The way you say things

This is not one of my own, but a good message just the same. Read the story below and think about how it applies to what we do every day are marketers.

The way you say things

A blind boy sat on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet. He held up a sign which said: "I am blind, please help." There were only a few coins in the hat. A man was walking by. He took a few coins from his pocket and dropped them into the hat. He then took the sign, turned it around, and wrote some words. He put the sign back so that everyone who walked by would see the new words. Soon the hat began to fill up. A lot more people were giving money to the blind boy. That afternoon the man who had changed the sign came to see how things were. The boy recognized his footsteps and asked, "Were you the one who changed my sign this morning? What did you write?" The man said, "I only wrote the truth. I said what you said but in a different way." I wrote: "Today is a beautiful day but I cannot see it." Both signs told people that the boy was blind. But the first sign simply said the boy was blind. The second sign told people that they were so lucky that they were not blind. Should we be surprised that the second sign was more effective?

Moral of the Story
Be thankful for what you have. Be creative. Be innovative. Think differently and positively. When life gives you a 100 reasons to cry, show life that you have 1000 reasons to smile.

Let’s Talk About Image Problems

Talk about two groups of people who could use an image makeover! The first group is the modern family. First there was Tiger Woods, then Sandra Bullock. This is such a hot topic that the tabloids are bringing up “B” rate actors and celebrities and exposing their marriage issues. I have to admit that I was interested at first. Now, it is just sad.

The second group is Toyota. Like celebrity marriages, Toyota has gotten nothing but bad press lately. Faulty brakes, gas pedals and computers issues have led to recalls and damage to a solid reputation and company identity that stood for quality.

Enter the “Swagger Wagon” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4). This is the latest entry into their series of viral Siena Minivan ads. It is full of sarcasm and that is a big part of why I like it so much. That sarcasm seems to be lost on many people, but I love the spot (http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/app/blogs/news/?p=1294). It features two parents who are shown to share parenting responsibilities of two cute kids. You will recognize the actors from other commercial and TV spots. The commercial is a music video format featuring a hilarious rap. The focus of their Mommy Daddy Rap is their love for their Toyota Siena Minivan. The ad is peppered with images of baby support gear like monitors, pacifiers, baby bottles, costumes, cupcakes and of course their vehicle. Honestly, no matter how hard you try you can not make a minivan cool. That is where the sarcasm comes in. I am a 40ish husband and a father of two and honest about the fact that my hip and cool days are behind me. The satire in the commercial focuses on this and resonates with many parents. Don’t ask me about the quality of the vehicle. I know nothing about it or other Toyota cars or trucks, but I like the commercial.

Toyota is relying mainly on viral tactics to distribute the ad. We are seeing this type of an approach more and more. Most of these ads can only be found on YouTube. Toyota is relying heavily on the viral nature of YouTube and other social networking/media sites to get their message out. Not that long ago, you would only see this approach from small company. It is interesting to see this type of approach from large companies like Toyota.

A Social Media Strategy is Like Your Love Life

I was recently having a conversation with a coworker about developing a social media strategy. He was unfamiliar with the medium, so I was more than happy to share my knowledge and experience. I can not tell you how many of these conversations I have had over the years. I have found them much more interesting when the person or people I am talking to are active and ask a lot of questions. That describes this conversation. Tim is a General Manager at a large hotel and has over 30 years of experience in the hospitality industry; however he will tell you that his knowledge of social media will fit in a thimble.



Through the first part of the conversation, he kept trying to come up with an analogy. We went through cars, old dogs, putting together puzzles, making a large dinner and many more before I had an epiphany. I said, “Let’s try this. Developing a social media strategy is like your love life.” It seemed to fit, so I went with it. As you read through this entry, think of the object or your desires and social media as two in the same.

That First Date
You are scared, but you finally work up the courage to ask the new out. You are so nervous that you nearly wet your pants. To your surprise, she says yes. The big day comes and the two of you hit the town. At first, the conversation is kind of awkward. Let’s be honest, there is not much conversation at all. Almost all of it is coming from you. You throw out your best one liners and stories, but your date is slow to respond. You go through the entire first date with very little conversation. Based the limited conversation, you would think you would give up. However, there is something very intriguing about this one and you want to try to go out again. You go out a couple more times and now the conversation is much better. Not great, but at least you are not having to do all of the talking.

Your Lesson: Don’t get discouraged when you are getting started. Continue to post and monitor. This is not a, “If you build it, they will come” scenario. You will need to get the word out about your efforts.

Playing the Field
You are really enjoying each other’s company, but you are not sold that she is the one for you. You decide to play the field a little bit and your attention wonders. You get so focused on other things that you almost loose her. She tries to communicate with you, but you don’t respond. She is upset with you and you have to make up for neglecting her. You respond to all of her questions and help her through some challenging issues. She is feeling better now, but you still have work to do.

Your Lesson: Don’t neglect your customers who find you and take the time to reach out to you. If you do not respond within a very short amount of time, you run the risk of creating a bad customer experience. Think of it as a customer calling you and you put them on hold for two days. In addition, it is advisable to keep you focus on one channel. Especially at first. Don’t spread yourself too thin and make sure you have the bandwidth.

You Find “The One”
You take that big step and decide to become serious. You quickly move past the “getting to know one another” stage of your relationship. At first, you don’t want to share you inner most secrets. In time, you learn that it is not all about you. Your two-way relationship involves listening, meeting more of your partner’s acquaintances and participating in the broader community of people. It is not easy, but you are learning.

Your Lesson: Don’t “talk at” people who are part of your network. Talk to them with the understanding and expectation that they will talk back. If all you do is sell your products, your community will become bored and leave. Find a way to give back and keep them engaged. Be open and honest. You may feel “exposed” at times and you may feel like you are giving up a little control of your brand. If you are not upfront with your community, you can bet that they will be with you. They will either expose you publicly or just leave your community for good. Address the challenges openly and honestly and you will be much better off.

Long Term Relationship
You are in for the long hall at this point. You are on cloud 9 and things are getting better every day. You have gotten to know one another very well at this point. Surprisingly, you learn a lot about yourself because of what your partner is telling you about yourself. You learn to be sincere with your communications. You know you are not perfect and now you are comfortable letting your partner know it. Let’s be honest, you always knew you were not perfect and your partner did too. Now, your partner loves and respects you even more now that you are able to be transparent and admit your flaws.

You think you are done? Not even close. This only marks the end of the honeymoon. Earlier, you neglected your partner and almost lost her. You were able to recover and get things back on track because it was early in your relationship. Now you have history and a much more involved relationship. Neglect your partner now and it will be much harder to recover. You are very comfortable together, but you don’t want to get overly comfortable. Peeing with the bathroom door open or letting one rip at dinner will set the relationship back several steps. You are yourself, but maintain control.

Your Lesson: Open up. Everyone knows you are not perfect including yourself. Don’t be afraid to expose your flaws. Keep the community engaged. You must keep looking for new content and new information that your community finds interesting and continues to put your company in a good light. Up to this point I have talked about “letting go”. As you community expands, you must also maintain a bit of control. Make sure content is relevant to your company and community. Control rants and social commentary the best you can. Keep in mind that anyone who posts or maintains your social media sites is an ambassador of your brand. It is easy to get too caught up in the “social” aspect of the medium. Maintain professionalism.

Babies!
Now it is time to grow your little family. It is not long before you hear the pitter pat of little feet. Or, maybe the tweeting of little voices. You are firm in your ideals and know who you are. This knowledge and experience is passed down to your offspring and they now share your message.

Your Lesson: As mentioned earlier, it is a good idea to focus on one of social media channels when you are getting started. This will help with quality control as well as help you develop and learn as you go as opposed to jumping in head first. Once you get that channel established, expand your social media strategy to include other vehicles. You will find that the same content can be shared across all channels.

Social media is a great way to build your customer base, but more importantly it also is a great way to retain your customers and keep them engaged. It is more work and more expensive to get that first customer than it is to keep them. Think about the dating scenario, playing the field can be expensive and exhausting. Wooing potential partners with nice dinners is tough on the pocket book! Once you have that first interaction with the customer, you have to work to keep them. Building a lasting relationship with the customer builds trust and loyalty. Social media, when engaged properly, can be a hugely successful tool when trying to keep your customers engaged. Make the commitment to social media and you will likely find a similar commitment from your customers to your company and your products.

“Is Your Mother a Prostitute?”

In April of 2010 Jeff Ireland, the General Manager of the Miami Dolphins, asks Oklahoma State wide receiver Dez Bryant if his mother was a prostitute in a pre draft interview. How the 6’ 2”, 224 lb college standout kept from reaching across the table and administering one hell of a beating on Ireland we may never know. Sports talk radio had a field day with this one. Just about anyone who offered their opinion was outraged. Mike Ditka chimed in on the topic, "I think the individual who asked that question, somebody ought to whack him in the head. You don't ask that question." Most people, celebrity or not, shared Ditka’s sentiments.

Jeff Ireland holds one of the top positions within the Dolphin organization. An organization that, in general, has a very good reputation. What does this say about the organization? Is this considered acceptable behavior? The Miami Dolphins is a brand and, like it or not, because of his positions Mr. Ireland is an ambassador of that brand. Actually, it has nothing to do with his position. Everyone who has access to customers is a brand ambassador. Can this kind of behavior change the public’s opinion of the brand? Absolutely.

Let me give a personal example of how one employee can define a brand in a customer’s eyes. In 1988 I had a bad experience with the service manager at Greenspoint Dodge in Houston, Texas. He had no concept of customer service and insulted me and my mother. This brand ambassador for the Chrysler Corporation left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I sold the car as soon as I could and have yet to own another one of their products and likely never will. I have been into their dealerships when I was in the market for a new car, but could never bring myself to seriously consider their products as an option because of this one bad experience with this one individual.

I would guess that you have had a bad experience that has led to you not going to a certain restaurant, grocery store, shopping mall or other establishment. All because of an interaction with one individual who represented a brand.

Let’s consider social media. Get out and read articles on developing a social media strategy and you will come across multiple opinion and approaches. You will also find several common themes. One common theme is the idea of turning your employees into brand ambassadors through social media. I could not agree more. Think about what Best Buy is doing. Instead of relying on traditional marketing and communication methods, hundreds of Best Buy employees are on Twitter to assist in technology advice. That’s right, hundreds of brand ambassadors.

Do you think Jeff Ireland would be a good brand ambassador for the Dolphins organization? How about the service manager at Greenspoint Dodge? Obviously not. Or at least not without some serious training. I don’t know for sure, but I would guess that Best Buy has an extensive training program for the people who are communicating with customers through Twitter.

Companies who have an extensive social media strategy in place are evolving and changing their approaches regularly. It is the nature of the beast. You must remain nimble. In addition, social media is still a new concept to many companies. I still hear stories of miss guided executives and channel managers jumping into social media without developing a strategy. The most common story is that they hear about Facebook, Twitter and others and ask a young team member to create profiles. The end result is, more often than not, that the young person who was asked to create the profile is pulled onto other projects and the profile/account sits with no activity from the company. Customers and potential customers may even be active on these pages posting questions, making comments or even complaints.

So, what should companies know before diving in head first?

• Develop your strategy. What is the goal of your Facebook page? What do you hope to accomplish with your Twitter account? How will you get the word out about your strategy?
  
• Make the commitment. It is not enough to created profiles, accounts and pages. You must have people maintain them and check them every day if not several times a day.
  
• Turn you employees into brand ambassadors. But first, train them. Make sure they know your brand and have enough knowledge to be THE voice of your company. Make sure they know when to escalate issues and can respond to customers in a way that will build your brand and your customers’ confidence in your product.

An Observation in Social Networking

A few weeks ago I got a letter in the mail. It was one of those things that within 2 seconds of seeing it, you know what it is. Oh no, JURY DUTY! I read it. Well, kind of. I skimmed it. I don’t read anything these days. I go over it quickly and move on. This would be one of the many faults I have. Another fault is that I do not follow directions well. On the rare occasion that I read them, I probably will not follow them. I have a point, please stay with me.

They day came and I got in the car and headed to the courthouse, which was in a town 50 miles from my home. I got to the address with about 20 minutes to spare and the first thing I noticed was that this was a Federal building for the Eastern Districts of Texas. The second thing I noticed was that all the men where wearing coats and ties. So, I look at the paperwork I had received and truly read it for the first time. A few lines stand out:

• This is a Federal case.
• Men should wear a coat and tie.
• Jeans are not acceptable attire.

What do you thing I was wearing? No coat, no tie and jeans. This is staring out well. What are you going to do? So I park, gather my things and head to the front door. Not surprisingly, there are metal detectors at the entrance. I empty my pockets, remove my watch and belt and put my belongings in a plastic bin. The guard takes one look and tells me that my cell phone will have to go back to my car. What? No calls during breaks? No checking emails while things are slow? Now I realize that I did not read very far down my paperwork after all. I head back to my car thinking I am going to be bored to death. On the way back to the car I read a bit more on my paperwork and notice the bit about no cell phones in very large, bolded and red text. How the heck did I miss that? I put my phone in the car and noticed that I have a magazine sitting on the front seat. I am saved from epic boredom! I head back in. I empty my pockets, remove my watch and belt and put my belongings in a plastic bin… again. This time the guard looks at me and says no magazines or books either. He asks me if I read any of the instructions that were sent to me. I looked him in the eye and pointed to my attire as if to say, “What do you think?”. This is when I realized that the people at Federal Court do not appreciate my particular brand of humor. Once again, I headed back to the car. I tossed the magazine back in the car. I did not bother putting my belt on this time and threw that in the car as well.

Guys, you know how most of the time we wear belts strictly for appearance? This is not most of the time. I needed that belt and realized it about half way from the car. By this point I had eaten into my 20 minute cushion and I needed to get a move on. All I could think of at this point was, “Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, Lookin’ like a fool with you pants on the ground”. If you have been living in a cave and don’t get the reference, please check it out (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwhl4IrPNc). This time I made it in with not trouble. The guard gave me directions to the courtroom. I got in the elevator and made small talk with the guy in the elevator with me. He was in a coat and tie and at this point I am feeling a bit uncomfortable. I started making small talk. I said, “I guess I missed the reference about proper attire”. I kind of gave me a smug look as if to say, “Moron.” I deserved it. Turns out that he was there for the case as well. Making more small talk, I asked him, “What do you think this clown did?” He just kind of shrugged his shoulders and did not say anything. It was obvious that he was not interested in chatting, so I just kept my mouths shut from then on.

The people at the court started everything off by putting us all in line, looking for our name on a role sheet and initialing that sheet next to our names. Simple enough. I got that one done without any issues. We then took our first break. Yes, break number one. I was just going to stay there in the courtroom, but they told us we had to leave. There are about 50 of us and we all headed for the hallway. There was another gentleman there who was not wearing a coat and tie, so I made a joke about him not getting the memo either. He laughed and that lead into a nice conversation. I was relieved being that I had nothing else to do. No laptop, no blackberry, not even a magazine. I asked the standard small talk questions: Where to you live? What do you do? It was a nice chat and before I knew it our 20 minute break was over and we asked back into the courtroom.

They did a role call and gave us all cards with numbers on them. They then asked us to sit in the order of the numbers of the cards. At this point the attorneys from the prosecution and defense enter the courtroom. We were not told that was who they were, but it was pretty easy to put two plus two together. Crap! The defense attorney is the antisocial cat from the elevator. I am playing that back in my mind at this point. On the good side, referring to the accused as a clown and asking his attorney what he thinks he did will probably not get me picked to serve on the jury. Now the judge comes in and gives us our instructions. He asks us all to stand up and say a few things about ourselves. Where we live, what we do for a living, what we do in our spare time, marital status and spouses occupation is applicable.

We got through everyone a lot quicker than I expected. Surprisingly, this was kind of entertaining. It was interesting to hear what everyone did and a little about them. Several people had been laid off, lot of people had several kids or grand kids and several people said scuba diving was one of the things they like to do in their spare time. My interest at this point may have been heightened by the fact that there was nothing else to do and we kind of had to listen to what we all had to say. At this point, both groups of attorneys addressed the group and asked several questions. Questions and clarification around things like circumstantial versus direct evidence, witness credibility, etc. The defense attorney spent a lot of time explaining. “Presumed innocent until proven guilty.” Wonder why?

This led into our second break. I struck up several conversations with my fellow potential jurors. We all knew a little about each other now, so ice breakers were easy to come by. One guy’s wife was a vet, so I asked where and that got several other conversations going. Another person overheard us and it turns out that she was a supplier for the wife’s vet office. Another person mentioned growing up in Midland, Texas. My sister and her family have lived in Midland for 17 years, so we chatted about that and how the town has grown over the last few years because of the price of oil. We all found lots to talk about and there were several of these kinds of conversations going on all around me.

All of this is a very long trail to get to my point about social networking. What would this have been like if we would have been allowed to bring in our laptops, phones, books, magazines, needle work or anything else we do to keep ourselves busy in situations like this? I would have found a quit corner and checked voice mail at work and made any necessary calls. I would have checked, responded and forwarded several emails. I may have even checked Facebook for updates and possibly changed my status and made joke about being on jury duty. If I had my laptop, I would have worked on a presentation I need to give later this week. Regardless, I would not have felt inclined to strike of conversations with strangers. Would everyone else have done the same? Would most of us had kept to ourselves if we were allowed to keep the devices that tie is to our jobs and social networks? I embraced the situation and met some very interesting people.

In the end, 14 people were selected and I was not one of them. I left with the promise of a small check and the experience of getting to know some new people. Did it leave me with a sense of nostalgia, reaching back to the good old days and the way things use to be when people truly talked to on another? No way in hell. I would have much rather had my Blackberry and chatted with people I already knew through Twitter, or got some work done through email or updated my status on Facebook. What does that say about me? Am I antisocial? Should I be bothered? It does not bother me at all. I am happy with where technology has taken us and remain excited about future advances. I will embrace this new way of communicating and you will have to take my Blackberry from my cold, dead hand! OK, so that was a little dramatic, but I think you get my point.

Social Media To The Rescue! Well, kind of.

I was traveling last week and picked up a Men’s Health magazine as I often do. Still don’t understand why I don’t subscribe, but that is another story. There was an article about the fattest cities in America that caught my attention. Mainly because 5 of the top 10 cities are in my home state of Texas. Am I surprised? Honestly, not really. We are one of the most pedestrian unfriendly states. With the exceptions of a few cities and towns it is difficult to get out and walk. This makes it difficult to get out, stretch the legs and get some fresh air. Plus, it is so hot in the summer that we don’t really want to go outside even if there are things to do. So, we end up sitting around eating, playing video games and watching infomercials about how to loose weigh and get a tight tummy.

All of this made me think about the industries focused around health and wellness and what a huge role marketing and social media plays. Flip channels for a few minutes and you are bound to find at least three fitness related infomercials on at any time. If you ever have one of those sleepless nights and turn on the TV in the middle of the night it will seem like there is one on every channel. My favorite right now is for the Shake Weights. Have you seen these things? Do a quick search on YouTube and you will find the commercials. Ab Cirlce, Bowflex, The Ab Rocker and the list goes on. Let’s not get into the number of diets out there.

Do they work? Do they make those extra inches melt away like they say? I find myself interested from time to time. However, more often than not I find myself asking, “Who in the hell buys this crap?” Someone does. In fact, a lot of people do. This brings me to my main point, SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESUCE!!! Look up any of these products and right below all the paid seach ads you will find many reviews. If a company makes a claim in their infomercial that someone feels is not accurate, the web gives them great tools to let the world know. Furthermore, there are many parodies out there based on these products. See, we laugh at these products yet we still buy them. The bottom line is that if the product works you will find many people backing the product online. If it does not work, you will find even more people bashing the product.


OK, so now there is no excuse! Because of the web and social media it is clear to the world if these products do or do not work. This brings me next point, THE BEST PRODUCT IN THE WORLD WON’T WORK IF IT IS NOT USED. Let’s remember that we are talking about a multi billion dollar industry that is based more on the failure of its consumers rather than their success. Let’s be honest, they want us to stay fat. This way we will buy the next easy to use, 5 minute a day exercise product they come up with. If these machines really worked and they were really able to help us to loose those unwanted pounds that easily, this all would have ended with Suzanne Somers and The Thigh Master. Many of these products are great, but won’t work if they are used to hang laundry on.

Go into any gym the first week in January after everyone makes their New Years Resolutions and I guarantee you that it will be packed. Go to that same gym two weeks later and it will be a totally different story. I am not throwing stones. I am guilty of this. I have had gym memberships for years that don’t get used. Look, we have been told many times that “diets” don’t work. How many times do we hear that people lost 20 pounds only to gain back 30? I am no fitness expert, but it is obvious to me that being healthy is part of a lifestyle change not a quick fix. No “only 5 minute a day exercise” or “loose 10 pound fast” diet equates to a lifestyle change. In fairness, many people buy these products as a way to kick-start a healthy lifestyle change. My argument to them would be that people have been jogging and walking for thousands of years. You don’t need to spend a bunch of money to start a healthy lifestyle change. Even in my pedestrian unfriendly, hot home state you can find things indoors to get your heart rate up. How long has the stomach crunch been around?

Let’s come full circle and get back to my original point of SOCIAL MEDIA TO THE RESUCE!!! As I mentioned earlier, I am no fitness expert. However, there are thousands online. These people and resources are there for anyone. Most of them are free. If a person is interested in exercise product, learning more about the first steps to healthy living, loosing weight or cholesterol lowering foods the web gives them a great starting point and a world wide community to learn from.

PPC Reporting - Don't Make Me Think!

Reporting on PPC is killing me! Once I “translate” the reports I get from a vendor I have to explain them to everyone else. Why is it so hard to produce a report that is easy to read and that makes sense? I get these reports that have a tone of numbers on them. I almost always find myself asking, “OK, I get the numbers. But, are these results good?”

I am no moron when it comes to SEM. I have been working in this arena for a long time. I just have better things to do that spend my time cutting through all the crap in a report to determine if the results are good or not.

Vendors hate me and I have no problem with that. They will give me their “standard” reports that they give to all their customers and I tear them apart. I tell them that I want “Crayon Reports”. That is my way of saying, I want the report to be easy to read and I want it to make sense to someone who knows nothing about search engine marketing. In addition, I want all the marketing fluff cut out of the report. Here is an example of the marketing fluff I am taking about. Many of the vendors I have worked with will double the results their campaign produced. Why? They note that there is an estimated 1 to 1 online vs. offline sale. In other words, for every sale made online another is made off line. That’s great, but I don’t want those numbers included in the reports that are given to me.

So, what do I want included in my crayon report?

• Impressions – Tell me how often the ads were displayed.


• Clicks – Tell me how often people clicked on the ads.


• Conversion – Use the two numbers above and tell me what percentage of people who click on the ads are buying.


• Cost – Tell me how much are we spending on the campaign.


• Sales – Tell me how much money we are making from the campaign.


• ROI – Tell me if we are making more money than we are spending.

Using these numbers and simplified information I have found it much easier to determine if a campaign is successful. I spend much less time analyzing reports and more time taking action. I can look at one of these reports and quickly determine that we need to make changes or stop a campaign entirely. The result is a big cost savings and more effective use of marketing funds. In addition, I spend much less time explaining the results to others.