Posts about Marketing
3 Quick & Easy Tips to Freshen Your Social Media Profiles for Spring
Think Spring cleaning is just for your home? Think again. Our social media profiles, whether personal or for our brands can also use a freshening. Here are 3 tips to freshen up your social media profiles:
Updating Your Social Media Profiles – Image of TaylorMade Solutions
1. Update Your Avatars (Profile Pics)
This should be the most obvious on the list. When was the last time that you updated your social media profiles pics? If you still are using the “egg” for your profile pic on Twitter, it is time to crack that habit and lay the groundwork for a professional pic that enables people to recognize you.
The same goes for outdated pics across all channels. If you are using a picture for LinkedIn from your first day on the job and that was five years ago, it’s time to update! If people can’t recognize you by your avatar, then your impacting your personal brand.
For corporate brands, has your logo changed? Are you using an image that is now outdated? Shake it up and update asap!
2. Update Your Bio
Like your photo, a lot can change over a year or a few years. It’s time to wipe the cobwebs off of your outdated profile. Hobbies changed? New job? New blog? Remember to add the appropriate keywords for what you now do.
The same goes for corporate “About” pages, etc. While your core business may not have changed, business terms and keywords do change. Make sure that you are putting your best foot forward by freshening up your corporate information and reflecting current business strategies and tactics.
3. Create or Eliminate
Equally important for personal and corporate brands, if you are not listening and engaging with your audience in the right channels, then find out what channels you need to be a part of and carefully determine if it makes sense for you to be in that space as well. If you find that your audience (customers, prospects and competitors) are all in that space and you are not, then you are likely loosing out.
The same goes for channels that no longer work for your audience. If you have found that you are spending time and money in a channel that is getting zero engagement due to the fact that your audience is longer present, it’s time to re-evaluate. If it is no longer working, exercise judgement and eliminate this time waster. Focus on channels that net results: leads, conversions and sales.
Looking for some additional tips for setting up your profiles in order to meet best practices? Check out these resource for LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
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Busted: Why Buying Twitter Followers Makes You A Fake
Each week I get at least a dozen “people” who start following me on Twitter with the sole intention of trying to get me to buy followers. Needless to say, I don’t follow back and, more importantly I don’t buy followers. While this is point of debate for some, I don’t believe in buying followers. I think that it makes a person or a corporate brand a fake – A big inauthentic fake and here are the reasons why:
1. You Underestimate People
Social media practitioners preach authenticity. Most of these practitioners that I know, are marketers by the way and they also preach authenticity. “You have to be real” we say. So, how can you be real and authentic if you are buying followers?
Yes, it is nice to have followers and a large network. It makes us feel important. And sure, when we see others with a large following we might automatically think that they are important and respected, etc. etc. And, they just might be! I know many of the people I respect have large networks. Then there are others that I hold in the same light and their “online” networks are not so large. It’s all about perspective.
That being said, what do you think about a brand (a person or a corporate brand) that turns out to be not what you thought? You might feel cheated right? You may even be angry that you believed in someone or something that isn’t quite what they claimed. What if the person or corporate brand you followed on Twitter was suddenly exposed as having bought most their Twitter followers? Would you be upset?
There are many tools to test the validity of followers, including those of your favourite brand. One example is Status People. I ran a test on my Twitter Profile and found that I had “0% Fake,” phew! And, these tools are usually free and available for people to check his or her own Twitter handle, or the Twitter handle of someone else. And don’t think that people aren’t doing this for regular people. It isn’t just there for celebrities and politicians.
Test of @MacLeanHeather
So, don’t just talk the walk…walk the talk boys and girls.
2. Don’t forget the “Social” in Social Media
The original purpose of social media was to connect with “people,” share information and communicate like we have never communicated before, regardless of where you are. So, that being said, social media has enabled us to reconnect with family and friends AND to connect with new people who have the same or similar interests to us. The common word here is “connect”. And, while some people have very large networks of real social media connections, most of us “still” want to get to know people on some level.
The same goes for marketing. For the first time, we could connect with our customers and prospects in new ways and, at a very personal level. Despite this, many of us seem to forget social is different. We seem to approach social media marketing with the “same old, same old” mentality of mass marketing and “push-only” messages. Some of us don’t even listen to what our audience is communicating about us, let alone to us.
When you are buying followers, there is no connection. Period!
3. You Don’t Understand “Audience”
When you are buying followers, you are buying numbers and not an audience. When you have an audience, you have “people” who are interested in what you have to say. You can engage with real people. They can ask you questions and share information with you and vice versa. When you buy followers, you aren’t getting engagement. Just how many of those followers do you even think are real? When was the last time that you were asked if you would like to sell your “following” status? Ah…never, right? If someone is telling you that they can get you additional exposure by selling you followers, reread this post and repeat as necessary. You are buying empty fake Twitter accounts just to inflate your number of followers. Empty = empty results.
There is no shortcut to building an audience and your creditability. Take your time. Find your voice and have fun getting to know people – both those with their own Twitter accounts and those behind the handles of the brands of companies.
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Be a Branding Genius Like American Pickers’ Mike Wolfe
How would you like to debut your brand to 3.1 million people? That would be pretty amazing right? Well, that is exactly what Mike Wolfe did in 2010, when his show, American Pickers debuted on the History Channel making it the highest rated debut since 2007. This didn’t “just happen”. When you dissect it, Mike Wolfe is a Branding Genius and you can learn from his success.
Image courtesy of the Mike Wolfe American Picker Facebook Page
Now, before getting to Mike’s genius, let’s be clear what a brand is. Far too many people think a brand is a logo. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are a number of definitions for brand, but I think that Seth Godin’s best captures it: “A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” Now that we are all on the same page, let’s break down what Mike did to create a brand that has resulted in growing his business and brand recognition that we all dream of!
1. Leadership and Vision
Before you can establish a great brand, you need someone who has a great vision. On top of that however, you need a leader who can execute on that vision. (Click to Tweet)
Mike is definitely “that” person. His business Antique Archeology has a different take on antiques. In effect, he is creating and curating his own story all the way from the experience in-store to going out on the road with sidekick Frank Fritz to collect “rusty gold”. He is unearthing great finds. It truly is archeology.
2. Differentiation
In 2010 when American Pickers debuted, there were no other shows like it. In fact, Mike understands differentiation more than most. As a result, it was important to have his on-site in-store person to be outside the expected norm. Danielle definitely fits that bill. Tattoo-Clad, ring adorned and burlesque-dancing Danielle is definitely not what you would expect at a traditional antique’s store. (Click to Tweet)
In addition to Danielle being an unexpected twist, Mike’s take on going antiquing is truly different. Crawling through barns, garages, junk heaps and even junk yards, he is willing to go where no man has gone before on TV. His cringe-worthy approach made us all think twice about the junk we see and what it might be worth.
Image courtesy of the Mike Wolfe American Pickers Facebook Page
And of course I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that his approach has definitely converted many men to rethink antiquing trips with their wives. No longer is it about fancy or precious items that are to be looked at. No, Mike has created a whole new focus by getting junk-drunk with “mantiques”.
3. Consistency
For brands to be really successful communicating their brand value, consistency across all channels is essential.
Mike is using seven different channels: TV, Website and of course social: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest and ebay. Across all these channels, there is a high level of consistency with colour, themes and content. Mike continues to flawlessly curate stories. You know when you are looking at a Mike Wolfe asset. His touch and likeness are everywhere. Everything you see you can tie back to Mike. He stays true to his area of expertise and interest.
4. Passion
Hand-in-hand with consistency is passion. Mike has a passion for what he does. You can see it and feel it. He specializes in a few areas, including bikes – both man powered and engine powered. For the most part this is a real man’s passion. Engines, testosterone and finding the ‘honey-hole” of picks – that is Mike Wolfe and the American Picker brand.
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Mitigate Business Risks: Implement a Social Media Council
Collaboration and cooperation are important components of a business ecosystem. They can help us mitigate risk. We all know this. Interestingly enough though, not enough people consider this when developing and implementing different components of their operational functions and some of the communications associated with the various operational aspects. For example, not enough organizations are implementing social media councils. These councils are an important component of your operations; and here are the top 5 reasons to start your social media council immediately.
5. Eliminate Functional/Communication Silos
Unless your organization is small and centrally located, then you have experienced the fact that different people in different departments could very well be duplicating efforts. Some examples include communications with customers through such channels as Twitter for customer service. The last thing you want to do is to confuse your customers about what channel is the right one to reach you in the event of an issue. Approaching your social media as a collective can bring good ideas to the table sooner and ensure that everyone approaches it the same way. A social media council will foster collaboration. Want tips on how to break down silos? Check out Busting Silos: Workplace Design Offers a Smart Solution, Barbara T. Armstrong. Click to Tweet
4. Reduce costs
Silos not only increase confusion, they increase costs. Creating a social media council can ensure that the right number of resources are identified and trained to monitor and engage on behalf of your company. This will reduce costs. Click to Tweet A social media council will also ensure that multiple resources are not carrying out the same function at the same time.
3. Manage & Protect Reputation
Eisner Amper’s 4th Annual Board of Directors’ Survey continues to show Reputation Risk at the top of the list, primarily due to the concerns around social media. Developing and implementing a social media council is your first step in your defence. A social media council should be made up of people from different disciplines, including Human Resources, Legal, Public Relations, Marketing, Sales, etc. Including Human Resources and Legal is absolutely essential. Their approach will provide a different perspective that will make your overall effort more focused. They will also learn about the issues of Sales, Public Relations and Marketing in a new context. This will further foster collaboration and learning for all. Click to Tweet.
2. Create an Informed and Educated Workforce
Creating a social media council, when done well, means that you are building a multidisciplinary team. This group of people should not only bring information, ideas and issues to the Council, they are also to bring information, ideas and issues back to their respective departments. A successful, highly functioning Council gives and receives information. It becomes a powerful communication channel for the entire enterprise – from the frontline workers all the way up to and including the C-suite. Click to Tweet
1. Identify and Mitigate Risk
It all comes down to this. If there is just one reason to implement a social media council, it is about identifying and mitigating risk. When you look at each of the reasons above, it can all be boiled down to this. I don’t know one organization that isn’t concerned about mitigating risk.
If you would like to learn more about social media councils and mitigating risk, let us know. Check us out at TaylorMade Solutions.
50 Free or Low-Cost Apps for Small Businesses
For many small businesses, keeping up with all of the latest tools and apps can be tough. So, we’ll make it a bit easier for you.
Here are 50 low-cost tools and applications to check out today.
The best part is that many are completely free!
- Around Me – Search for the nearest restaurants, banks, gas stations, hotels, and more. Time is money and when travelling for business, this app will help.
- Award Wallet – Travel a lot for business and have too many reward programs to keep track of? Track it all and stay organized and in sync with your rewards.
- 1ShoppingCart – Build, sell and grow your ecommerce storefront. You can try out the tool for one month at no cost.
1Shopping Cart
- Beesy – This low cost app enables you to take meeting notes and has automated To-Do lists as well as some nifty Task/Project Management
- Bizzabo – A mobile networking app for events and conferences to keep attendees, organizers and sponsors engaged. You can learn who will be attending in advance and make plans accordingly.
- Bump – This free app enables to smart phone users to actually bump their phones together to transfer contact information, photos, files, etc.
- Camera Awesome – The name alone is cool. This free app is touted as one of the best photo editors. Even the Wall Street Journal has endorsed it.
- Cloze – Overcome “inbox overload” and filter through the noise to get to those critical emails.
- Converter Plus – This free app not only helps you with currency conversion, but also comes with a mortgage calculator, fuel consumption tools, and more.
- Dashlane – Need a password manager and secure digital wallet for devices? This free app might be just what you are looking for.
- Dictionary.com – Need a dictionary and thesaurus on the go? This free app is the way to go. A bonus, you don’t need internet while searching words!
- Doodle – This low cost app is a great tool if you are in the position of setting up meetings with people in different locations, businesses, etc. Doodle app enables you to poll invitees to determine which date and time best accommodates people.
- Dropbox – Another great free app that lets you store your files, including photos in the Cloud. Access them anywhere and share with anyone. You will never have to worry about forgetting a thumb drive again. Or, if you can’t make a meeting, your colleague can access that all-important presentation and deliver it for you.
- EasilyDo – Your free personal assistant that checks traffic before your commute, checks weather, tracks packages, lets you know when there is an important date you need to celebrate and more.
- Blogger – Create your own free blog in minutes and leverage your other Google products to help promote.
- Evernote – Another free app that enables you take notes, make lists, sync files across devices and stores everything in the Cloud.
- Facebook Pages – Want to engage with your customers, stakeholders and community in general? Set up a Facebook page to share information and communicate real-time.
- Find My iPhone – Not just for your iPhone, but really any Mac Product, this free app is one that you want to have. If you have ever lost your phone, you know the feeling of fear. Help mitigate loss with this app.
- FlipBoard – Curate the news the way you like it in one place with this free app.
- Gate Guru – The winner of numerous Best Travel or Airport Apps, this freebee let’s you view your Tripit and Kayak itineraries, view/post airport security waiting times, see a structured list of airport food, shops, etc.
- Gmail – Looking for free email, with real-time notifications, multiple account support and more? Check out Gmail.
- Google Docs – Want an easy way to share documents with colleagues and be able to edit together simultaneously? With free Google docs you can be in one part of the world while a colleague or client is in another sharing and updating the same document.
- Google Hangout – Can’t make the meeting? Use Google Hangout to meet with up to 10 different people while seeing them online at no cost. Share information, photos and more all from the convenience of your office, or even the airport.
- Google+ – Looking for a social channel that is different and offers you the flexibility of distribution lists (circles) magazine style viewing on your tablet? Check out Google+.
- Google Translate – What a free and easy way to translate messages, signs or social posts? Google translate offers both text and audio translations.
- Instagram – This free app enables you to take photos and video and then apply filters to improve the product, which is perfect for blogs, websites, and more.
- Lemon Wallet – Store digital copies of your credit cards, ID, etc. all for free in this app.
- Mozy – Looking for an industry leader in online backup? Mozy is a free app that helps you securely access all your backed-up files
- ooVoo – Need to conduct video calls? Check out this free app and join ore than 70 million other video chatters.
- PCalc Lite – Looking for a calculator that has more capability than the standard one on your device. This free app gives you a scientific calculator.
- Perfect365 – Looking to make people picture perfect for your website, blog, etc. Perfect365 is a free app that offers one-tap makeovers, photo editing and more.
- Photo Editor by Aviary – Another great free option to edit your online photos. Supported by multiple languages and numerous devices, the reviews are good for this app.
- Pic Collage – Looking to dress up your photos for your website, blog, newsletter or other collateral? Check out this free app!
- Pic Stitch – Want a different photo editor? Pic Stitch is a free app that creates interesting visuals.
- Podcasts App – Want an easy way to access your favorite Podcasts to stay up-to-date on trends and news? Want to customize your own station with your favorite podcasts? Check the free Podcasts app!
- Skype – Need to connect with a client or colleague and want to talk face-to-face? Or perhaps SMS? Check out Skype’s free tools. Upgrade to the paid version and get more options.
- Skyscanner – Looking for an easy way to compare flights and costs? Check out this free app! More than 20 million people are using this app to get better and cheaper flights.
- Square – Need a quick and easy way to process credit cards? Why not use your smart phone with this free app. They will even give you the free card reader!
- Survey Monkey – Want to get the pulse of your market or a sample at least? Try Survey Monkey. Create you own surveys on your schedule. Their free version lets you create a survey with up to 10 questions.
- Tripit – Need to keep all your travel plans in one place, plus share with key people? Check out Tripit’s free app.
- Tumblr – Looking for a place to host your blog? Tumblr may be your spot. This free resource hosts more than 108.2 million blogs.
- Twitter – Want quick news bites and to share quick news bites about your company in 140 Characters or less? Set up your free Twitter account.
- Viber Media – Want to connect with people around the world by phone for free? Then check out this free app.
- Vine – If you are looking for an interesting way to showcase your company with six-second videos, Vine could be your free resource. Be sure to sign up for Twitter first, if you haven’t thought.
- Wave Accounting – Like many small businesses, you need accounting! Why not try this free accounting software with unlimited invoicing, collaboration options and more.
Wave Accounting
- Waze Maps – Looking for free GPS navigation with turn by turn? Waze may be your app.
- Weave – This free Project Management tool will keep your organized and in the know of what is happening with your business.
- Wikipedia – This free online encyclopedia is a great resource that is used by researchers and general information seekers. Create your own Wiki page to showcase your business’ history and expertise.
- WordPress – A great free resource to help you create great blogs. With a variety of plug-ins, this is a great tool for your blog.
- XE Currency – Have the need to convert currency quickly? Check out this free app.
Don’t overlook how technology can support small business growth. With the right tech, you can grow faster, scale more efficiently, and delight customers faster. For more tips on communication, marketing and collaboration for the small business, be sure to check us out at TaylorMade Solutions.
Interview with Jeffrey Hayzlett – The Influencer Series
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a Primetime TV Show Host, Bestselling Author and as he likes to say, a ‘sometime cowboy.’ What he doesn’t say is that he is an industry influencer and people listen to him. He also doesn’t say that he is someone you can actually speak to and get real and practical advice from. It is for all of these reasons and more that I am pleased to have had an opportunity to interview Jeff for my Influencer series for my blog. Be sure to follow Jeff at @JeffreyHayzlett. I know you will enjoy his posts. Now on to the interview!
One thing you will learn from reading Hayzlett’s books is that he understands the complexity of issues around organizational change and also human nature. He is quite up front with the fact that you sometimes have to make difficult decisions that result in people changes.
MacLean: What advice would you give a CEO who has marketing efforts that are not meeting expectations?
Hayzlett: First of all CEOs have to ask themselves a question: Am I being realistic? Is the dog eating the dog food? If you are being realistic, then you’ve got to go looking for the problem. Is it the team? Idea? The Budget? Then you’ve got to fix it. Sometimes it could be all three things, but typically the problem is in the execution because we hire smart people but something is stopping us from executing correctly.
MacLean: Would you recommend hiring a CMO, particularly if they have no experienced marketing staff?
Hayzlett: Certainly if the CMO possess key characteristics, particularly reliability and competency.
MacLean: If realizing the company is missing a strategic plan – would you hire a CMO before or after going through the process
Hayzlett: Definitely before! You have to think about who is going to implement the plan. You aren’t going to do it yourself. What CMO wants to inherit a plan someone else has built before they can tie in what they can do.
MacLean: What advice would you offer a company that’s on the cusp of a major breakthrough in it’s life cycle but has employees that struggle with the change?
Hayzlett: Change those employees. It’s the rule of thirds; 1/3 get it right away, 1/3 eventually will get it and 1/3 never do. You don’t want to drag people on a journey that they don’t want to take. It never works to take your kids somewhere they don’t want to go – that never turns into a good experience. Why would it be any different in business?
Hayzlett’s experience and advice are sound and provide good food for thought. From experience I can say that having the right marketing resources are key to success. If you are looking to expand your brand, be sure that you have someone who understands branding and the importance of the brand voice as well as the brand value. If you are looking to expand your digital presence and build your assets, be sure to have someone that can lead those efforts. When you are building out your marketing team, be sure to have a senior person with experience. If you can’t hire a CMO yet, hire a senior enough person with the right skills, experience and education. When doing your hiring though, do keep in mind to build your job requirements with great thought. Combining some skills for your leadership might not be right. for example, asking your leader to be skilled in PR and marketing is one thing, but adding art director to the mix is an unusual skill combination. If you don’t have the background or skills in the marketing area, there are firms that can help you design the job and identify the right skills.
Looking for more resources on marketing and/or to build out your marketing team? We can help. Be sure to visit us at taylormadecanada.com
To Pay or Not Pay Industry Influencers – Part 2 with Jeff Bullas
In the first part of our interview with Jeff Bullas, we discussed seven key marketing trends you shouldn’t ignore. This time, Bullas provides us with his insights on influencer marketing, influencer relations programs, and the big questions…
HA MacLean Image
To Pay or Not to Pay Industry Influencers?
MacLean: As an industry influencer, you are an independent and objective voice. People and brands want to associate with you. How do you feel about influencer programs that brands develop?
Bullas: “This is an interesting area. The world of online influence has moved the goal posts. Brands are learning how to deal with influencers and influencers are learning to work with brands.
Quite often, a global influencer can have a very large platform and network that is larger than the reach of a national magazine, and even a mass media outlet such as a newspaper. This means that an Influencer doesn’t need a brand to provide a platform or an audience. In the past, an expert or thought-leader needed access to an audience and that was provided through a speaking opportunity at a conference. The reality now is quite different. They often already have a large, global network that has been accelerated by the crowd-sourced marketing of social media.
So it comes down to a grey area of how to provide mutual benefit for both parties.
For the brand this could be the Influencer providing access to their focused networks. For the Influencer it could be access to decision-makers at a conference that result in consulting or [other] business opportunities.
Some bloggers are happy with a free trip and some baubles to attend an event for free. This all takes time and a blogger has to work out if spending the time outweighs the opportunity cost of not earning income while doing so. This is not an objective but a subjective decision.
Payment could also be an increase in credibility by attending and speaking at a blue ribbon event. It could also be financial compensation. There has to be a fair exchange of value and brands need to ensure they don’t take Influencers for granted based on old paradigms.”
MacLean: As an industry Influencer, how do you feel about brands that seek out Influencers with the intent of having them write blogs, create videos, and post positive comments for a fee? What role do they play in the Influencer Marketing ecosystem? What obligation does the influencer have to disclose that there are fees tied to the endorsement?
Bullas: “I don’t see it as being much different to having someone being sponsored, like Tiger Woods is by Nike. At the end of the day, it has to be a match that is congruent for both parties. Woods wouldn’t be sponsored if he thought that the Nike brand wasn’t a good product that he could stand behind. Some bloggers will declare for each article that they have been compensated, [while] others will provide a catch all phrase on their blog.”
MacLean: What elements do you consider important in measuring the success of an influencer program — both from the brand side as well as being an Influencer? What is important to you?
Bullas: “The brand will have its own goals for an influencer program whether that is creating more brand awareness, or an increase in leads or sales.
What is important for me in measuring success is that it is consistent with the values of both parties and helps both parties achieve their goals.”
MacLean: Based on your experience and strategic nature, what would be your #1 piece of advice for a brand wishing to establish its own influencer marketing program?
Bullas: “I think it would come down to a longer term strategic partnership that isn’t based upon ‘hit and run’ marketing. Continuous marketing is a much better approach on a ‘search and social’ web that doesn’t like silence. It takes time to build a sizeable social media network of influence.”
I want to thank Jeff for taking the time to answer my questions around trends and influencer marketing. As brands we need to take the voice and opinions of our influencers into account when building our programs.
The advice and recommendations that Jeff provided in this interview provide a solid look at the value that Influencers can play in your continuous marketing strategy. And Jeff answered the question on everyone’s minds? What role does paid Influencer Marketing play in our plans – there is definitely a role, as long as it is mutually beneficial and the influencers self-disclose!
For more information on Influencer Relations, feel free to connect with me @macleanheather.
A version of this blog previously appeared on the Marketing Cloud blog.
The Influencer Series – An Interview with Jeff Bullas, Part 1
7 Key Trends You Shouldn’t Ignore
Image courtesy of blogs.mcafee.com
Influencer Marketing and Influencer Relations have played an important role in marketing and sales for organizations both small and large. As brands develop and consumers become more demanding, we tap into the insights and thought-leadership of Influencers like Jeff Bullas to help us navigate this ever-evolving space. In the first of a series of Influencer interviews, we talk to Jeff Bullas.
MacLean: No stranger to the fast-past world of marketing, your blog is read in over 190 countries and you have been recognized by Forbes, Huffington Post and many others for your thought-leadership and influence. You are a strategist at heart and it shows. So, as an industry influencer, what are the top trends that you see emerge for marketers?
Bullas: There are many trends that have been emerging in the last two years. Here are 7 key trends that you shouldn’t ignore.
1. Content marketing
The importance and role of content marketing and how it works across social media, search, multimedia and mobile is becoming a key focus for many brands.
Brands have been blinded by the shiny new toy of social media. They think that this is all they should be doing beyond their day-to-day habitual marketing. The same thing they have been doing for decades.
Key Take-Away: Content is the foundation of all digital marketing and is the reason people read, view or share. Creating “Liquid” content is vital to create brand awareness and tap into crowd-sourced marketing.
2. Mobile Marketing
The rapid rise of smart phones and tablets has flatfooted many marketing managers and delivering marketing messages and content that is optimized for mobile platforms is becoming a “must”. Increasingly consumers are viewing content, receiving email and buying products from “small screens”.
Companies need to urgently redesign websites and blogs that are “responsive” – to respond to all device screen sizes for optimal viewing and usability – to ensure they are optimizing for mobile devices.
Key Take-Away: Some websites are recording 30-40% of all viewing from mobile devices. That should not be ignored.
3. Integrated Digital Marketing
Companies with savvy marketers are realizing that digital marketing should not be one-offs that are islands of isolated tactics. Increasingly social media and content is impacting search results. Google created Google+ for a few reasons, including capturing social signals. Ensuring that your approach is allowing you to tie them all together to achieve maximum effectiveness is becoming key.
Key Take-Away: This is optimized digital marketing.
4. Social at Scale Marketing
Brands are also realizing that “doing” social is complex and is like juggling many balls at once. We are seeing the rush to develop, buy up start-ups and implement Enterprise platforms that are assisting marketing professionals to market, manage and monitor multiple social networks and even other digital marketing (e.g. email).
Key Take-Away: This is “social at scale” marketing.
5. Continuous Marketing
Marketers need to realize that a strong trend is emerging called continuous marketing. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t run “campaigns”. The reality is that being found online requires constant SEO activity and content creation, publishing and marketing.
Key Take-Away: Google hates silence. To do this well requires implementing some marketing automation.
6. Personalized Marketing
The “one size fits all” approach to marketing of mass messages on television and traditional media are becoming less effective due to media saturation. We are seeing the rise of personalized marketing on ecommerce sites, websites and email that tailor the advertising and user interface to the relevant interests of consumers.
Key Take-Away: This trend is being driven by technology using “big data” to increase marketing effectiveness.
7. Visual Marketing
We first saw visual marketing creep into the landscape when YouTube entered mainstream consciousness a few years ago. Since then this creep has turned into a torrent of visual marketing with the emergence of Pinterest, Instagram and even Slideshare. In the last six months this has gone to a whole new level as Vine’s six second snack-size video and now Instagram’s new 15 second video app has marketers scrambling for creative inspiration to apply and leverage this new trend.
Key Take-Away: Use and maximize visual marketing tools.
Be sure to check out Part 2 of my interview with Jeff Bullas, To Pay or Not Pay Industry Influencers.
A version of this post previously appeared on the Marketing Cloud blog.
Don’t Feed the Trolls – Research Reveals Psychopathy
For any person managing a company blog, Facebook Page or other online asset, we all know and think about the trolls. We advise, and are advised by, others to not feed the trolls. Now new research out of Canada confirms what we all knew – online trolls have psychopathic tendencies.
Image courtesy of www.geeky-gadgets.com
Years ago I worked at a company that was pretty innovative in a number of areas. In fact like many innovative environments, not everyone is pleased with the direction that the innovation is headed. Some people who feel that they are losing control become embittered and look for ways to cause chaos. While all this was bubbling under the surface and it was for the most part hidden, it would soon boil to the top when we launched our Facebook page for customer interactions.
Of course we trained and prepared our staff how to handle external discord. We were prepared for that. What we were less prepared for however, was that of the trolls who clearly surfaced from within the organization. As someone who was very proud to work for the organization it was very disheartening and alarming to see very personal and abusive attacks being made against certain people. I can’t articulate just how bad it was. Eventually we had to take steps to ban the offender or offenders. We finally found a solution, but it took awhile.
Over the years since this “experience” I have shared the details with many social media thought-leaders and they were quite perplexed. They found the circumstances extreme and were actually shocked when I shared some of the actual posts. It was one of the worst attacks that they had heard about.
Needless to say the posts were vicious and unrelenting. At the time I couldn’t help but wonder what was driving the person or persons to behave in this manner. I worried about the mental state of someone who could act in this way. Research released earlier this month by Canadian researchers Erin Buckels, a University of Manitoba psychology graduate student, and psych professors Paul Trapnell of the University of Winnipeg and Delroy Paulhus of the University of British Columbia, found the trolls were “Machiavellian in their manipulation of others and their disregard for morality.” Most disturbing however, is the finding that this is not an online phenomenon, but rather something that they like o do every day, whether on line or not. If you think about this, the ramifications are quite serious.
How to handle trolls depends on the situation. In my case, we probably should have just ignored them, but it was difficult when it was such a disturbing attack on members of the executive. It was hard for employees to look at the posts when monitoring. More recently however, Dominos did an excellent job at addressing a troll. Here are some of the tweets:
So, how did Domino’s do? They did a great job. They stuck to message and no doubt have a great Playbook that helped guide them through this. They also kept the responses to a smaller audience. The trolls made sure that everyone could see their posts by using a “.” at the beginning of their tweets. When Domino’s responded however, they did not respond the same way. Instead, they just responded to the offender. As a result, only the people following both the troll and the Domino’s could see the response. By doing this they aren’t making a big deal of this. In the end, they shut it down.
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