Out-Smarts Marketing Services

Last night the High Tech Communicator’s Exchange featured a great presentation by Darren Barefoot and Julie Szabo of Capulet Communications. They discussed the 7 risks you should be aware of when considering a social media campaign. Here they are in cryptic fashion. For more detail, you’ll just have to buy their ebook (or the soon to be released in paper version) - Getting to First Base.

1. Your efforts are just not interesting enough - so spice it up a little.
2. Blogger backlash - beware the prima donnas and know your blogetiquette.
3. Rejection or backlash - could haunt you forever.
4. Efforts die on the vine - because of improper resource allocation.
5. You have Cluetrain goggles - social media is another tool in your marketing arsenal not the be all and end all.
6. Too self absorbed - always blowing your own horn rather than adding real value to the audience.
7. Be Proactive - do your homework and be prepared.

I would add only one thing to this and that is the risk of missing the mark. When considering any marketing effort, its always important to put yourself in your audience’s shoes and determine which social media hubs you are most likely to reach them in i.e. which Internet networking hubs they hang out in. For example, if your target audience is educated professionals, a MySpace focus would be less appropriate than LinkedIn or even Facebook or if you plan a campaign to promote a hi-tech device to bloggers you should hone in on tech bloggers not knitting bloggers.

These days I see a divide between marketers. There are 2 camps, the traditionalists and the technologists and rarely do the 2 meet, far less collaborate - which is a shame because a marketing project is much more likely to be a success if it blends the best of both to reach the intended audience.

Traditionalists tend to be of the opinion that tried and tested approaches to market are best. They eschew the Internet preferring to focus on tangible approaches within their comfort zones. They have been doing things their way for years, it has worked for them so why try anything new.

Technologists on the other hand scoff at traditional marketing pointing out that the Internet is more cost effective and highly targeted. They say that times have changed and no-one pays attention to traditional approaches anymore.

A good marketer should take a step back and consider who they are trying to reach. They should look at all of the options available to reach that audience and determine which will be the most effective. More often that not a blended approach to market, one where traditional marketing complements Internet or vice versa will deliver by far and away the best results.

A case in point this week at Steadyhand. Their blog, which already boasts very respectable traffic (and is an invaluable component of their marketing strategy), saw a huge spike in traffic to the site as a result of the blog being featured in a Globe and Mail article and poll. Traditional fed into Internet and the blended approach enabled them to build brand awareness with a wider audience.

Its called the marketing mix for a reason you know. By blending the best of traditional marketing strategies with new Internet approaches, your chance of nailing the target audience is greatly enhanced.

I’ve been Twittering for a while now and find it interesting to see how the way people use the micro blog has evolved. Here are a few different applications I have seen Twitter used for.

1. To establish expertise.

2. To spread the word about produtc and services offered.

2. To enhance customer service offerings.

3. To drive traffic to a blog post or web site.

4. To illicit feedback for product and market research.

5. To expand or reinforce your brand.

6. To collaborate with remote partners in short blasts.

7. To give product update and enhancement information.

8. To blatantly sell - I wouldn’t advise this but I have seen it done…..

9. To find the applicable business partners.

10. To keep up to date with goings on in your market.

Obviously all of these depend on your followers and following but once you have these in place, watch the Tweets and you will see for yourself some of the innovative ways people are using this tool.

A recent article by a local Vancouver writer Sheena Daniels, in Blitz Magazine debated the benefits of newsletters versus blogs. A blog and newsletter are two totally distinct tools marketers can use to grow their business. Each should be aimed at an entirely different audience and used for different purposes.

The article points out 3 important considerations should you have to choose between the two:

1. Audience you are trying to reach;

2. Internal resources available;

3. Message you are trying to communicate.

Unless limited by the 3 above, why choose between the a blog or a newsletter at all? Each can and should be used for distinct purposes to enhance marketing communications and by using both you can hone in on 2 distinct audiences with distinct marketing messages and increase effectiveness of each.

A newsletter, unless you’re a spammer, is aimed at adding value to existing contacts, partners and customers (people that have already “touched” you) and should be used to keep your company at the forefront in the minds of those important in your network and to reinforce your presence with them.

An blog is aimed at a wider audience many of whom are unknown entities. It should be used to bring attention to what you do, spreading awareness and establish expertise with new prospects or new markets. They key difference is that a blog is a collaborative medium aimed at supporting on-line interaction between interested parties via comments. Its a two way street whereas newsletters are a one way push.

Both are complementary technologies and as the article points out, you can blog a newsletter via RSS allowing your efforts to reach people the way they want to be reached. But consider this, if you intend to focus on newsletters and use RSS you cannot call this a blog as the article suggests, not unless your newsletters go out at least once a week. A corporate blog, to be considered effective and established should be updated once a week at the very least.

When you subscribe to a blog or podcast or populate a portal like iGoogle the technology that brings the information to you is called RSS. Its a way of publishing information easily so as to make it available to subscribers in a central on-line repository.

Why take advantage of RSS? There are many reasons:

1. Pull rather than push - articles come to users rather than them having to hunt them down;
2. Subscribers get the latest and greatest information as its posted;
3. An RSS link encourages traffic to your site;
4. Users can have a bunch of sources of info in one place - much like a newspaper;
5. RSS can be used internally to disseminate info too.

How to set up an RSS feed?

• First get your site set up to support RSS by adding a few short lines of code.
• Place code on your site that the RSS feed readers can find your info.
• Publicise your feed by telling the world and everyone you know in it at every opportunity.
• Add the RSS feed button to your site so visitors know you the can easily subscribe. Feedburner has widgets to support this on their site.
• Submit your feed to syndicators and search engines to make it easier for your audience to find you.

Once thats done, your good to start publishing your own data feed over the web.

Thanks to the ZDNet blog for this very apt cartoon. Same could be said for many company websites too.

Our one year blog anniversary came and went recently with little fanfare (until now that is). We’ll put in down to having too much fun blogging. Here are just a few of the pleasures derived from blogging over the past twelve months:

1.The Out-Smarts blog is doubling in readership every month but it wasn’t until November when post on a Facebook hoax brought the first HUGE spike in traffic. Its great to ride a wave.

2. In January I was introduced to someone I hadn’t met before and they responded that they enjoy this blog - very flattering;

3. Its always fascinating to track where visitors come from. This site gets visits from all around the world we have visitors in the UK, US and Canada but have also met colleagues from Serbia, Korea and India by blogging here;

4. When our work was copied last week the community really rallied around giving advice on next steps, encouragement in a number of different forums - heartwarming indeed.

5. Its amazing how easily blog posts ideas and words can come one day then another its like getting blood out of a stone. I look for inspiration by reading other blogs, listening to podcasts, attending seminars and events but perhaps the most unlikely inspiration came from a tech column in Women’s Health magazine.

6. Blogging has been very therapeutic - its a great way to get things of your chest but alternatively it can be quite addictive - its important to manage blog time effectively when there’s so much out there to learn about.

7. Establishing expertise is one of my main reasons to blog and this is continuously reinforced when I meet with new prospects who have read the blog prior to our meeting - it reminds me to be careful what I say!

8. We’ve averaged about 2 or 3 blog per weeks and have noticed traffic correlates to number of posts up to a point - another incentive to blog regularly.

9. Blogging has led to podcasting. Who knows what will be next - vlogging? Watch this space.

10. The power of 10 - people like lists and 10 seems to be a popular number giving us a great excuse to stop now.

Here’s to another great blogging year….

Our blog hit 2 rather dubious milestones this week. Both occurred yesterday when someone was good enough to post our blog peice about the SMEI event with links and all. We love link love here at Out-Smarts and we are always glad to share as long as blog etiquette is followed.

In this case it wasn’t, the post, on a site that had little or no original content, even credited our article to someone else!

They referred to it as a great article - thanks but next time please GET IT RIGHT:

• If you’re not sure of the author don’t include fake or false info.
• If in doubt about the source - DON’T post it.
• Always credit the true author and include a link back to the original article.
• Be aware that the Internet by its nature is very transparent - if plagiarism is your game then chances are you’ll get caught out sooner or later.

So in fine Monica Hamburg fashion - we set to correcting the situation with a well worded comment demanding the error be corrected. Which brings us to the second milestone, our first abusive email following a post that was full of profanity and bluster.

Thankfully the post has since been removed and I won’t give them them the satisfaction of linking to the site.

I’ve already had some feedback from some of my friends on Facebook as to how to deal with this and what I can do to counter both plagiarism and abusive emails but I would be interested in your advice too. What should I do next? What have you done that has worked for you and what can bloggers do to mitigate the risks of putting their good words out there?

The blogosphere is a great way to get your message across and reach wider audiences but if you are thinking about harnessing it for PR purposes, be aware.  As with all things web 2.0 blogging for PR can be done and done well but you have to approach it in a new way.   When approaching a blogger:

1. Don’t try to sell to them or buy their good words - it won’t go over well;
2. Establish rapport up front if you can, network with them in other forums and develop a relationship that shows your sincerity;
3. Relate your offering to a blog post they may have made on an applicable subject;
4. Contact a select few bloggers via a personalized email that include links to pertinent pages or info;
5. If applicable, offer a reciprocal link;
6. Don’t use a traditional press release format - it will be perceived as too “suity”.

Social media for marketing and business development is the hot topic on the networking circuit in Vancouver these days and today’s SMEI event was no exception. With expert panelists from BCIT and Oracle bringing their unique experiences in SM to the panel, the event proved to be insightful.

It started off with a brief intro to Web 2.0 described as being “Tech, Process and People - but most of all collaboration” then went on to a 101 of web 2.0 terms such as RSS, blogs, podcasts for the real newbies in the audience.

Once the panelists got started the true value of the event became apparent. Justin Kestelyn, Director of Development Programs at Oracle discussed their web 2.0 adoption and the benefits they have gained from using a more transparent strategy and involving their customers and partners more. He made a great point in that by involving their customers and allowing them to have a voice these invariably become evangelists at little or no cost to Oracle. He points out that Web 2.0 is an attitude, a new way of doing business and not just an Internet term.

Next up was Robert Duncan from BCIT whose presentation centred on LinkedIn as a means of developing relationships (a topic close to my heart). He focuses on LinkedIn in particular of the social networks available and has over 800 contacts that he uses extensively to spread awareness of what he is doing at BCIT and in his work with innovators. He pointed out that by joining groups in LinkedIn you have access to all other members of that group - a great way to extend your network further. Its easier to do business with people you already know something about.
The last panelist to get up was James Wells also from BCIT and a founder of Lendary Social Financing a company that uses web 2.0 technology to build trust online and to put investors in touch with entrepreneurs looking for money. “Word of mouth is vital to growing any business these days”, he pointed out - “go out and do it - if you fail you learn”.

The conclusion - if companies don’t embrace web 2.0 then they face failure or a steep catch up. It costs very little to adopt these technologies and the benefits in terms of buzz are profound.

Interesting to see Vancouver mega blogger Miss 604 there. I am looking forward to her take on proceedings too.