Are Your Customers Passionate About Your Brand?

It’s every marketing leader’s dream that the brand they represent is adopted by customers as their own.  The former CEO of Harley-Davidson®, Richard Teerlink summed up branding and loyalty marketing best when he said “There are very few products that are so exciting that people will tattoo your logo on their body.”  How does a brand create a passionate almost cult-like following?  I’m going to share with you some famous brands and what I believe is the secret to this phenomenon.

Harley-Davidson has successfully created a community of loyal customers.  They come from every walk of life, but have one thing in common – they love Harley-Davidson motorcycles.  Not only do H-D customers tattoo the logo on their bodies, they have H-D logoed leather jackets, pants, helmets, gloves, boots, wallets, jewelry and the list goes on.  H-D customers more than relate to the brand.  They are the brand.

Starbucks® has successfully transformed the way we think about buying a cup of coffee.  Starbucks is more than coffee, it has become meeting place with friends and a status symbol.   I believe that it’s not the coffee that makes Starbucks special, it’s the experience that they created with their brand. They have even transformed our language.  What ever happened to ordering a small, medium and large coffee?  The sizes at Starbucks are Tall, Grande and Venti.  You will commonly hear people order a Venti Caramel Brulée Crème Frappuccino® Blended Crème with extra whipped cream instead of a large black coffee.  By transforming the Starbucks brand into an experience, they can charge a premium for a cup of coffee and customers gladly pay it.  Customers walk around with their Starbucks logoed coffee cups like a badge of honor.  The café is more like your family room than a coffee shop. Starbucks has created a community.

Starbucks took their successful model into the tea market by purchasing Teavana®.  They replicated the Starbucks model with Teavana, which allows them to charge a premium.  Teavana customers will pay it because they love the brand and the experience when you go into a Teavana store.  You can taste tea samples and smell the different aromas.  Is Teavana the best tea brand in the world? Some may think so but Twinings™, Celestial Seasonings®, Lipton® and Bigelow® might disagree. Teavana has made the experience the brand.

Another example of a brand becoming an experience is Jeep®.  In 1954 when Jeep was owned by Willys Motors, they started an off-road tradition called the Jeep Jamboree.  Jeep 4×4 owners have the opportunity to join off-road adventures in various locations across the US. It is more than just owning a Jeep.  It’s a community of owners who love the Jeep brand and want new experiences with like-minded owners.

Building brand communities are what these successful companies have done.  It’s more than just a product, it’s an experience. When your brand becomes part of your customer’s identity, you have a customer for life.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my Twitter account, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: Daniel Y. Go via Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Does Your Marketing Strategy Include Snapchat?

In order to be competitive in an increasingly globalized world, social media needs to be at the forefront of your company’s marketing strategy. For millennials, the introduction of social media had the same impact as the introduction of cell phones did to baby boomers.  Technology is facilitating rapid, easy dissemination of information worldwide, generating new business opportunities and widening corporations’ potential client and customer base.  For marketers, social media is another channel to help brand companies and products, capture competitive information, and listen and respond to the voice of the customer.  In this article, I want to concentrate on one popular social media channel, Snapchat and how you can use it for business.

Created in 2012 by three Stanford University students – Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy and Reggie Brown Poster – Snapchat is a photo and video platform that allows users to share brief images or videos lasting 1 to 10 seconds.  After those images or videos are shared, they are no longer accessible. There is also a “story” feature where you can link several segments in chronological order.  Stories are available for 24 hours before they disappear. Several media outlets participate within Snapchat as “teams” that offer their content to share. Some of these outlets include CNN, Comedy Central, ESPN, and the Food Network.

Today, the company boasts a $10 – 20 billion value with over 7 billion daily video views online and 200 million daily users.  Snapchat’s predominant user demographic is 13 to34 year-olds.  If your company is targeting this demographic, I strongly suggest considering incorporating Snapchat into your marketing strategy.  Here are some business applications that you should consider.

Branding

Snapchat stories can provide prospective customers with a quick view of a company’s personality and mission without the expense of creating flawless corporate videos.  Some companies have used Snapchat as a tool to give customers an inside look at the company.  For example, one company told several stories on Snapchat showing sneak peaks at new products before they were officially introduced.

Promotional

Other companies use Snapchat as a promotions tool.  For example, if your company manufactures clothing, you can encourage your customers take a Snapchat of themselves wearing your products and send the images to your company’s social media team.  As a reward, you could automatically send participating customers a discount for their next purchase.  This would build support for your brand and expand your customer base.

You can also create a promotional code and “Snap” it to your customers.  They can then get their discount using this code online or via your call center.

Another popular promotion is to send customers a story and have the last frame of the story be a redeemable coupon that they can take a screenshot to be used on their next purchase.  Alternatively, you can use the private chat feature built into the application to send a promotional code.

Announcements

Snapchat is a great medium to announce new products, trade shows and events.  The NBA has used Snapchat during the draft, the All-Star Game and the Finals, to allow attendees of the games to add to the Atlanta Hawks “story” as events were unfolding.

Deliver Special Private Content

You can also use Snapchat to deliver special private content and to convey a sense of personal investment in individual customers. For example, actors Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson appeared at the Paris Fashion Show as their characters Derek Zoolander and Hansel to promote their new movie “Zoolander 2”. They documented their Paris Fashion Show adventure using Snapchat to help followers feel like they were involved in a special private event by creating behind-the-scenes snaps.

Acquiring New Customers

Customer acquisition is always on the hearts and minds of marketers.  You can utilize Snapchat to gather new customers by uploading prospect lists from your address book or utilize a QR code in your digital and print marketing that invites customers to be part of your Snapchat network. Snapchat enables your company to target a younger demographic and build new customer support through innovative outreach strategies and promotions.

Building New Relationships

Customers do business with companies they know and trust.  Use Snapchat to help build relationships. How can you build relationships in 1 to 10 seconds?  By stringing a  series of Snapchats together in a story or a series of events that showcase your products and services, you provide customers with personal insight into your company and help them feel connected to your products and brand.

Conclusion

If you are marketing your products to 13 to 34 year-olds, you should strongly consider Snapchat as part of your marketing strategy.  I recommend that you don’t just settle for one social media channel; synchronized marketing strategies utilizing Snapchat, LinkedIn, and other tools will enable your company to achieve its goals.  You can leverage Snapchat along with Vine, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter for example, to create a multi-pronged marketing approach that creatively tells your story to attract new customers.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website, my Twitter account and my blog.

Photo credit: business.teenlife.com

The Evolution of Technology for Business

I have always been fascinated with the rapid evolution of technology.  Thirty years ago – long before digital cameras and HDTV were invented – companies used multi-image, or multi-projector, large screen slide shows that were synchronized to motivational soundtracks.  When large screen video was introduced, multi-image and photography professionals believed that it would never compete with the crisp, high quality images of 35mm slides.  The industry didn’t anticipate how quickly the public would accept large screen video, despite its inferior image quality to large screen video.  In a matter of months, 35mm slide companies went out of business or had to reinvent themselves to make way for the new large screen video technology. Technology evolves rapidly.

From a retail perspective, the film distribution industry has also changed dramatically.  Local video stores like Blockbuster, Hollywood Video and others boomed with business for over a decade, renting VHS tapes to a wide variety of customers.  Soon that technology was replaced with DVDs, and later Blu-Ray high definition discs. With the advent of online streaming for movies and television shows, many of the retail stores closed due to declining sales, and were replaced with external DVD and Blu-Ray kiosks like Red Box and others.  As cable companies innovated new ways to provide more bandwidth to customers, online video streaming became the latest feature in evolving technology. Now you can order new and old movies from the comfort of your home thanks to Netflix, Vudu, Hulu, Amazon Prime and a host of other online services.  Thirty years ago, the thought of streaming video to a telephone would have been unthinkable.  Today you can stream broadcasts of your favorite shows, news and sports events, and other entertainment to your home, cell phone, tablet and other devices.

Where is business technology going?

According to Forbes*, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has partnered with Samsung on a new adventure to revolutionize communications via mobile Virtual Reality (VR).  Using a Gear 360 camera and a virtual reality headset, VR via mobile phone will soon be a reality. In the 2015 movie Kingsman: The Secret Service, there is a scene where two men are sitting in a boardroom.  When they put on special glasses, holograms of other Kingsman agents sitting around the table appear – virtual reality achieved through eyeglasses.  The Kingsman virtual reality boardroom is now on its way to being a reality, thanks to the creative efforts of Samsung and Facebook’s mobile VR project.  Dick Tracy, a police detective character from the 1931 comic strip, had a wristwatch that functioned as a two-way radio. What was science fiction back then is now being sold in retail stores under the brands of Samsung, Sony, Qualcomm and Apple. In the 1989 movie, Back To the Future 2, the main character, Marty McFly escapes his enemies on a hoverboard (a skateboard without wheels).  Lexus released its first hoverboard, propelled by magnets and conducting blocks cooled by liquid nitrogen, last summer. Who would have thought 20 years ago that you could watch television on your computer, have portable music devices the size of a packet of matches or 110” Ultra HDTV flat screen televisions in our homes?

Innovations in Internet technology are also transforming the ways in which companies conduct business and connect globally. Google Hangout provides on-air conferences that stream live to YouTube so anyone around the world can watch conference proceedings and webcasts online.  Take that reality a step further and imagine what Google could do if Hangouts were combined with Facebook’s emerging virtual reality (VR) technology. Instead of posting updates on Facebook, you have a VR reunion with family members all over the world. Rather than trying to schedule in-person business meetings for your company to pitch new ideas, you can have VR collaboration meetings that connect Bangkok and Beijing with New York.  Add 3D printing to the mix and now you’ve opened the door to world-wide product development and innovation meetings without leaving your office or home.  One might argue that we can basically do that now with video conferences using Skype, but VR takes everything to the next level.  Colleagues can walk around the room with you without really being there, see what you are seeing, and work side-by-side with you from across the globe.  According to Entrepreneur.com, even McDonalds is getting into the VR conversation by rolling out a VR viewer that can be constructed from a Happy Meal box.  As advanced as technology has become over the past 30 years, we are just scratching the surface of possibilities of technology for business.  To quote an old Bachman-Turner Overdrive song, “You ain’t seen nothin yet.”

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my Twitter account,  my website and my blog.

*To read the Forbes article, cut and paste this link into your browser.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2016/02/22/mark-zuckerberg-virtual-reality-samsung-galaxy-s7/#17dec0ac4a64

Photo Credit: Kingsman: The Secret Service

What Makes Super Bowl Commercials Good?

I love to watch the Super Bowl to see the two best football teams battling for the ultimate prize the NFL has the offer.  Like many viewers, I am also interested to see what the advertisers have up their sleeves for the infamous Super Bowl commercials.  Being the marketing and advertising geek that I am, I love watching the best advertising agencies in the world battling for Super Bowl commercial dominance (pun intended).

This year’s Super Bowl commercials were outstanding. A few, in my view, rose to the top.  For me, the best commercials were the following:

• Doritos – Ultrasound                                                 https://youtu.be/vH2LsFcWOFY Doritos has consistently had excellent Super Bowl ads, but this one is really clever and funny.  The commercial shows parents viewing their unborn baby’s ultrasound. As the dad waves Doritos chips in front of the screen, the baby’s image moves around wildly, following the chips, until the baby accidentally delivers itself in pursuit of Doritos. It’s especially amusing for me, a father of five children.  Although most of the Super Bowl commercials appealed to millennials, this one appealed to an older audience.  For one who has seen several ultrasounds in my lifetime, I could relate to the Dad-to-be.  The first time you see an ultrasound, it’s surreal and exciting like watching television for the first time.  When the baby moves around during an ultrasound, it’s amazing to watch.  Having the Dad-to-be taking that experience to another level with a bag of Doritos is what made this commercial very funny to me.

• Mountain Dew Kickstart – PuppyMonkeyBaby                       https://youtu.be/ql7uY36-LwA This commercial probably received the largest outcry of “that was weird” of all the 2016 Super Bowl commercials. In my opinion, however, the ad was brilliant. The ad agency combined three cute things – a puppy, a monkey and a baby with three things Mountain Dew wants you to associate and remember – dew, juice and caffeine.  In the commercial, a PuppyMonkeyBaby hybrid walks through a secret door with a bucked of iced Mountain Dew and repeats “puppy” “monkey” “baby” over and over while handing the guys cans of Mountain Dew. After the three guys take their sip of Kickstart, they start dancing and following PuppyMonkeyBaby down the apartment hallway. The ad weirdly but hilariously indicates that combining three things into one – such as PuppyMonkeyBaby or Kickstart’s ingredients of “dew, juice, and caffeine”- is what consumers want.

• Heinz – Weiner Stampede                                                    https://youtu.be/aNN9nL2vppM Heinz’s clever ad featured a bunch of dachshunds in hot dog costumes – little “hot dogs” – running across a field to their owners, who were dressed as Heinz ketchup and mustard bottles, to Harry Nilsson’s song “Without You.”  As the  dogs leapt into their owners’ arms and licked their faces, a background narrator quips “It’s hard to resist great taste.” Catchy and adorable, the ad already has 6 and a half million views on YouTube.

• Honda Ridgeline – A New Truck To Love                        https://youtu.be/kTaCT8ZmdJA Honda recently released a new Ridgeline truck featuring the first ever truck bed audio system. To promote it, the company introduced a commercial where a rancher drops off sheep from his Ridgeline truck while playing Queen’s “Somebody to Love” song. As the truck drives away, one of the sheep begins to sing the song acapella with a whole chorus of the other sheep joining in. The ad resonated with me and fellow baby boomers who grew up with Queen’s music, igniting feelings of nostalgia. Old and young, human and sheep, everyone should enjoy a Ridgeline, according to Honda.

• Wix.com – The Power of Wix (Kung Fu Panda 3)            https://youtu.be/7jIA3eFtSOM This commercial accomplished several things at the same time. It tells the story of what needs to be done to drive more traffic to Li Shan’s restaurant “Ping’s Noodles.”  Po, the panda character from Kung Fu Panda, suggests a big commercial where there are reenactments of successful past Super Bowl commercials via Kung Fu Panda characters. Master Shifu who is Po’s teacher of Kung Fu in the movie comments that commercials are great, but you need a great website first, the Power of Wix.  Wix.com is an online website building tool.  This commercial successfully ties together humor poking fun at Super Bowl commercials while promoting Wix.com and Kung Fu Panda 3.

• Snickers – Marilyn                                                                      https://youtu.be/WhfntLl6xx0 Snickers ads over the past couple of years have cleverly superimposed various irritable characters in different situations, including vintage television shows.  The solution to irritability is to eat a Snickers, because you get cranky when you are hungry.  Who can forget Betty White and Abe Vigoda playing football a few Super Bowls ago?  Or Danny Trejo and Steve Buscemi playing Marcia and Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch?  This year’s Snickers Super Bowl commercial was equally as clever.  A cranky Marilyn Monroe played by Willem Dafoe is getting ready to shoot the infamous subway grate scene from “The Seven Year Itch.” After eating a Snickers bar, Defoe magically transforms into Marilyn Monroe, losing the irritability.  The cameo with Eugene Levy operating the fan under the subway grate had an awesome tag line “This scene will never make the cut.”

What do all of these ads have in common?  Excellent writing, cinematography, special effects, editing, and music working perfectly together.  The commercials are memorable because they are clever and funny.  While some might suggest that PuppyMonkeyBaby was too weird and people didn’t like it, I disagree.  That commercial alone has had over 21.7 million views on YouTube and people are still taking about it.  Successful Super Bowl commercials live much longer than their time on the Super Bowl.  People like me watched the Super Bowl, then went to YouTube to watch the commercials we liked again and shared them with family, friends and colleagues.  Making a commercial go viral is the goal and successful commercials continue to garner views months after their television release. Congratulations to the brands and advertising agencies for another successful year of great commercials.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my Twitter account,  my website and my blog.

Expect the Unexpected – Lessons Learned from Beyoncé’s “Formation” and the Red Lobster Tweet

When Beyoncé performed her new single “Formation” at the Super Bowl in front of over 111.9 million viewers, Red Lobster had no idea that their restaurant chain was mentioned in the song.  Unfortunately, Red Lobster’s marketing team and agency weren’t ready to respond quickly and take advantage of the opportunity.  It took over 8 hours from the time the chain was mentioned in song at the Super Bowl until Red Lobster responded with an acknowledgement. In the fast-paced world of social media, you need to respond quickly.  Unfortunately, Red Lobster did not.

There were 19,000 retweets of the response by Red Lobster, but  Beyoncé’s fan  base wasn’t impressed.  Red Lobster had the opportunity of a lifetime to create a catchy response targeting both Beyoncé’s fans and the Super Bowl crowd at large, but they blew it.  Since its release a week ago, Beyoncé’s “Formation” music video has had over 7 million views on YouTube.  That’s 7 million mentions of Red Lobster’s brand for free. There are some key things to take away from Red Lobster’s weak and insufficient response to a superstar’s endorsement of their restaurant chain.

If I was responsible for the marketing department and managing the outside agency for Red Lobster, here’s what I would have done.

1. It’s unclear as to why it took so long for Red Lobster to respond to social media – a full 8 hours.  My guess is it had something to do with the legal department, C-level approval, and other red tape that organizations need to deal with.  I would have legal and corporate officers pre-approve some guidelines for a fast response.  Frankly, in this incidence a simple “Thanks Beyoncé” would have been a good start. To take it a step further, a tweet like “Thanks @Beyoncé. Come to Red Lobster and use promo code “Beyoncé” and get 20% off your meal. Appreciation Promo ends 2/15. #Formation #Beyhive”   The entire social media world was waiting for Red Lobster’s response.  With the mention in “Formation”, Red Lobster’s sales went up 33%.  Imagine if Red Lobster responded quickly with a promo code, their sales might have gone up double that amount.
2. I would hire an agency to be on call 24-7 to design quick responses in collaboration with the marketing team to any mention of our brand from celebrities.  Reputable agencies do focus groups and monitor social media feedback.  They have subject matter experts at their beck and call.  If the agency didn’t feel they were certain how to respond to the demographic, run your ideas quickly by your subject matter experts.  Your response not only needs to be fast, but it needs to be the right response.  Once you have the appropriate response (which should be issued in minutes not hours), it’s time to feed the social media machine.
3. Red Lobster has over 700 restaurants and 58,000 employees. That’s a pretty large Twitter universe to tap into.  Think of this as a marketing fire drill.  When a celebrity does a surprise endorsement of your product, everyone should know what to do.  The agency and marketing team will quickly discuss and agree on the response and post it on social media.  Employees are then notified via text to retweet the message to all of their followers on Twitter.  58,000 employees plus all their followers…you do the math.  This kind of response would create the kind of momentum needed to bring new customers in and promote your business. Your social media response should be posted on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and all of the other networks that you use to increase your visibility.
4. Red Lobster should have had follow-up tweets that kept this marketing train moving and the momentum for Red Lobster products going. Unfortunately their follow-up tweets were damage control. Their original response was “  ‘Cheddar Bey Biscuits’ has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? #Formation @Beyonce”.  The negative response from Twitter was fast and loud.  Red Lobster tried a damage control tweet “You try to bake Cheddar Bay Biscuits and tweet at the same time! #harderthanitlooks #Formation”, but they got more criticism, so they tried one more time.  “Our bad. We’re really busy for some reason. #ThanksB.”  The social media universe didn’t appreciate the continued attempts for damage control.

When leveraged properly, social media can be a powerful tool to drive traffic to your website and increase sales.  You need to be ready for the unexpected, because when something big happens, like Beyoncé inadvertently supporting your business, you have only one shot to get it right.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit:   JeepersMedia via Foter.com / CC BY

 

Social Media – A Game of Strategy

Monopoly is a game of strategy.  When you play the game, you need to evaluate different options and understand that the choices that you make are critical to your success.  Social media is also a game of strategy.  The social networks that you use can help your company grow through brand awareness, promotions, and customer feedback.

When determining which social media networks work best for your company, there are a number of things to consider.  Before we go there, let’s make social media a bit easier to understand by categorizing the various types of networks. By doing so, we can more easily determine what social media networks work for your company and which ones you don’t really need to invest time in.  It’s time to play the game of social media to keep up with your competitors.

Social Networks

Social networking sites fueled the rise of social media. These networks were designed as a platform for online social interaction and means of sharing similar interests, connecting with artistic groups, and personalizing Internet space. Facebook, Google +, MySpace, and MeetUp are a few examples of these networks. Social networks are an effective channel for business to build credibility, and company and product awareness. Here are some examples of successful business Facebook pages. Zappos uses discussion posts, wall updates and Fan of the Week contests to engage with their customers. Burt’s Bees uses spotlight videos to build product awareness and allows customers to buy products from their Facebook page. Skullcandy leverages music, videos, and blogs to encourage customers to purchase their products.

Professional Social Networks

Unlike the original social networks, professional social networks are focused more on business-related networking and information sharing.  LinkedIn, SlideShare, Xing and Viadeo fit into this category.  You typically wouldn’t share family photos at the zoo on these sites, but would instead reach out to expand business relationships. Businesses create LinkedIn pages to build brand awareness, share corporate information and announcements such as Coca-Cola, Mashable and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.  Like many social networks, the lifespan of professional social networks is sometimes short, so be sure to pick a reputable and established networking site.

Private Social Networks

Although the name sounds like an oxymoron, private social networks – or private enterprise networks – are a useful tool that an increasing number of companies are utilizing.   Private social networks operate like normal social networks but can only be accessed behind the firewall within companies – hence the term “private”.  Yammer, Salesforce Chatter and Ning are examples of these networks. These networks enable companies located in numerous domestic and international locations to share sensitive information and collaborate on projects more effectively.

International Social Networks

Similar to other social networks, international social networks have originated outside of the US.  These sites offer networking platforms in multiple languages and are customizable to the user.  These networks include QZone (China), Netlog (Belgium), Vkontakte (Russia) and Sonico (Japan).

Social Media Monitoring, Management and Tracking

Social media monitoring is a method of tracking what is being said on social media about an individual, product or company.  These networks or software have become very popular to help companies dispel rumors, bad press and incorrect information.  Some of these networks are Tracx, BuzzBundle, HootSuite, Postling and Lithium.

Content Discovery and Curation

Content delivery and curation networks offer interesting and entertaining content for the purpose of sharing information and providing news content outside of traditional news networks. Sites include BuzzFeed, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Digg and HubPages.  Often users will forward these stories to their networks via other social networking sites, facilitating the quick dissemination of information through multiple Internet platforms. Use these networks to reach younger demographics (millennials) by creating funny and entertaining content that can go viral, which can become an effective branding tool for your company.

Blogging

Blogging sites allow their users to write and post articles and share information relevant to specific topics.  Some networks like LinkedIn have incorporated blogging within their site to allow users to share opinions, new trends, and current affairs in the business and professional world.  There are several blogging sites on the internet, but the most well-known are WordPress, Posthaven, and Blogger.  Even though I post articles on LinkedIn, I also use my blog on WordPress to share my information on different platforms including Facebook, Google + and Twitter.  These articles can contain links to your products driving traffic and sales to your website.

Microblogging

The only difference between blogging and microblogging is the limitation of content.  Microblogging involves sending short messages, announcements and links instead of paragraph-long posts. Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous and Disqus are best known for these applications.  Three companies that use Twitter very effectively are McDonalds, Delta Airlines and Nike.  McDonalds promotes new items on the menu and have giveaways when followers tweet about what they love about McDonalds.  Delta Airlines introduces their latest offers and special packages.  Nike doesn’t use Twitter for sales.  They send out tweets that motivate and inspire their followers, which strengthen the Nike brand.

Photo Sharing

It is said that “A picture is worth a thousand words.”   Photo sharing networks allow individuals or companies post photos including images of products, family, personal interests, hobbies, and so forth.  Instragram, Pinterest and Flickr connect communities of various interests and allow them to post images.  SnapChat is a similar platform for photo sharing and also allows you to post short videos. Photo sharing networks are an important tool for improving branding and marketing images of your company. By connecting with influencers and innovators, sharing their posts, using hashtags, tag names, comments and links in your posts, you can expand your brand visibility quickly.

Video Sharing

YouTube has put video sharing networks on the social media map.  Since its inception, YouTube has transformed into a global repository of videos that are searched like Google.  Other video sharing sites that have grown in popularity include Vimeo, DailyMotion and Vine.  Businesses use this network to show corporate, product and how-to videos.  According to Wired.com, YouTube is one of Google’s biggest successes outside of search and YouTube now reaches more 18 to 49-year-olds than any single US cable network.

Which Social Media Network Should You Use For Your Company?

Determining which social media network to use for your company is important for your marketing and branding strategy. Choosing only one network is not sufficient for your company to get noticed.  I believe that every company should be, at the very least, on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest or Instagram and HootSuite.  These networks or their competitors will provide you with networking and blogging opportunities (LinkedIn); microblogging (Twitter) to announce new products and company updates; social networking (Facebook), which expands your audience to a wider variety of  potential new customers; video sharing (YouTube) to post product and corporate videos, including community service; photo sharing (Pinterest) to expand your brand by providing images targeted to the appropriate communities that buy your products and services; and social management and tracking (HootSuite) to monitor what your customers, prospects and competitors are saying about you on social media.  Even if your business is more service-oriented, you can still take advantage of these networks.

Conclusion

Like Monopoly, social media is a strategy game. You need to decide what social media networks are right for your business.  Research options, see what your competitors are using and make sure that you have dedicated resources (internal or external) to respond to the market conversations that are happening on social media about your company and industry.  This is a strategy game that your company cannot afford to lose.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit:  Emilie Ogez via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

 

Why Isn’t Your Entire Company On LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is best known as the place where professionals network with other professionals.  With over 400 million members, LinkedIn has built a very large network that you can take advantage of.  The concept is pretty simple.  I’m sure you’ve heard of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon.  The concept is that any two people are six people or fewer acquaintance links apart from each other.  By creating this large network of professionals, you have the opportunity to connect with any professional that you want to using LinkedIn.  This tool allows you to easily find contacts at other companies and discover who you are connected with that may be able to introduce you to those contacts.  Here are some suggestions on how you can benefit from having a LinkedIn presence for your company and how your employees can help your company grow using LinkedIn.

Create Your Own Company Profile   – If you haven’t done so already, create a company profile on LinkedIn.  It’s really easy to do and along with your other social media networks, you will have more visibility to more customers.  If you don’t know where to start, I recommend reviewing some very impressive LinkedIn business pages including Microsoft , Google, Salesforce, and Harvard Business Review.  According to LinkedIn, these companies have a few things in common that have made them very successful.

• 99% of the top global brands have employees sharing their content to their networks
• 97% of the top global brands have employee posts contributing to their content efforts
• 99% of top brands regularly share updates on their Company Page
• 73% of top brands are utilizing Sponsored Updates
• All of these top brands post an average of 12.6 updates per week

Although you don’t need to have your content machine in place on day one, these are great practices that should be emulated.

Sales – It is a very good idea that each of your sales staff has their own LinkedIn profile. Companies like to do business with people that they know.  Having a professional photograph and information about each sales person will help your company’s professionalism online and help them by having an “online business card”.  By the way, having a LinkedIn profile URL on your salespeople’s business cards is another way for your customers to learn more about them and you.

Sales should use LinkedIn to find key contact names of targeted prospects.  A word of caution –  many salespeople say they want to network and connect with professionals, when all they really want to do is turn that networking opportunity into a sales pitch.  Presenting your products and services to targeted prospects subtly is one thing, but don’t use LinkedIn as a tool to hound them for sales.  The better approach might be to see who you know on LinkedIn who might be able to introduce you to that contact.  Referrals are much more effective than cold calling on LinkedIn.  LinkedIn offers advertising opportunities to present your company’s products and services which is respectable way to get noticed.

Marketing – As mentioned above, there are some successful companies using LinkedIn very effectively.  Your marketing team should research these LinkedIn companies for best practices.  There is much to be learned about effective methods of leveraging LinkedIn and other social media networks.  The more updates that you can post on LinkedIn, the better.  Keeping your updates flowing, keeps your customers and prospects interested and updated on what is going on with your company.  I also recommend that your marketing team sign up for different LinkedIn Pulse channels.  There are millions of marketing professionals on LinkedIn and these groups love to share ideas that have worked for them.

Human Resources – Job seekers use LinkedIn as an online resume with the added value of providing recommendations from colleagues, skills, endorsements, volunteer information, blog posts, videos, photos, slide presentations, and documents. Your HR department should comb LinkedIn to find new talent.

Administration, IT and Production Staff – Having your administration, IT and production staff on LinkedIn can help build the company profile to your prospects and customers.  Not only is it important to have them create their own profiles, but also having them provide content for your corporate LinkedIn pages and sharing that information with their contacts spreads the word exponentially on social media.

Executive Team – The average number of connections that CEOs have on LinkedIn is 930.  Executives need to leverage LinkedIn for peer and new business relationships, partnerships and strategic alliances.

If you don’t have a corporate LinkedIn profile, build one.  Encourage your staff to create their own LinkedIn profiles and whenever you have a company update, make sure that you get your staff to share that information with their connections.  Leverage the power of LinkedIn to give your company more visibility and to expand your brand through networking.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: A Name Like Shields Can Make You Defensive via Foter.com / CC BY

Statistics: LinkedIn and DMR

Social Media Tips for 2016

Companies vary in their usage and understanding of social media.  Some are just starting out, while others have been leveraging several social media platforms to listen to what the market is saying about them, engaging with their customers and finding new ones through social media.  For B2B and B2C companies, think of social media as the new “barbershop” or “beauty parlor” of the next generation.  In other words, it is a place where you can update friends and family on what is going on in your life, as well as to hear what is going on in their lives.  Unlike your local gathering place, social media is a network of millions of people who talk to each other about everything and you have the opportunity to hear what they are saying.

Here are some social media tips you may want to try in 2016.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is one of the best business networking platforms on social media.  This is the place where recruiters find new job applications, businesses grow their customer base by reaching out to prospects and customers, professionals meet other professionals in their field to share ideas and insight, and you can learn from people all over the world.  If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, create one.  If your company doesn’t have a presence on LinkedIn, create a profile for them.

Some professionals don’t understand why you should create a profile on LinkedIn when you already have a website.  LinkedIn enhances your company’s visibility in several ways. Often customers use LinkedIn to get an overview of the company and to find key contacts at that company to build relationships with.  LinkedIn also provides a personable side of your business. If you want to show the world that you value what customers have to say about you, you need to be on social media.  LinkedIn is the central location where new talent is looking for work and where leaders of companies and corporations go to network.

Facebook

Facebook was originally created for college students, but has expanded to every age and background all over the globe.  As Facebook continued to expand, parents and family members of all ages began using Facebook as a place to post family updates.  Why is this significant for business?  Facebook has 1.19 billion active users every month.  Putting it another way, that’s 1.19 BILLION potential new customers.

Facebook ads continue to grow in popularity as a way to drive traffic to your website.  Facebook Groups are clusters of like-minded individuals so you can target whatever groups of people that you want to.

Twitter

Twitter is an outstanding medium for broadcasting short, marketing messages about your products and services.  You can announce promotions, discounts, and new products while drawing attention to the interests and knowledge of your company.  The power of Twitter is listening to the conversations on social media and adding to the conversation.

The proper use of hashtags (i.e. #StarWarsTheForceAwakens) can get your announcements and messages in front of the right people at the right time.  You need to monitor what is trending and determine if it makes sense to join into those conversations.  You can also just put a # in front of a topic that makes sense for your product or service, like #businesstrends, #digitalmarketing or #marketingtools.

YouTube

If you have corporate or product videos, post them on YouTube.  YouTube has over one billion users, almost 1/3 of the number of people using the internet.  Videos are a great way of demonstrating your products, telling your story or showing your company’s DNA.  Like the other social media platforms, you can advertise on YouTube or through Google Adwords remarketing, allowing your ads to show up when people visit your site, then go to other Google network sites like YouTube.

Pinterest

Pintererst is a social media platform where you can “pin” photos and videos on other people’s or company’s boards.  Think of it as an electronic bulletin board.  Like LinkedIn and Facebook, there are groups of like-minded people that share their interests, recipes, photos in interesting places, etc.  If you find like-minded customers, Pinterest is an excellent place to start conversations and relationships and to increase search engine optimization for your website.

Instagram

Instagram is a photo-sharing social media platform that focuses on your personal experience to a particular brand.  It is a great place to build brand awareness.  Your Instagram page can connect to your Facebook business page to help solidify your brand.

Instagram allows you to show your customers the personal side of your business by sharing photos of your products, team and services.  Customers are more comfortable dealing with people they can relate to versus cold, aloof companies.  Small businesses can effectively use Instagram to show their personal side and hopefully relate more effectively to customers compared to big businesses.  Instagram can really help your customers visualize your company.

Making An Impact Using Social Media

 I like to think of Social Media as the next evolution of communication where you can connect with anyone all over the world.  How do you leverage social media to help grow your business?

1. Make sure that you have dedicated people in your organization who are knowledgeable about and skilled at social media. Business people that suggest that companies only need a part-time social media person don’t understand the power of social media. If you could listen to what your customers say about your company, products and services 24/7, wouldn’t you take advantage of that? Social media allows you to set your company apart from your competitors.
2. Determine which social media platform works best for your industry. There are many social media networks beyond the ones that I mentioned.  Do some research and find out where your customers and competitors are congregating.  Figure out which media platform will best reach your customers and bring in new customers.
3. Once you get your social media team in place and identify your networks, now it’s time to build a social media strategy and implement it. I’m a firm believer in synchronized marketing – getting all of your marketing efforts including social media working together in harmony.  For example, if you put a product on sale in a flier, make sure it is also on your website and be sure to communicate the sale through email, Google Adwords and social media advertising.  You can do “Facebook Only” contests that aren’t offered anywhere else but your Facebook landing page so you can then drive traffic to your website.
4. Once you get your social media marketing machine in motion, you can then train your entire staff to broadcast messages about your company, new products, and services on several social media platforms simultaneously. Be very careful that your staff is fully trained.  Social media is a very powerful tool – when you broadcast a message, it can easily be seen by millions of people.  Make sure the message that goes out is monitored and presents your company in a professional and positive light. Imagine that instead of a handful of people sending out targeted messages through social media, your entire company can expand your message exponentially through careful implementation.

Conclusion

In 2016, identify the social media platforms that make sense for your company.  Go where your customers and competitors are online.  Identify who in your company is responsible for social media, particularly in the marketing or corporate communications departments.  Make sure that you build a social media strategy leveraging other marketing platforms like print, web advertising, email marketing, Google Adwords, social media advertising and messaging.  Once you have tested your messaging and start building momentum, you can expand your social media messaging throughout the company under the careful direction of your marketing and corporate communications management team.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: Peter Ras via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

How to Acquire New Customers

The challenge that many companies face is acquiring new customers.  You can “shotgun” your marketing by mailing tons of direct mail to a large, untargeted database, but I recommend having a different tactic.

Profile Your Customers

Who are your customers?  Who is buying from you?  Have you looked at the types of companies that purchase your products?

Do some analysis as to the types of companies or consumers who are your best customers.  I recommend that you look at demographics, SIC codes, company size and other attributes. If you understand the profile of our existing customers, you can match their profile and find other prospects that look just like them.

Building Your Acquisition Database

There are several database management services that you can hire to pull company names, addresses, contact names and phone numbers. Some databases may have accurate mailing addresses, but contact information may be dated.  Utilizing LinkedIn is a good resource for verifying up-to-date contacts.  Find the supplier that can provide you with the best list to reach your target prospects and hire them.

Some database companies also offer email addresses, however it has been my experience that email databases for rent are unreliable.  A better way of capturing prospect and customer emails is to offer downloads on your website like white papers that web visitors can get by just entering their email address.  You will need to make sure that you offer an opt-out process from marketing emails due to CAN-SPAM compliance rules.

Create a Customer Acquisition Campaign

Some companies really like to use direct mail like postcards, letters and fliers to acquire new customers.  Others like to use email, banner advertising on other websites and social media, and Google adwords.  I am a strong believer in synchronized marketing campaigns utilizing multiple acquisition techniques. Certain programs may work better than others.  A/B testing is another great way of finding out what works and what doesn’t.  Keep doing what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

Finding New Customers Outside of Your Existing Customers’ Profiles

In addition to matching existing customer profiles with prospects and attempting to acquire them, there might be a group of prospects that you never thought would be your customers. Market research through surveys is a great way to find out what types of companies or end consumers buy your products or who want your products.  For those who have purchased yhour products, ask them to explain how they use your products, possibly even provide prizes for the best ideas. This information might help you target new customers.

You can also do some testing pulling contact information from other SIC codes and mail or email them as well.  Track the response and conversion rates for each test.  If you discover that a new customer segment is interested in your products or services, expand your reach within that segment through brand and product marketing using direct mail, email, social media and the web.

Conclusion

Profiling your customers to find new prospects, building the prospect database for both direct mail and email, launching the campaign to include the new profiled targets and testing new market segments are all very important steps in acquiring new customers.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: flazingo_photos via Foter.com / CC BY-SA

Making the Leap from B2B to B2C

Can B2B companies make the leap to capture B2C customers?  It isn’t always as easy as it seems.  Here are a few things that I would recommend reviewing before making that leap from B2B to B2C.

Will Retail Customers Like Your Products? – This sounds like an obvious question, but you need to find this out before investing in a marketing strategy for retail.  Oftentimes, a product that sells very well in a B2B environment, doesn’t sell well in B2C.  I worked for an industrial supply distributor and we wanted to increase our sales for our best selling products.  When we posted 50,000 products on Amazon.com, something very interesting happened.  Our slow moving products in B2B were our best sellers in B2C.  We thought that we knew what the retail consumers wanted, but we were wrong.  Customers don’t always behave like businesses.

Are Your Products Priced Correctly? – You need to do some market research regarding the products that you want to sell in the retail market.  If your products are similar to others in the marketplace, then do some competitive pricing analysis.  If you have a unique product, you need to determine what your pricing strategy is.

Is Your Infrastructure Set Up For A Direct To Consumer Market? – When selling your products to the B2C market, are you set up to sell individual products instead of bulk shipments?  The B2B companies that I have worked for were already set up to handle large numbers of individual orders.  Not all companies can handle a huge influx of individual orders.  Make sure that your company can handle whatever the retail market throws at you.

Does The B2C Market Know That Your Company Exists? – Wanting to sell products that historically have been marketed directly to businesses may not be thought of or exposed to direct consumers.  You will need a B2C marketing plan.  How are you going to get the word out that you sell to end consumers?  You may need to invest in print and online advertising to let customers know what your company sells.  Press releases are also a good way to get the word out.  Google Adwords and Social Media are another way to get exposure online.

Know Your Target Audience – The best way to expand in new markets is to talk customers that you want to target.  Focus Groups and surveys are great places to collect information about your market.  Understand what motivates customers to purchase products.  Thanks to Amazon and other retailers, free shipping and discounts are some of the rules you need to understand in B2C markets.  End consumers don’t always behave the same way that businesses do.  Price sensitivity is a serious challenge especially with highly competitive products.

Understand How Your Existing Customers Will React To Your Company Going Direct to Consumers – It can get a little tricky when you move into a consumer market, especially if you have a distributor network.  I worked for several companies that sold directly to businesses and to distributors.  In that scenario, you need to make sure your distributor base isn’t threatened by your selling to businesses.  This issue can even get more convoluted when you add selling to retail.

Do your homework before making the leap to B2C.  If you make sure that you research whether the B2C market will buy your products and at what price point, ensure your company’s infrastructure can handle the potential influx of individual orders, build a solid B2C marketing plan and understand how your existing customers will react to you expanding into new markets, you should have the framework for expansion into that market.

If you want to learn more about me, please visit my LinkedIn profile, my website and my blog.

Photo credit: Nicholas Eckhart / Foter.com / CC BY