OnlineMarketerBlog.com by DJ Francis
July 7, 2008
07:31 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Social networks are all the rage and many of my posts at
OnlineMarketerBlog recommend social tools for businesses. However,
there are potential pitfalls to consider before you facilitate
interaction between customers and your business.
Here are 21 things your business should consider before starting a social network:
Internal (Your Business Capabilities)
1. Can you invest the necessary resources to run a social network
properly? Can you afford the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars
it takes to properly create and staff this resource?
2. What is the role of marketing, sales, IT, customer service,
advertising, HR, etc.? Social networks often delve into all of these
departments and more. Make sure all of your teams are engaged,
enthused, and prepared.
3. While the potential ROI of a social network is proven, is this
the best investment of your time? If you don’t have a unique product or
your customers aren’t enthused (or your product isn’t any good), don’t
look to a social network to solve your problems.
4. What are your expectations - number of members, amount of
content, etc - on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis? Create little
benchmarks to ensure you do not go far off course.
5. Will your employees have their own voice on the network? Will
they use their full names? This transparency can be daunting, but it
can also provide high emotional buy-in from employees.
6. Is the correct employee in charge of the social network? This is often not the highest paid or the most experienced.
7. Which came first: customer need, company strategy, or cool
technology? If it’s anything besides customer need, reconsider
everything.
Continue reading 21 Considerations Before Your Business Starts A Social Network
06:06 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
For many of us, AC/DC evokes memories of homecoming dance
soundtracks and warm summer nights in a teenager’s Camaro. However, the
bad schoolboys of rock have some valuable lessons to impart to
copywriters as well.
1: “I’m just making my play. Don’t try to push your luck, just get out of my way…I’m back, back in black”
“A degree in English means you’ll be a high school teacher the rest
of your life.” “I guess you don’t ever want to earn enough money to
support your family.”
These very statements were told to me as I was contemplating a writing career. And they are bold-faced lies.
If your guidance counselor or girl/boyfriend or parents are trying
to dissuade you from the career in writing you want, it is your
responsibility to prove them wrong. Make your play in the world and
then go back and tell them all about it.
2: “She wanted no applause, just another course…the earth was quaking, my mind was aching…and you shook me all night long”
There are generally two types of writers portrayed on television. You either have the Ginsberg-esque beatnik or the Mad Men type of highball swilling hack.
Like so many other things, the real world is not like that. Being a copywriter is fun, but plan to be on the roller coaster.
Copywriting is not a 9 to 5 job. It takes a lot of effort. You might
actually sweat. It is mental activity that takes a physical toll. And
it is truly spectacular. But be prepared to work all night long if you
have to.
3: “I shoot from the hip. I was born with a stiff, a stiff upper lip”
You don’t want to go off half-cocked (groan), but as with any
creative endeavor, you are going to face criticism of your work.
Sometimes you will agree with the subjective assessment, and sometimes
you won’t.
The best copywriters absorb the critique, compartmentalize it into
the professional (not personal) part of their brains, and use it next
time if it has any value. (Hint: it usually does.)
However, do not let any evaluation to permanently scar your
confidence. Besides a good brain, a stiff upper lip is the most useful
part of a writer’s anatomy.
Continue reading 5 Copywriter Lessons From AC/DC
07:10 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Please forgive the link-bait title. But I do have a guaranteed way
for you to make money from your blog. (Do I sound like a huckster yet?
Stay with me.)
Gather ’round, kiddies, because this could change your life. And this secret is free.
The secret to making money through your blog is: Be Amazing.
Surprised? The inconvenient truth of the internet is that it works
the same way as the real world. In order to make money, you have to
work hard and be good at what you do. The pyramid schemes are bunk and
no one gets rich quick.
Believe me? You should. And if you do, I have just freed you from the shackles of mediocrity. Can I hear an AMEN?!
Mitch Joel runs a blog and a weekly podcast, both entitled Six Pixels of Separation. Here’s what he says in SPOS #108:
“Everybody wants to know: How do you make money in this
stuff [roughly, the online channel]? …It was really cool to see David
[Usher] and Michael McCardy [from EMI] really take a different stance.
And they were like, ‘You know what, guys? If you create something
really amazing, whether its music…or products or services, people are
gonna notice. These channels are gonna enable you to spread these
messages far and wide. And because they will, you’re going to get more
sales than you could ever imagine possible.’”
In other words, don’t blame the microphone if you have nothing to say. Mitch goes on to explain his reaction:
Continue reading Make Money Writing A Blog - Guaranteed!
06:44 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
I would like to do something a little different on this lovely
Friday. Instead of presenting an argument or commenting on a piece of
news, I would like to throw out a question to you. (Yes, you!) I need
your help, so dip your figurative quills in the ink well and read on.
Here’s something you probably don’t know about me: I have a terrible
memory. That’s what people tell me anyway. I forget birthday and I was
never good at remembering phone numbers (ah, the days before cell
phones).
I’m the type of person who walks into a store and, when they come
out, can’t figure out which direction they came from. (Malls were
especially difficult as I recall.) It’s not because I’m stupid - it’s
because I’m analyzing the advertisement they posted in the window, the
customer service of the employees, and whether the discount rate of the
sale was more or less than was offered online.
And then I noticed a passage in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink
(page 186 for those of you following along at home). Gladwell describes
giving a group of his Manhattan friends the Pepsi challenge - figure
out which drink is Coke and which is Pepsi while blindfolded. And yet
none of his urban friends, pinkies presumably high in the air, could
tell the difference. “They may drink a lot of cola, but they don’t ever
really think about colas.”
But marketers must think deeply about these experiences. In whatever
field you work, do you have an extraordinary sensitivity? Do you have a
Spidey-sense about messaging?
And this leads back to my original problem with memory. I’m working
on the theory that marketers focus so much on both the big-picture
issues (think branding) and small details (think bounce rate) that they
may lose some of the information in the middle. Is this the case for
you? Or is this just a bunch of baloney?
Continue reading Is Marketing Work Making Us Stupid?
07:38 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
I was recently asked by co-author Michael Waddell to review Toy Box Leadership.
This new book is definitely worth picking up and I will explain why.
(This post contains no affiliate links and I received no compensation
of any kind except for a free review copy of the book.)
The premise of the book by Waddell and Ron Hunter, Jr., is that
childhood toys taught or exemplified many of the skills necessary to
lead well. Some examples are direct correlations (a rocking horse
describing lots of work without actually achieving anything) and others
are more figurative (LEGOs describing relationships that start with
connecting).
Seriously? Toys And Leadership?
The connection between childhood toys and leadership lesson
fluctuates from poignant to cheesy to fondly familiar. But the
important thing to remember is that this is not the point. The connection between the toy and the particular lesson is secondary to your ability to absorb and recall the idea.
The toys simply provide an easily recognized and easily remembered
framework of leadership strategy. The metaphors are certainly stronger
than, say, a purple cow or square apple.
Let’s Just Say It
We need to own up to a basic fact: every book on leadership will
contain some similar fundamental truths. Communicating goals to your
employees, for instance, will universally be a positive thing while
emotional rages around the office will be regarded as uncouth. Stating
this universality is not a knock on this or any other business book -
it simply is.
If we admit to some similarity, then one of the differentiators
becomes the book’s ability to be memorable and to find a place in the
reader’s life. This is ultimately what makes Toy Box Leadership successful.
Toys fit with the intended audience (Lite-Brites rather than Xbox 360s)
and flow smoothly into the each particular subject on leadership.
Continue reading Book Review: Toy Box Leadership
06:47 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Are you outsourcing the most valuable aspect of your business? Or worse yet, not paying attention to it at all?
Technology has been replacing humans at work for many years. And
recently the remaining humans in American and elsewhere have been
replaced by other humans in areas that pay lower wages. The result has been a significant deemphasis in the value of human capital in business in America.
Here’s The Equation
Web 2.0 amplifies the voices of dissatisfied consumers. And yet,
most companies have been subtracting the number of humans period
(technology) or humans housed at the corporate office (out-sourcing).
Finally, another increasing trend is the face-to-face contact consumers
expect from companies (ComcastCares, anyone?).
Increase in personal interaction - humans equipped to handle that
interaction + web 2.0 vehicles to spread word of dissatisfaction =
potential major headache for companies.
The Good News
Some companies, however, understand the increasing importance of the customer experience. H&R Block
set up a Second Life avatar to answer tax questions during scheduled
meeting times, in addition to their efforts on Twitter and Facebook.
They understood that they were required to go to where their customers were, instead of expecting customers to come to them.
This outreach isn’t easy though. The Social Media podcast spoke with Paula Drum, VP of Marketing for H&R Block about this outreach:
“The other big surprise is how much time you have to put
in from a human capital standpoint. And we knew that going in, that the
trade-off between buying media is going to be the human capital side,
but really understanding that human capital side of it and thinking
about it from [the perspective that] ‘if this is successful, how do you
scale it to make sure you can still deliver the same experience.’”
Click here to continue reading Are You Outsourcing Your Best Asset?
06:07 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Social media like Facebook, Flickr, and
Delicious has been around for a couple of years now and companies are
starting to dip a tentative toe into the water. While such courage
should be applauded, serious missteps have occurred that embarrass the
offending company.
And it is not the courageous steps that have been embarrassing, but
the sheer level of assholery with which companies have partaken their
social media experiments. Because social media is all about sharing,
collaboration, and communication, it is little surprise that folks
expressed outrage at the heavy-handed or downright immoral dealings of
the companies outlined below.
In this post, I will list five of the deadly sins as outlined by Joseph Jaffe’s speech at the ANA’s Integrated Media Conference and then offer two additional sins of my own.
From Joseph Jaffe:
- Faking (Sprint): The phone company released ads in
which the CEO offered an email address, giving the opportunity for
communication. Instead, a corporate shill auto-responder emails back.
- Manipulating (Sony): The maker of the PSP created
a fake blog and attempted to manipulate the conversation. They ended up
garnering a deserved “golden poop” award.
- Controlling (T-Mobile): The phone company sent
cease and desist letters to a popular blog for using a color they claim
to have trademarked. The blogosphere revolted and T-mobile missed a
chance to meaningfully engage with its customers.
- Dominating (Target): A blogger was ignored by the
retail giant because they felt she didn’t have the clout of traditional
media outlets. After the blogger gained more and more attention, Target
claimed that their continued silence was based on a lack of adequate
staff.
- Avoiding (Starbucks): The coffee giant already
felt a squeeze from its consumer base, but avoided a fan’s desire to
visit every store was passed on. The only response to the fan was one
of suspicion.
In these cases, the sin is not that the company was just stupid (though there’s no shortage of that). The sin is that they failed to engage at a pivotal moment with an active community that supported them with their checkbooks. They refused to join the conversation and felt the ramifications.
Here are my two nominations to round out the deadly sins of social media:
Continue reading The Seven Deadly Sins Of Social Media
June 6, 2008
06:53 am | 0 recommendations | 1 comment
Generation Y - roughly those aged 13-29 - are among the strongest
consumers and influencers. And while social media like Facebook,
delicious, and Flickr have garnered media attention, many businesses
are still wary of dipping a toe in the social media water.
I argue that we can gauge return on investment (or influence) for Gen Y by looking at their buying power and online behavior and therefore that it is imperative that (most) businesses participate in social media. Plus, I will give you the research to back up these assertions so you can prove it to your boss.
Flashback: Ohio
Growing up in pre-internet Ohio, I spent a good chunk of my
allowance and lawn-mowing money on comic books at the local pharmacy.
If they were sold out of my usual books, I was SOL until the following
month. Scarcity of goods required that I go where they were (and
quickly!) or I would miss out.
Fast-Forward: Today
Now, post-internet, these stories sound quaint. Given a bank
account, any kid can get any comic book from anywhere in the world. So
what does this have to do with social media and Generation Y?:
proximity to resources.
Today, consumers expect businesses to come to them. Long gone are
the lazy summer bike rides to the pharmacy - today, young people expect
to be able to spend their money just about anywhere. And where are
they? Online, in general, and on social media, specifically.
Maybe this shift isn’t a surprise to you, but let me prove it with research (easily printable for timid bosses or humbugs).
Continue reading ROI Of Social Media For Gen Y Audiences (And How To Convince Your Boss)
06:28 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
As you may have noticed, I do not feature the usual plethora of Google ads and other annoying advertising minutia. OnlineMarketerBlog is a labor of love; one which I embrace wholeheartedly and without monetary reward.
However, you may have noticed MarketingSherpa ads showing up on the right sidebar and at the bottom of blog posts. Considering that my audience is largely marketing professionals, small business owners, and marketing students, I felt an affiliate partnership with MarketingSherpa made sense. (Plus, I'm not opposed to making money - it's just not my main motivation for the site.)
You Mean I Can Save Money?
Oh, yes. Simply click on my links whenever you see an interesting report. The price will never be higher for you - in fact, they often offer discounts. For instance, right now you can save $200 on the new B2B lead generation handbook.
Is It Lame To Display These Ads?
I don't know - that's for you readers to decide. I figure we both win if you save some money through my non-intrusive ads. But, if I hear a strong negative reaction, I will probably pull the program. It's more important to me that you derive value from them.
Do You Recommend Any?
I thought I'd be able to read these reports and then recommend them, but it appears that's not the way they work. (It doesn't make sense to me either.) So while I cannot recommend any reports in particular, I have always found MarketingSherpa's stuff to be the best quality in the past.
Sounds good!
If you like this kind of thing, I would encourage you to check out the business technology marketing guide or any of the other reports on the MarketingSherpa site. If you have any questions about discounts or otherwise, feel free to contact me at OnlineMarketerBlog [at] gmail [dot] com.
If you do buy something, I certainly thank you. I don't ask for money on this site, but it's always nice to have opportunities like this where I can help you and make a little on the side as well. As always, thanks for reading!
07:14 am | 0 recommendations | Be the first to comment
Last week, I gave an example of the correct way to pitch to bloggers. In this post, I will show the wrong way to pitch to bloggers - learn from this person's mistakes and do not repeat them.
Bees and Honey
I believe in positive posting - attracting more bees with honey and all that. Anyone can be smarmy and abusive, but if you are going to do a hit piece, I think you need to have a good reason and do your research.
The thing that really grinds my gears is that I laid out a perfect plan for pitching on Thursday. So when I got this email - not 24 hours later - I was shocked at how poorly virtually every element was handled. Click the picture to the right to read the email.
I thought I was clear the first time at the way to successfully pitch bloggers. But I guess some folks can only learn from "Do Not" instructions.
- No introduction: If she was able to get my email address, she certainly could have gotten my name.
- Wrong information: My "Clearcast Digital Media blog"? Does she mean "Comcast" or was she referring to these guys? Who knows? But clearly she does not know me.
- Marketese: If she'd read my white paper, she would have known that marketese is death. But I'm given a full serving in this email, from start to finish.
Click here to continue reading Pitching To Bloggers Done Wrong
