad, take a moment to see if you can address the issue. If you can fix the situation, you know that you’ve got a satisfied customer who will tell the world about it. The more happy customers you have commenting about how good you are on Twiter, the more potential customers will hear about it. It’s word of mouth marketing taken to a higher level. Getting Followers of Your OwnThere are tools available that you can plug in your Twitter account information and automatically add a thousand contacts on Twitter. However, taking this approach won’t help you in the long run. In a worst case scenario, you can get banned as a spammer. In the best case scenario, most Twitter users will ignore you as just another marketer. The better option is to grow your Twitter contacts organically. Find someone interested in your business or industry? Start following him — and a put a little extra effort into conversing with him. Get a notification that you’re being followed by someone new? Check out his profile and start a conversation (and follow him back). In just a few months, you’ll have a solid network of Twitter contacts that are actually worth knowing. Follow Us!SmallFuel is on Twitter, and so is everyone on the SmallFuel team. Hope to see you there!
|
| SmallFuel Marketing, Inc. 126 E 2nd St, Suite A, Media, PA 19063 Copyright (C) 2008 SmallFuel Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved. |
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
15 Twitter Tips for Business
Some businesses shun and prohibit social media in the workplace. In my opinion, those businesses are killing themselves out of fear and ignorance. Doug Karr wrote this last week:
As I was reading the book, Shel mentions several reasons why a company would want to use Twitter. I think many of them are worth listing… along with some discussion…as well as a few others.
- Distributing Coupons and Offers – since Twitter is a permission-based communication medium, it’s the perfect means of distributing offers. Good friend Adam Small has seen this in the restaurant and real estate industries – where a combination of Mobile Alerts, Twitter, Facebook, Blogging and syndication have helped grow all of his clients’ businesses… while in a down market!
- Communicating with Employees – rather than tying up email servers or wasting peoples’ time in meeting rooms, Twitter is a great collaboration tool. In fact, that’s why it was first created by Odeo under the name Twttr (i and the e dropped for less typing for SMS!)
- Receiving Customer Complaints – companies constantly fight to avoid their dirty laundry being put out in the public eye. The irony is that consumers don’t believe in 5-star service anymore. The most aggressive promotion and criticism of companies typically comes after their response… or inactivity. By accepting customer complaints in the open, other consumers can see what kind of company you really are.
- Finding or Posting a Job – Recruiters and seekers are utilizing Twitter to post about jobs wanted or job openings. With a geographic search, you can even locate how close you’re looking to find employment and can combine other terms for your search. Here’s an example:
#job OR #jobs near:Indianapolis within:50miSubscribe to the feed and keep yourself up to date!
- Information Seeking and Sharing – Back when I had under one thousand visitors, Twitter had become a great alternative to search engines. Google has realized this as well, integrating your online communities into search results. Typically, the answers I get are very relevant because those who follow me are working in the same industry as I am.
- Inbound Marketing Strategy – while working at Compendium, we began to notice the number and quality of the inbound leads that came to our site from Twitter were much more likely to convert than through search. Although search engines gave us massive volumes of visitors, we absolutely began advising clients to get onboard Twitter and automate their feeds via tools like Hootsuite or Twitterfeed.
- Humanizing Business – businesses who have little or no contact with the public are finding that providing a human touch is great for business and required for customer retention. If your business is struggling with providing human interaction and are resource-starved, Twitter is a great medium. It need not be monitored all day (although I’d advise it… speedy replies get oohs and aahs), but a response from a faceless company by an actual person with an avatar is always cool.
- Personal Branding – alongside humanizing business is the ability for employees or business owners to also build a personal brand. Building a personal brand online can lead to many things… perhaps even starting your own agency! Be selfish about your career. Too many people that were worried about what their company might think if they put themselves out in the public eye are now looking for jobs because that same company laid them off.
- Twitter Search Optimization with Hashtags – searches on Twitter are becoming more and more common. Get found by utilizing hashtags effectively in your Tweets or in your autopost mechanisms.
- Effective Networking – networking online is a great precursor for networking offline. I can’t tell you how many prospects I’ve met through Twitter. Some of us knew each other for months before actually connecting offline, but it’s led to some great business relationships.
- Viral Marketing – Twitter is the ultimate in viral marketing. The Retweet (RT) is an incredibly powerful tool… pushing your message from network to network to network in a matter of minutes. I’m not sure that there is a quicker viral technology on the market right now.
- Fund-raising – Shel writes some great examples of how companies have effectively utilized Twitter for philanthropic endeavors. The benefit is both to the business and the charity – since the businesses’ involvement is publicized better on Twitter than had they just made a mention on a web site somewhere.
- Online Ordering – Aside from coupons and offers, some folks are even taking customer orders online. Shel writes about a coffee shop where you can Tweet in your order and go pick it up. Very cool!
- Public Relations – Since Twitter works at the speed of typing 140 characters, your company can get ahead of everyone… the competition, the media, leaks… by having an aggressive PR strategy that incorporates Twitter. When you make the announcement first, people come to you. Don’t leave it up to traditional media or a blogger to get things right… use Twitter to command and direct the communication.
- Communicate Alerts – have a problem with your company and need to communicate with your customers or prospects? Twitter can be a great way of doing this. Pingdom has even added Twitter Alerts to it’s services… what a great idea! Except… when Twitter goes down they can’t use the service
An alert can be a great thing as well… perhaps to notify your customers that a product is back in stock.
Shel mentions that some of the business use cases in his books can’t be attributed directly to revenue. Though this is true, they can ultimately be measured and a return on investment applied. I’m confident that a customer service department that’s tracking call volume and Tweets can do some kind of measuring to see if Twitter reduces average call volume since the answers are publicized. As with #15… if my site goes down and it’s Tweeted… then those folks are going to be less apt to call me to let me know since they see that I’ve already confirmed the issue.
What am I missing?
PS: I’m reading Kyle Lacy’s Twitter Marketing For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)), next!
This post was written by Douglas Karr
Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization.
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