Are You Having Fun At Work?

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, work is “a job or activity that you do regularly especially in order to earn money ”and the definition of fun is “someone or something that is amusing or enjoyable: an enjoyable experience or person.”  One would think that these two words would rarely be used in the same sentence together. I disagree.  If you have the right attitude, every job no matter how mundane, repetitive and boring can be fun if you make it fun.

When I was in high school, I had a part-time job working for my Dad as a janitor. It was my job to dump the garbage and vacuum the office carpet.  It sometimes got a bit tedious when the whole punch pieces were on the floor and the vacuum wouldn’t pick them up, so I had to get on my hands and knees and pick each piece individually. Often my dad would be working late while I was cleaning the office. It was easy for me to look beyond the work because I had an opportunity to watch my Dad work and learn what he did for a living. He would often buy me a Coke from the old-fashioned coke machine (glass bottles) down the hall and we would talk about different things. Although it was work, it was fun for me to spend time with my Dad.

I also had a job working for the city’s service department.  My job was to pull weeds at the city parks, cut grass and make sure all of the tools were clean and in their proper location.  Sometimes I would be dropped off at a park with a few garbage bags and needed to pull weeds all by myself for hours.  I made a conscience effort to have fun while I worked.  I sang songs, thought of funny movies I had seen, listened to the sounds of all of the different types of birds singing or spent time in prayer and meditation while I did my job.  I looked at it as an opportunity to be outside on a beautiful sunny summer day and I was getting paid for it.  Having fun at work all depends on your attitude and perspective.

The business world is the same way.  Do you have fun where you are working?  Do you dread coming to work every day or are you excited to come to work?  It is in the company’s best interest to have employees who love coming to work.  Enthusiasm is contagious.  A happy employee will often project that excitement to customers.  Unfortunately, bad managers can a great company unpleasant to work for.  Despite bad managers or poorly run companies, you can still have fun and make it fun for others.

Here are some suggestions of how you can make your workplace more fun for you and your employees.

• Lunch and Learn – Instead of everyone scattering at noon to run out to the local fast food place for lunch, have them bring their lunches to the lunch room and have a “lunch and learn” session. A different person can volunteer each week or monthly as the teacher and they can present whatever information they want to share with others.  It doesn’t have to be work or job related. It could be talking about a favorite hobby or great places to hike with your family in the area.  Everyone needs a break from work and this is a fun way to take a break.

• Holiday Events – I have worked for some companies that have a lot of fun during holiday events. For example, departments would compete for the best decorated work area during Halloween.  We would have everyone who dressed up parade through the entire company and prizes were awarded for the best costumes.  We would also have the children of employees come through the company visiting each department and collecting candy, apple cider and cookies.  Our Christmas / Holiday parties in December offered live entertainment, a delicious meal and door prizes.  The door prizes were a great way to build excitement and congratulate employees for a successful year.

• Fun Fridays – We also had a series of “Dress-up Fridays” that we called “Fun Fridays” where instead of just wearing jeans on Fridays, we would have “Pajama Parties” where employees come to work in their PJs. We also had “Ugly Sweater Friday”, and “Favorite Sports Team Friday”.  When I was working in Michigan, we would have a Michigan vs Michigan State chili cook-off where employees would bring in their best chili dishes and favorite desserts.  The company would provide chips and soft drinks.  Of course, the desserts were either maize and blue, or green and white to represent each team’s colors.  Employees would also wear their favorite U of M or MSU clothes.

• Lunch Cookouts – We would regularly have summer cookouts during lunchtime where the company would provide hamburgers, hot dogs, buns, condiments, chips, cookies and soft drinks. The management team were the grill cooks and food servers.  It was a great example of servant leadership. It was a welcomed break from being inside all day.

• Sports for Charity – We also created a softball team that would compete with other local companies to raise money for local charities. Any professional sports team would be embarrassed to play as poorly as we did, but it didn’t matter.  It was fun and for a great cause. Oftentimes, other local companies will join in on the festivities by donating money for jerseys, ballpark rental, equipment, and refreshments for the games.  This is a great team building exercise outside of work.

Conclusion

If you are not having fun at work, make it fun.  You don’t have to be a VP of Human Resources to make suggestions and to organize entertaining activities.  They don’t have to be expensive, just enjoyable. Happy employees are your best evangelists of your company and its culture in the marketplace.

If you want to learn more about me, visit my LinkedIn profile, my website, my twitter account and my blog. If you need marketing leadership assistance, let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Photo credit: Be-Younger.com via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

Do You Know Your Customer’s Story?

From the moment you are born until the day you die, your life is jammed packed with stories. The first time you rode a bike, your childhood adventures with friends in the park, your first date, the death of a loved one – these are all chapters in the story of your life. Your customers have similar experiences that make up the stories of their lives.

In a world of sales objectives and quotas that need to be met, it’s very easy to lose sight of the humanity of customers. By understanding your customers’ stories, you will be able to relate to them on a deeper level.  If you listen closely to them and understand their challenges, you can help solve them together as a team.

Customers Are People Too

Forget for a moment that you are selling or marketing for a minute.  It’s easy to see customers as check marks on a spreadsheet or targets on a dartboard. Keep in mind that your customers have families, relationships, issues and challenges just like everyone else. They have to get up in the morning and go to work with all of the pressures and stress that go with it.  They may have a spouse and children or perhaps they are single. Some sales people treat customers as nothing more than a sales objective for a firm, failing to see and relate to the humanity of each person with which the firm interacts. This is a profound mistake and one that companies cannot afford to make.

Relationships  

Understanding human behavior is a key to success in business. I spoke with an entrepreneur once who told me that when you make customers your friends, the dynamic between seller and customer changes significantly in the business transaction. Successful business is all about relationships. Customers like to do business with people they trust.  When you want to buy something online, do you go to e-commerce websites that you have never heard of before?  If you do, don’t you first check them out through customer reviews, people you know who have used them, or the BBB?  It is unwise to do business with people that you don’t trust.

Be Real

I have found throughout my career that honesty is still the best policy. My success has been directly connected to being honest and open with my customers. If my colleagues and I made a mistake by unintentionally shipping the wrong product or a defective product, we quickly admitted to that mistake and rectified the situation, which in turn strengthened our relationships with customers who saw us as honest and reliable. Being open and honest in business builds trust and long-lasting relationships.

Early in my career, I went on a sales call with a seasoned advertising professional.  When he sat down with his customers to solve a problem, he was very careful what language he used when talking with them.  He didn’t say “you” or “your” once. It was always “we” and “our”. He acted like one of them and was accepted as one of them, not an outside agency.

Technology

There are several Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms that can help sales and marketing people “manage” their customer’s stories.  Capturing birthdays, anniversaries, special events, customer concerns and solutions in this platform are very helpful especially during transition times when a sales or marketing person moves on and another may need to take his or her place. Documentation is very important.  I have a beautiful wife and 5 wonderful children.  With all of the activities in everyday life, I struggle remembering birthdays and key dates. Multiply that by 50 key customers and that’s a ton of information to retain.  Leveraging technology to organize this information is very helpful.  Remember, technology will not replace personal contact, but it can help keep you organized so you can be more effective.  IBM has released a series of commercials that show celebrities interacting with IBM’s Watson.  Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language and machine learning to reveal information and insight.  Their commercial regarding storytelling with Stephen King is a unique and entertaining way to tie storytelling with technology. Leveraging technology to help you manage your customer’s stories should be strongly considered for your business.

Do You Know Your Customer’s Story?

How much do you really know about your customers?  Do you know why they like doing business with you? Do you know their needs and expectations?  What are their challenges in business?  Can your company help them achieve their goals? Do you have a personal relationship with them or are you just another supplier to them?

Knowing each of your customer’s stories is important, however being part of your customer’s story is critical to your success.

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

Photo credit:  upupandabear Foter.com

 

Tired of the Same Old Marketing?

You work for a manufacturing company that has been in business for 75 years.  Your marketing predecessors have always relied on direct mail catalogs, fliers and postcards.  Although reluctant, upper management have agreed to allow you to create a cheap website.  Despite your efforts, sales continue to decline.  What do you do?

The old saying “we’ve always done it that way” is not a valid argument in a rapidly changing business environment.  Many companies have gone bankrupt with that line of thinking, as new technologies and media transform the ways in which people access information, products, and companies.  75 years ago, people had to wait until the next morning’s newspaper to find out what happened in the world yesterday.  Today, news is instant and global thanks to streaming social media.  Your customers are adjusting to new technologies and their business needs. Millennials, as the new buyers in the industry, communicate much differently than baby boomers and thus companies need to change their marketing strategies.

My son is 19 years old and has sent over 138,000 Snapchats to his friends.  Five years ago, Snapchat didn’t even exist.  Millennials are a large demographic that utilize social media.  If you want to reach this demographic, you need to use the communication channels that they use. At a minimum, I recommend that you consider having business accounts for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.  Depending on your business and target market, you might want to consider Snapchat and other social media networks.  Direct mail and email are still effective marketing methods, however in order to expand your branding reach, you need to expand your marketing channels.

I am a big proponent of synchronized marketing, where you establish a comprehensive strategy that has every marketing channel working together in harmony. Direct mail, social media, email, digital, events and PR are seamlessly coordinated into one unified branding message.  For example, let’s say you want to announce a new product and promote it with an introductory discount.  Here’s what you can do.

• Create a YouTube video announcing the new product and demonstrating its features. The video should link to your ecommerce website with more product details and allow the customer to purchase the product.  The discount promo code should also be displayed on the video and on the website.
• Announce the new product via email with a link to your website with the discount promo code and link to the YouTube video demonstration.
• Display the promotion on the home page of your website with a link to the product detail/purchase page.
• Make the the same announcement to your targeted demographic using Facebook and Instagram with links to the YouTube video, product images and the discount which is linked to your product detail/purchase page.
• Do a blog post on LinkedIn and on your blog site announcing the new product and promotion.
• Do a press release with embedded links to your YouTube video, social media and website. Although press releases need to be newsworthy versus promoting product sales, the new product announcement is news.
• Monitor social media and Google searches for your new product and company so you can join the conversation, endorse the product, listen to your customers concerns and address their questions.
• Each marketing channel should link to each other.

Conclusion

In summary, doing the same things you have always done when sales are declining is ineffective in today’s new wave of instant information and communication.

• Try new things – freshen up your marketing
• Monitor what your competitors are doing and decide if you need to do similar things
• Determine the best social media channels for your target customers
• Monitor social media to hear what your customers are saying about you and join the conversation
• Leverage all of your marketing channels and synchronize them into a clear and concise branding message
• Evaluate which channels are effective and which ones are not. Do more of what’s working and stop doing what is not.

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

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

 

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

Overcoming Adversity

Everyone faces adversity in the workplace and at home.  Whether it’s a co-worker who is jealous of your accomplishments, a vindictive supervisor, an unhappy employee whose daily goal is to make everyone else have a lousy day or a teenager at home who has questionable friends, every day presents a new challenge.  When I face daily challenges, I follow a few simple rules that can make the most difficult day an enjoyable one.

Spirituality/Prayer

Spirituality and prayer can be a powerful force for stress relief. Every day before I go to work and on my way home, I pray for my co-workers, family and friends.  Many of them are facing their own sets of challenges with sick or elderly parents, kids who are in trouble, an abusive spouse, financial stress and the list goes on.  If you think about it, by the time you get to work, there is an incredible dynamic of people of all different backgrounds and experiences, coming to one place to accomplish a goal of making your company perform like a well-oiled machine bringing their own experiences both negative and positive to the workplace.  If that’s not a recipe for prayer, I don’t know what is.  To learn more about the power of prayer and spirituality and how it relates to stress relief, check out this Mayo Clinic article.

Attitude

I have found that attitude has a lot to do with how I react to different experiences throughout the day.  When I go to work with issues and concerns about things happening elsewhere, I find myself bringing baggage with me at work.  It’s like going on a flight.  Check your bags and forget about them until you arrive at your destination.

Let your positive attitude be contagious.  People like being around positive-minded people.  When you surround yourself with people who are negative and every goal is impossible to achieve, you will fail.  Oftentimes, I have found that my attitude and not my co-workers is the thing that is holding back our success.  Don’t let your attitude be the reason why goals aren’t accomplished or why your co-workers are having a bad day.

Give

You’ve heard the old saying “it’s better to give than receive.”  It’s true.  Go to a soup kitchen and help feed the homeless or go to an organization like Habitat for Humanity or the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts of America and work on a community service project.  Reaching out to injured military service personnel like Wounded Warriors or being a volunteer for newly settled Syrian refugees will quickly put things back in perspective.

What does this have to do with adversity at work or home?  Everything.  Organizing a community service project with your co-workers, enables you to build a stronger community both outside your workplace and within your office.

Communicate

Communication within your workplace and at home is very important.  Many misunderstandings stem from miscommunication.  Email is easily misinterpreted.  How many times have you sent what you thought was a clear message only to get responses back that totally misconstrued your original message?

It might make sense to get up from behind your desk, walk over to the person you were sending an email to and have a conversation.  In a world of texts, SnapChat, and online messaging, it’s refreshing to have an “old-fashioned” face-to-face conversation.

Conclusion

Whether you are at work or at home, I recommend starting and ending your day with prayer (sometime you need to keep praying throughout the day especially when it’s an overly challenging one), have a positive attitude, have a charitable heart giving back to your community whenever you can and keep your lines of communication open and clear.  Using these simple guidelines can help anyone successfully deal with adversity.

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

Photo credit: jlwo via Foter.com / CC BY-NC