So, you have a business and you’ve gotten your budding empire signed up for a Twitter account and a Facebook page (and perhaps a Google+ Business profile in the future too?). Go you! You’re part of the social media revolution. Cake and champagne for everyone!
Fast forward a few months and you may find yourself asking what’s this actually doing for me? What’s the value of social media? How can I get a ROI out of it? It’s a popular question on a lot of professional minds these days, especially in the case of B2B marketing. “Ok,” you say, “I got on board this train, where’s it taking me?”
Ensuring your business has a presence in the virtual world is an essential part of any successful marketing plan. With that said, it’s easy to get lost in social media. Between looking up relevant industry articles to load up the Tweetdeck and responding to comments on your Facebook page you can start to feel like you’re spending a lot of valuable time and resources keeping up a presence that isn’t necessarily turning into dollars.
Or is it?
I like to think of social media as a networking tool. I know, that sounds rather obvious but if you take a look you’ll see a lot of businesses aren’t utilizing it the way they should. Effective networking leads to sales, especially in the B2B market. Social media can be a great B2B sales tool, particularly Twitter, you just have to change the way you approach networking and sales.
Ever see a business you’d like to pitch your product or service to but had no inside connection? As any salesperson worth their salt will tell you, pitching to someone you’ve built a relationship with is easier, and usually much more successful, than cold calling. You just need a way to get a foot in the door, to get in their good graces, to endear yourself to them, and then the sale will follow. That’s how it happened in the brick and mortar days of sales, right? Well, Twitter can be the tool that gets those lines of communications flowing. The key is to pace yourself and to not be…..sales-y.
It’s important to remember that there are just as many spammers and cold tweeting annoyances out there as there are telemarketers. No one wants to talk with them. So sending a tweet to a new business you’d like to sell yourself to 5 minutes after you start following them isn’t going to hack it. You’ll be written off. Lines of communication will go cold.
Twitter isn’t about broadcasting, although a lot of people seem to think otherwise. It’s about listening. It’s about conversations. It’s about building a relationship. Take your time. See what sort of things they tweet. Retweet the ones that are pertinent to your business and add a short encouraging message in front of it. For example, “Talk about a dog day afternoon! RT @ChicDesigns It’s bring your dog to work day at the office!” Read more
Welcome to the August 10th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that get our marketing, social media and workaholic brainwaves going. What’s on this week’s docket of must reads? Well, small business owners can be confusing, cubicles suck, an office should be like a dinner party and the Twitter world rallies to help clean up jolly old London. So grab that morning coffee and read on!
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64% of Small Businesses Think Social Media is Unnecessary [Study]
Apparently an overwhelming majority of small business owners in the U.S. don’t think social media is vital to their marketing. According to a study by small business insurance provider Hiscox, many SMB owners say they don’t see the value in being active on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Oddly though, the same group of business owners polled said they relied heavily on word of mouth marketing. Um, what’s this? What’s the word we’re looking for here? Oh yeah, conundrum. Read the fully confusing stats here.
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The Rise of the Mobile Workforce [Infographic]
It’s infographic time! And who doesn’t love infographics? Today’s design covers the rise of the mobile workforce. Team Dukky is all too aware (and we’re sure you are too) that the days of the 9 to 5 job is over and working from a mobile device is taking a greater hold. Who needs a cubicle when you have an iPad and a smartphone, am I right? Check out the stats compiled by Cisco here.
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The Joy of Dirty Dishes (and Passion People)
I don’t know about you, but sometimes a blog post comes along and makes you take a moment to lean back in your chair and say “yes”. That’s what I did when I read this particularly refreshing post by Amy Taylor on the Brains on Fire blog. In it, she compares a dinner party to the workplace and asks us all to take a moment and remember that real life happens offline. Would you attend a dinner party thrown by your company? Something to ponder.
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London Riots: Social Media Mobilizes Riot Clean-up
We got to hand it to the good people of London. They’ve dealt with a fair amount of terror and craziness the last few days. But as we’ve continued to see in the wake of social revolutions in the Middle East, natural disasters the world over and now on the streets of London, people are using social media for good. Using Twitter to organize their movements, the Britons came out in droves with brooms, bags, gloves and smiles to show the shop keepers and home owners that were looted that the city has not forgotten them. So let’s hear it for the socially minded, digitally connected good people of old London town. Say it with me – hip, hip, hooray! Read some of the inspiring tweets here.
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Recently, I wrote an article for Social Media Today on the Top 5 Causes of Customer Drop-off in Microsite Marketing. As the article outlined, microsites are a vital tool in the marketer’s arsenal, providing a funnel that serves as a doorway to trackable data on customers entering your promotion. Though it was well received, I have since gotten in a few requests for examples that illustrate what makes a microsite have a low customer drop-off rate. So Team Dukky has compiled a list of our 5 favorite microsites we’ve had the pleasure of working on and why they work. Enjoy!
Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse
This microsite was launched for a handful of Ruth’s Chris franchise owners. Clean, tasteful and to the point, the site was in keeping with the nationally recognized restaurant chain’s branding and image. More importantly, it had a great offer – two offers in fact. For filling out the form all customers enjoyed a complimentary appetizer (with the purchase of an entree) through a printable coupon. Customers were then encouraged to share the offer with their friends via email, social networks and SMS for a chance to win free steak for a year. In total the campaign allowed the franchise owners to add 3,419 new customers to their databases. Their response rate was a mind blowing 33.88%. And of course we all know why. Who doesn’t want free steak for a year?
NewEgg.com
NewEgg is a very popular, highly recognizable website for purchasing all things technology related. This campaign was a huge slam dunk, bringing in a total response of over 870,000 hits. There are 2 reasons for this level of success. First, their offer rocks. Just in time for March Madness, the company offered the chance to win the Ultimate Man Cave which included everything from a massive flat screen TV and surround sound to a grill, XBOX and a computer. What guy doesn’t dream of owning that? The second factor was how they marketed their promotion. Combining email marketing, ads on their website, ESPN.com, CBSsports.com and Turner Sports with national and satellite radio mentions from Howard Stern and Dan Patrick as well as a social media campaign on Facebook and Twitter, the campaign was unstoppable. Nearly a quarter of the people who hit the site input their information and shared, bringing NewEgg over 208,000 customers into their database. The campaign was recognized as the winner of AdWeek’s Media Plan of the Year for integrated campaigns.
Welcome to the August 3rd edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that get our marketing and social media juices going. This week we’ve compiled a short but rather concise view of, as Brice so aptly put it, The Realm of Social Media. So, without further delay here’s the rundown: Tweets save lives, show some love, Mail Chimp rocks (literally), and beware the looming Sharepocalypse. Read on!
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Twitterverse Rallies to Prevent Suicide
We are amazed at the ever growing number of ways people are harnessing the power of social media for good. Take for example the recent case of a South African woman who was contemplating committing suicide. When the distressed woman sent out a rather grim post her followers, recognizing a dire call for help, started tweeting kind messages of encouragement and consolation to her. Then they mobilized. Coordinating their efforts with hastags #FindGina and #SaveGina they managed to locate the woman and ensure she was in the safe arms of her family. Now if that’s not a powerful testament to the collaborative and community engagement capabilities of social media we don’t know what is. See the full article on Mashable here.
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Are You Talking To Your Most Intimate Customers?
In today’s market everyone is looking for ways to reach more and more people. We want MORE. More followers. More likes. More RTs. More +1s. The list goes on and on. But what about your core team of supporters? What about the people who really love you? Is your company doing enough to thank them and keep these brand evangelists engaged? In her latest post for the Brains on Fire blog (which is brilliant, by the way) Robbin Phillips asks these very questions. If you are a brand and you have 1000 or millions of likes on Facebook, do you know any of them, she asks. Do you know about their lives? Can you call them out by name? Read on for more insights about customer retention and engagement here.
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MailChimp: We Commissioned a Rock Opera
We at Team Dukky are pretty fond of creative tech and marketing people. They inspire us. They help get our brainstorming mojo on. So, like any good fans, we stalk them. MailChimp is often the target of said stalking. What can we say? They do it right, all the time. From putting out fun and engaging info on their amazing services to the fun items they commission we love all that they do. Case in point, their latest company sponsored venture – a rock opera. You read that right. Get the back story and download a free track from the project here. Then, we suggest, you bookmark their blog and join us in our fandamania.
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Sharepocalypse Now: Why Social Media Overload Means New Opportunities for Startups
You feel it. We feel it. It’s creeping in. Sure Google+ is cool but a lot of social media users are bemoaning the ever increasing number of networks we’re expected to be active on. Is there no end in sight? Will they ever all be linked together? The budding movement of social media overload brings with it one good thing – sharing. Sharing – be it B2B, B2C or C2C – is at an all time high. This looming sharepocalypse means we’re entering a new era of social network chaos, and this, in turn, is going to create new needs and opportunities for startups. Read on here to see just how you can take advantage.
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The release of Google+ has brought all sorts of tumult to the world of social media, and it got me thinking about what our online experience has really become. These days new websites are forged and destroyed with every passing week, and our allegiances to our favorite online domains are constantly tested by the guile tactics of ambitious competitors. What is Google+ but a way for the search giant to combat its greatest foe, Facebook, on the only ground it has never conquered….the fabled world of social media. In this social media realm, people flock from every corner of the Earth to bask in the glory. It is a land where families with great lineages sit in quiet nobility, where friendships are formed, where romantic tales of love blossom, and of course where gold is pilled high enough to reach the sun. We might not realize it, but the peace of this realm is all but certain, as the lords and kings who rule over it constantly battle for its dominion.
My idea for this post is largely inspired by the hit new HBO series Game of Thrones, which is also an excellent book series. It tells of the epic tale of love, adventure, honor, and betrayal, and I feel I see much of the same drama unfolding every week in the social media world. Therefore, I will now present to you my take on the realm of social media, and the great houses that rule over it.
“Never stop searching”
The current King of the Internet and all of its lands. Yet for all its massive power and knowledge, Google has still been unable to marshal the social realm under its banner. One of the oldest houses of the Internet, it provides its loyal subjects with, seemingly, all they could desire. It brings them the finest items for trade both near and far, carries letters from one end of the realm to the other, and its impressive grasp of technology renders new feats of science at an astounding pace. Yet, despite the fact that Google is the largest of all the houses, it has still been unable to plant itself in the social realm. This is not to say it has lacked ambition, as many of its conquests have sallied forth from its gates only to be found broken and shattered on the field. The greatest enemy to the King is Facebook, and the young house has had little trouble thwarting Google’s past conquests. Though the King is not without hope, as a new champion has arisen to conquer the social realm. Whether or not Google+ can finally make progress in the social realm remains to be seen, but to be certain, this new champion is not lacking in fortitude, reputation, or in valor.
“Defend the Wall”
The most powerful lord in all the lands and sworn enemy to Google the current King, Facebook may be one of the youngest houses, but it more than makes up for its youth with ruthless ambition. Indeed, the aspirations of this young house are so great that it seems to be unwilling to accept anything other than being anointed King. Of course there are those who say that the Facebook house is more fit to be named King then Google, since it is Facebook who now firmly holds the social realm in its iron grip. The social media frontrunner has already accumulated enormous riches from the social realm, and certainly has the ability to reap even greater wealth from a kingdom whose true worth is not yet fully known. More and more, people swell the ranks of Facebook with every day, and it seems certain that the powers of Facebook and Google will soon clash again. Though Facebook is not without faults, as would be expected for a house with such ambition. The social realm is not as safe a place as many would like to believe, and tricksters, thieves, and brigands roam the roads of Facebook freely. It also seems that Facebook has little regard for the rights of its people, and it oft seems that the young house would sell the privacy of its followers to the highest bidder. The Facebook wall may be guarded by millions and protect immense wealth within its keep, but the wall is not without cracks, and those cracks are beginning to show.
Welcome to the July 27th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we report on stories that are totally Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and every other social network-worthy. This week we have prepared for you the most fastidious assortment of robust and intellectually invigorating periodicals that ever did grace the Web. If you are sitting there wondering how on earth those two sentences could possibly follow one another, don’t worry; we are just as flabbergasted as you. Onward!
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HuffPo Outdoes Esquire, Microsoft in Shameless Use of Winehouse Death
We all experience different reactions when faced with death and tragedy, and for the most part people’s attitudes convey grief and remembrance for the loss of the loved one. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that not all enterprises adhere to the notion of respecting the dead. Numerous reports have surfaced since the untimely death of British singer Amy Winehouse of companies utilizing the pop star’s death as a marketing ploy (surprise!). Microsoft wasted no time reminding their Twitter followers to honor the dead singer by buying her album, and unfortunately they are not the only company masquerading their shameless profit-driven messages as sincere acts of respect. Not to be out done, PR ‘pros’ are took to the Huffington Post and used Winehouse’s death as a lesson to small business owners. Thankfully social media is around to catch them in the act and reveal their disgusting acts to the world. AdAge covered the use of social media for good in the wake of social media for bad. Read the full story here.
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Scoring Your Dream Job Through Social Media
This Philippine’s based writer must have known that the U.S. would soon be removing Galileo, Thomas Hobbes, Calculus, and Rhetoric from the syllabus and replacing them with how to manage your privacy on Facebook, ways to make your Flicker account edgy and cool, and of course, the best way to redeem your public standing through your Twitter. In this article he talks about ways you can use social media to help you land your dream job. Offering some very creative tips for helping you with the interview process, such as advice on how to find a prominent contacts email, and learning more about your future employer through their twitter postings, it’s a must read. What this post really shows is that it always pays to be ahead of the curve when looking for a job, and (just as we suspected) that social media can help you get there. Read on here.
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The History of Advertising on YouTube
Another social network is figuring out how to turn your avid fandom into millions of dollars worth of revenue. Shocked? Neither were we. As much as we love using social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and in this case YouTube, we need to remember that in the end these free services are businesses, and it is interesting to see how a free service can generate so much cash. This infographic covers the evolution of advertising on YouTube since its creation, but also includes all the other cool services the video sharing site has garnered along the way, as well as other stats. This infographic gets huge points for including the first instance of a Rickroll, because let’s face it “I’m never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you” is just hilarious. See the full infographic here.
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Study: Checking Social Media Addiction on Par with Smoking, Drinking
As odd as it might seem to some and as obvious as it probably seem to others, a recent study has found that social media can be just as addicting to people as smoking cigarettes or hitting the bottle. Some of the quotes by participants in this study are actually quite disturbing, as one of the participants equated having social media taken away from him to his hand being cut off. The parameters of the study are not given in this article, so it is unclear if they followed the scientific method, though the test size and demographics are given. Most likely someone would learn to cope with life without Facebook or Foursquare after a couple of days or weeks without them, but then again maybe a future epidemic is on the rise. Perhaps it is only a matter of time before we start seeing people holding signs with “Will work for Facebook”, or have to listen to your friends tell you not to lend that guy money because he will just go and spend it on Twitter. Hey, it could happen. Read more here.
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WJW – FOX 8 in Cleveland used marketing technology company Dukky’s SaaS Platform to launch multiple cross-channel campaigns that doubled response and ROI for their advertisers.
New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) July 21, 2011
As social media integration continues to become important for great marketing, local television stations are looking to give their advertisers the ability to reach and engage a more targeted audience and leverage those customers to become brand evangelizers. Many stations have recognized that offering their advertisers new ways to generate qualified leads through social sharing, in addition to traditional digital and broadcast advertising, is helping elevate their game in providing true returns for local businesses.
One television station is at the forefront of this evolutionary movement. WJW – FOX 8 in Cleveland, Ohio has recently begun using Dukky marketing technology which provides the ability to target and share clients’ promotional advertisements virally through customized microsites. These microsites, developed on the Dukky SaaS Platform, send customers through an interactive sales “funnel” capturing quantifiable data on their customers through contest registrations. With the integration of social sharing and incentives, each campaign can reach new customers, potentially ones that have never been exposed to the station or the client’s brand before. The Dukky Analytics Dashboard visually manages those incoming leads in real-time, showing engagement at each level of the funnel.
Using Dukky campaigns, FOX 8’s advertisers have enjoyed an astounding increase in response rates and ROI, in some cases nearly doubling the returns from previous, more traditional digital ad campaigns. Equipping their campaigns with incentives for sharing through Dukky’s Viral Peer Sharing, local clients have seen 70% to 85% increases in their response rates to their campaigns.
A major national furniture client of FOX 8’s recently launched a multi-platform campaign using Dukky and had great success. Over 18,000 people visit their Dukky-powered microsite; forty-two percent of those visitors shared their information and were added to the local furniture store’s customer database. Of those who gave their information nearly 60% shared the company’s offer on their social networks and through email, bringing in over 6,300 new customers to their microsite. Other FOX 8 clients enjoyed similar results to their campaigns, gaining new customer lists with 1,000 to 7,000 new customers each. All enjoyed share rates of 15% or higher as well.
By integrating Dukky technology onto its existing marketing strategies FOX 8 has been able to take its marketing reach and revenues to new heights.
Jennifer Guerrieri, Vice President of Interactive for Local TV LLC, FOX 8’s parent company, says, “Dukky has been a great addition to our marketing platform for local clients. With the wide net that we cast — television promotion, focused interactive marketing on our websites, and a mechanism for data collection and social sharing– Dukky has rounded out an offering for us that has driven tens of thousands of dollars in direct marketing revenue.”
One of Team Dukky’s own was quoted in a recent article on Talent Zoo’s PR Professionals blog, Flack Me. Read on for some insightful (and retweetable) tips for better public relations in Brian Wagner’s final installment of the Idiot’s Guide to Public Relations series. Wagner is the PR Managing Director of Brown Lloyd James Public Relation’s DC office. You can follow him on Twitter @BrianBWagner
In a perfect world, tomorrow’s headlines would read, “Idiocy in public relations extinguished,” followed by an account of how the nation’s PR pros had woken up that morning equipped with all the knowledge, experience, and common sense necessary to excel in their jobs. But such flights of fancy are not meant to be, and PR pros will continue to have to learn their jobs in a piecemeal manner.
For the last six articles, this series has helpfully and whimsically provided common sense dos and don’ts for PR pros looking to learn the ropes or improve their performance. Today’s article has been turned over to a handful of well-respected public relations pros who will share their expert insights in order to wrap this series up with a bang.
A round of applause for the judges …
* Gini Dietrich, Founder and CEO, Arment Dietrich, Inc. (@Ginidietrich)
* Dominique Ellis, VP of Product Development, Dukky (@Dominiqueellis)
* Lauren Fernandez, Account Executive, Fleishman Hillard (@cubanalaf)
* Len Kendall, Account Group Supervisor – Digital, Golin Harris (@Lenkendall)
* Heather Whaling, Founder, Geben Communications (@PRtini)
Doing Your Job: Once you start working in public relations, you are always on the go. There often is not the luxury to stop, take a deep breath, and think. So refer to these insights in advance to help you understand how to do your job, each and every day, a little bit better.
- The best PR pros are simply great hosts. If you’re not consistently introducing new and innovative folks to the mix, you’re not doing your job. (Dominique)
- Remember that other types of agencies are organically becoming very good at what PR has done for a century. You must learn faster than them. (Len)
- Each lost minute can be damaging. Type thoughtfully and cautiously, but focus your energy on brevity and quick (when appropriate) reaction. (Len)
- Measurable objectives are key in every project — if you can’t tie it back, it isn’t the right strategy or tactic. (Lauren)
- Got a difficult client? Don’t underestimate what we know from birth in the South — a smile and a “sure, honey” or “yes, sir” can do wonders. (Dominique)
Growing as a PR Pro: Doing your job better is a good start, but its also important to think about how you can improve how you do your job in the aggregate, not just on a day-to-day basis. Read more
Welcome to the July 13th edition of “What We’re Reading”, a weekly series where we award prizes to our readers ranging from ground breaking industry news to useful tips that will blow your mind. If you haven’t played “What We’re Reading” before don’t worry the rules are straightforward, simply read the summaries presented below and click on a story that interests you. Upon finishing the article, you will be awarded with a plethora of knowledge that you can use to help your blog, your business, or even your weekend forays as a vigilante crime fighter (at least, that’s what we do on the weekends).
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Google+ About to Hit 10 Million Users
It’s starting to look like all of those articles that postulated that Facebook should be very concerned about the looming threat of Google+ may have some merit. According to some research presented by Mashable, which rightly described the report as unofficial, claims that Google+ may have already garnered more than 10 million members. Normally, we’d like to include a quirky jest or attempt a clever metaphor here, but shall refrain from humor for this news and instead differ to awe. If these estimates turn out to be true, and they are based off of a methodology that is questionable at best, than it is possible Google+ will have had a user growth rate faster than any social network in history (pause for the awe here).
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Tesco Opens A Subway Virtual Store
When the 2nd most popular super market in South Korea wanted to break into the number one spot, they concocted a plan that was part marketing, part social, and part genius. Placing wall-sized images of isles of their super market in a subway, commuters only had to go to the produce they wanted to buy, and scan the QR code provided for the specific item. When they were done they paid on the smart phone, and their groceries were delivered to their homes. Unfortunately, the grocery isle posters did not come with a flavored sample, so that we could discover once and for all if the snozberries did indeed taste like snozberries. Click here to see the video.
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5 Tips for QR Code Campaigns
Since the previous YouTube video was a clear illustration of the power of QR codes, and how the tiny little piece of smartphone-friendly genius can change the world, we’ve decided to provide you with some tips on how to use them. These five tips come from Forbes, and not only are they awesome because they provide some great information, but also because it includes a lovely tongue wagging image of Gene Simmons. Watch the YouTube video for inspiration, read this article for advice.
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Social Media Playing a Bigger Role in Crimes, Investigations
In what seems to be an immediate response to the Huffington Post’s article about cyber criminals, the Washington Examiner has put forth an article about cyber crime fighting. The tactics of online law enforcement are only just formulating, however. Their current strategies range from friending likely victims in order to deter predators, playing big brother and collecting data from known suspects’ Facebook pages, and of course the tried-and-true tactic of tweeting the bad boys’ mom. So all of you online criminals out there, let this be your first and last warning, for soon you will be issued your right to remain silent and yes, that includes updating your relationship status on Facebook from single to cell buddies with one-eyed Steve. To read more about the tactics see the article here.
