Social Media needn't be overwhelming!

Back in the good ol’ days of the web (circa 2004), it was so easy for businesses to market via the internet; all that was necessary was a functional website. But the advent of social media has made a dramatic impact with online marketing— and in a good way. Social media is, for the most part, free, saving many marketing dollars. But just because it is free, doesn’t make it easy or cost-free, if your time is valuable. So before you jump into the social media frenzy, do your research and discover where your time and resources are best spent. A little research on the front end will save you a lot on the back end.

Use the Freebies

1. Use the free sites. Free, online networking services like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are great marketing vehicles to post significant news, offers, promotions, and events for your business. For example, a seafood restaurant can promote $1 oysters and ½ price margaritas to loyal Twitter followers and Facebook fans.

Measure results, focus your efforts

2. Track your social media program. See which of the free social media sites are delivering results worthy of your continued efforts and focus; abandon those not measuring up to your goals.

Search Engine Optimization — It really does matter

3. Social media can also improve rankings on Google and other major search engines by building inbound links to content on your website. Learn how to optimize your website to improve how your website ranking, or hire a SEO (Search Engine Optimization) professional to do the job for you. Be sure they know how to integrate social media into your SEO program. Many times you can learn some great tips by seeing what your competition is doing and what’s working for them. Google your competition — if they appear on the search engine before you do, check out their site and compare what they are doing and you’re not.

Customers are greedy – Give them what they want

4. Customers are self-centered; they want to know: ‘what’s in it for me?’  Use social media to give customers expert advice, great links, and share valuable information. Don’t hype your business; instead create a dialogue by connecting with the customer. If you have something interesting to say, say it. Create a blog, webinar, or YouTube video to share what you know with your clients and potential clients.

Blogging is bragging!

5. Blogging helps customers find you. Comments on blogs don’t necessarily happen overnight, but your information will come up in an online search which potential clients will read, then click on to check out your website. Twittering and micro-blogging are popular now, but whichever you decide, do it regularly. Consistency wins out over content every time. Post on a regular basis; you may not necessarily get read, but your customers will see you’re out there and are current. And when they need you, you’ll be top of mind as someone to call.

BP Provides A Classic Case Study Of How To Screw-Up Your Brand

As many of you know, I’m a bit obsessive about branding. In my book, Branding Insights for Small Business, I cover the essential components of an effective branding strategy every successful company achieves: creating a powerful brand image, being authentic to the core values of your business and building goodwill with your customers.

It’s never easy to transcend the signal-to-noise ratio that pervades the marketplace and launch your business or product into public consciousness, and there’s that old adage, “any news is good news.”

But what if your company is responsible for the biggest natural disaster in history? That’s a life-or-death question right now at BP. As a horrified public watches images of oil-covered wildlife, ruined coastal areas and destroyed businesses, the petroleum company that once touted itself as a progressive force in environmentalism is now trying to save the tattered remnants of its corporate reputation.

When the President accuses you of “nickel and diming,” you’ve got a image nightmare on your hands

Even BP’s damage-control efforts have backfired — the company poured $50 million into an apologetic public relations campaign, then saw its efforts backfire when reports surfaced that the company was being stingy with cash compensation for people whose homes and businesses were ruined by the oil spill. Even President Obama even got involved, accusing BP of “nickel and diming the folks down here.”

Of course, few of us are multinational executives, who run  corporations operations with such far-reaching consequences. But BP’s missteps provide lessons we can all learn from:

BP spent millions advertising itself as an eco-friendly company, but had three of the largest and deadliest oil-related accidents in the past five years.

- Don’t just say you stand for something — actually STAND something. In the words of a brand strategist who wrote an op-ed for Fast Company: “Pretty logos mean nothing if your actions don’t back up what you say.” Before the oil spill, BP did a great job of positioning itself as an eco-friendly company, but as Fast Company notes, “BP has had three of the largest and deadliest oil-related accidents of the past five years.” That fact has been hammered home as repeated efforts to stop the spill have failed.

- Don’t say anything stupid. This sounds like common sense, but with an army of handlers and highly-paid public relations experts, BP’s chief executive still managed to put his foot in his mouth several times since the disaster. While BP’s share prices dropped by 30 percent and investors lost millions, CEO Tony Hayward complained, “I’d like my life back.” Earlier, he asked a New York Times reporter, “What the hell did we do to deserve this?” Sorry Tony, but when wildlife is dying and people are losing their livelihood by the thousands, people are not going to take pity on a guy who banks $8 million a year — they’re just going to get angry.

- Don’t understate things — be honest. Again, courtesy of Hayward: “The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean. The amount and volume of oil and dispersant we are putting into it is tiny in relation to the total water volume.” That’s a bit like saying Katrina “only” flattened one city. And it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in oil containment efforts when the guy in charge apparently slept through his geography class.

Those are three “don’ts,” but what about the things BP should do?

That’s pretty simple — walk the talk. As I mention in my book, it’s important that your brand is built on authentic core values of the business. And these values need to permeate down to every department and employee so they know exactly what the business stands for and the promise it makes to its customers.

When BP spent millions rebranding itself as a “green” corporation a decade ago, environmental groups pointed out the company had spent more money on its image than it did on renewable energy resources. And as the story unfolds before us, it’s become obvious BP never took its responsibilities seriously beyond appearance. This is a mistake many companies make with their brand efforts: they superficially believe a marketing slogan and ad campaign will define what their company stands for. And they believe employees, shareholders and customers will simply buy into that myth. But if rumors that BP circumvented safety protocols in its deep water drilling are true, then the public backlash could be passionate and intense.

A great PR team is an essential component to any brand emergency, but it’s just as important to remember public relations is only half the battle — if a company’s actions don’t support its brand image, sooner or later that fact will be exposed, and the results could be catastrophic. Just ask Arthur Andersen.

Many have heard the marketing term U.S.P. or Unique Selling Proposition, but I would wager most don’t have a clue to its inherent value when marketing your business.

The term Unique Selling Proposition was originally developed in the 1940s by marketing guru Rosser Reeves, which he defined as the ability to communicate a distinct and unique benefit a product offers a consumer which only that specific product or service or brand can provide.

Business owners, often just assume their customers will understand what makes their business different or better than the competitors, and overlook the USP. When carefully nurtured, however, an U.S.P. will provide your company a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Rosser Reeves maintained an effective U.S.P. needed to accomplish the following four objectives:

1. It must make a specific proposition to the customer: “buy this product, and you will get this specific benefit.”
2. The proposition must be unique or “perceived unique” by your customers – something your competitors don’t have or offer and would not be able to imitate easily.
3. It should be so compelling and relevant to your ideal customers that it entices them to try your product or service because it addresses their needs, fears, frustrations, or desires.
4. It must be simple and easy to articulate and communicate so your customers quickly understand that your product or service offers them unique benefits.

An excellent example of an effective USP is the famous “Got Milk.” The campaign repositioned milk, a universal staple in practically all households which had been maligned as an unhealthy, antibiotics-filled food to avoid, to the opposite: comforting scenarios of milk and cookies, as well as a nutritional drink appropriate at anytime.

The campaign stuck in the customer’s minds and was carried into the grocery store aisles while milk consumption rose dramatically. Genius!

The fact that the campaign fostered numerous copycats with Got Fish? Got Fleas? and Got Freud? only added to effectiveness of the original USP. Even President Obama’s campaign slogan of “Got Hope” mimics the original.

A strong USP (or lack thereof) for your business can be the driving force behind the success and failure. Is that really something you want to leave up to assumption? To occur haphazardly? Or instead, will you take a proactive, deliberate approach ensuring correct positioning of your product or service exactly where it needs to be for future success.

“Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better.”

Avinash Kaushik

Social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) is in vogue among connected consumers and many companies are hoping to capitalize on this marketing avenue to promote their business. I was curious to know how effective (or not) social media has been for other marketing aviation professionals — are they truly walking the walk, rather than talking (tweeting) the talk — I recently posted the above quote on LinkedIn to learn what experiences my colleagues have had using Social Media.

Troy B. reported, “Frankly, we’re loving it. . . When I reach someone who buys an airline ticket, parks in on-airport parking, purchases food, beverages and a magazine, brags about our WiFi and speedy screening lines, and plans to do it again soon — all based on info I’ve tweeted — I start to like the results.”

However, some are not 100% confident in this colleague’s social media experience.

“… there are a great many people who have learned the hard way that the medium is far less benign that was first assumed,” said Ronald K. “A lesson of both teenage sex and social media is that both are best done with adequate protection in place.”

I agree social media can often be impulsive, not to be taken lightly with its implications, and often times regrettable, not unlike teen sex.

And also concede that as a customer service tool, social media may well be worth the time and effort, especially for brand/image sensitive businesses. However, many of my own clients are in B2B space, and I hesitate to recommend Facebook or Twitter as a marketing tool because it is hard to quantify its effectiveness. I know from experience placing an ad for these clients will make the phones ring, and public relations will build awareness.

Steve E. said, “If you compare dollar-to-dollar spending, I’ll take social media over standard media any day as the immediate discussion that ensues is direct and instant and something that far exceeds anything standard advertising has to offer.”

But how well will social media generate new businesses as compared to traditional media is the question I need answered before recommending social media to my clients.

Allow me this hypothetical:

Using traditional marketing tools, say I run a 6-month, $10,000 advertising campaign for a client in a trade publication reaching their target audience. Assume this campaign generates 100 leads and the client closes 10. The cost per new customer acquisition is $1,000.

Alternatively, the client contracts to develop and monitor a social media program. We spend on average one hour a day building their network, making posts, responding to queries and, at the end of six months, the program has also yielded 10 sales. Assuming $100 per hour is charged (social media needs to be monitored by qualified staff, thus a higher per hour fee), then the cost to the client is $13,000! (5 hrs/week over 26 weeks = 130 hours x $100/hour). This is significantly higher than traditional advertising.

Granted, one can argue with my numbers in my hypothetical example, but to do social media effectively, you have to commit to high level of time management, and you also need to highly capable people managing your social media programs (otherwise more harm than good may be generated). With these facts in mind, social media may not be the holy grail of marketing as many proponents suggest.

Social media has a definite role in marketing, such as customer service and company announcements. But as an effective sales generating tool, I remain skeptical. I continue to encourage my clients to wait before they act impulsively and regret it.

Much like I advise the teenagers in my life.

The days of paying a huge monthly cable bill for a pre-packaged bundle of shows you don’t watch may soon be over, and just about everybody realizes it except for the cable companies.

Consumers no longer need to be at the mercy of cable companies, paying for stations and programming they don’t watch. It’s time for cable companies to realize that their business model has been rendered obsolete by a company that is renown for putting the entertainment industry on its head; Apple.

With the iPad, Apple may soon revolutionize how TV is delivered, much like it did with the music industry. Apple is promoting content through its iPad bookstore where publishers can use it as storefront to deliver content. This approach is similar to Amazon’s Kindle, but goes far beyond Kindle’s limited scope as a single use tool for reading. Through the iPad, consumers will not only be able to download books, but also movies and TV programming.

Cable companies are no longer the only source of on-demand content, as in years past. With the advent high-speed wireless delivery, consumers can find the programming they want, when they want it, through a variety of VOD (video on demand) services. The Wall Street Journal reports Hulu, YouTube, iTunes, are just some options consumers are navigating. Netflix is staying abreast of the changing dynamic of content delivery. They changed the video rental business by not adopting a bricks and mortar business model to compete with Blockbuster, which is close to becoming bankrupt, but instead incorporating a low-cost, convenient mail/internet process.  Interestingly, Netflix is also moving away from physical delivery of DVDs by mail to streaming movies and video directly to game consoles and devices, bypassing cable boxes entirely. In addition, the video provided includes a depth of content (director interviews, plot analyses, criticism, reviews) not available through cable access.

The issue isn’t content, but delivery. The days of must-buy bundles delivered by cable companies is on the wane. Victim of the new kid on the block iPad, whose flexible, portable, interactive access to broadband web, provides a far richer experience. The Harvard Business Review notes the iPad and a good internet connection is all the consumer needs for their entertainment.

Can the cable companies reinvent their business model and remain relevant to in this dynamic industry? Or are they doomed to go the way of music industry, where fans took advantage to purchase — or steal — one hit single off an otherwise mediocre album. Why buy the whole package when you can get only what you want, when you want it?

Some marketing professionals are saying the traditional role of Public Relations has lost some of luster, overtaken by a more contemporary form of PR – social media. Marketing forums and group discussions from Inc.com to LinkedIn have all been debating this issue But as far as I am concerned, traditional public relations, i.e. press releases, articles, events, etc. will never play a secondary marketing role for most businesses, especially ones that have a brand image that needs to be nurtured and protected.

Social media plays an important role in marketing, but most times it is one that is supporting more traditional marketing and public relations activities.

For example, if a neighborhood restaurant donates a percentage of sales to the local high school marching band, who benefits? Pretty much everyone. The students, the band, the school and the parents, who have to shell out less for the activity. But the hero is the neighborhood restaurant. If they can leverage their generosity with an effective public relations program, it can generate loads of press exposure and tons of goodwill with consumers. Goodwill that can generate ten-fold payback of the actual donation cost.

Could social media pulled this event off as effectively alone? Probably not. Outreach to mass media outlets traditional PR is the marketing tool that does the heavy lifting in generating the kind of media buzz – one that I’ve only seen achievable through PR. Social media can certainly play a role in building awareness to those who are already fans of your business. But most editors and reporters are much too busy to activity monitoring more that a few Social Media channels. They are still looking to their normal PR channels for news worthy items to feature.

The elevator pitch is just as important today than ever before. Many people use networking events to drum up business. It’s important to give a clear, confident, qualified elevator pitch at these times, or when you happen to find you’re sharing an elevator with a prospect you’ve been wanting to talk to for weeks. In these impromptu situations, having your elevator pitch on the tip of your tongue is a godsend. Be ready to make your pitch, at any time, face-to-face or tweet-to-tweet, if you’re a social media maven.

Can you pass the one-minute test?
Can you say who you are, what you do, why you’re unique, and what you want in one minute or less? And be compelling enough actually solicit contact from the prospect?

Regardless of what you’re pitching — your own skills, a business venture or a client’s goals — you should be able deliver your message clearly and concisely. Practice your elevator pitch like a fine tuned instrument until you’re able to perform it like a virtuoso.

Like a good tweet, the elevator pitch should be concise, accurate and compelling. If you don’t have your elevator pitch polished, consider revisiting it soon.

Need help creating your elevator pitch?
Check out the Harvard Business School’s Elevator Pitch Builder. It’s an interactive tool that offers excellent good pointers on the why and how of the elevator pitch and will guide you in creating a great one.

Because once the proverbial elevator door begins to close, it’s only your pitch that can make it open once again.

Avoiding a case of “sticker shock.”
As a marketing consultant, many times I work with businesses that are new to marketing. Invariably, I need to prepare them for a strong case of “sticker shock.” A fair part of my initial consulting work is in educating clients as to the real cost of doing marketing if they truly want to achieve the results they seek. Often the client may need to rethink their business goals to one that best fits their marketing budget. One of my most important responsibilities is to ensure clients know exactly what they can get for how much.

Get your budget in place before you start marketing.
Developing a realistic budget before one begins marketing is a critical factor of marketing success. Too often a company will dive right into marketing efforts, and realize too late it did not adequately plan to have the financial resources available to sustain success.

Know the costs associated with your marketplace.
One of the things that drive costs is location. Here, outside of New York City, we are easily overwhelmed by one of the world’s largest media centers. For example, WCBS-AM radio effectively reaches a very large business audience. But if your market is located primarily in Fairfield County, CT, you’ll be paying a lot of money to reach only a sliver of WCBS’s audience. Many business owners are surprised at the cost of advertising to reach their demographic and geographic markets, but are still unwilling to budget appropriately. This is like trying to fly across the Atlantic on a half tank of fuel. Sure you’ll make progress, but you won’t reach your destination. This is a recurring theme with educating clients as to the return-on-investment to their marketing dollars, but one that must be overcome if their business is to prosper.

Don’t worry about spending too much, worry about spending too little.
Recently, I was retained by an established, $6 million business in the document management industry. We create a five-year marketing plan with the goal to grow the business to $20 million in sales. I established an initial marketing budget of $65,000, which represented just 1% of gross sales. Sensitive to the fact they had not done much marketing prior, I felt confident we could do an effective job promoting their business with this budget amount. The program included advertising, direct mail, website development, and a PR campaign, and specifically detailed where every dollar was allocated.

Surprisingly, the owner thought it was much too expensive and could not justify such an expenditure on marketing.

When a $6 million company resists allocating 1% of gross sales for marketing, a major disconnect exists between what marketing actually costs and what clients think it should cost. And that’s a problem. It is impossible to grow a $6 million company to $20 million with a minuscule marketing budget.

Have you ever been in such a situation? You expect something to cost a certain amount, but it costs much more. You’re frustrated, the client’s frustrated, but there are expenses to make marketing happen; it doesn’t happen in a vacuum and it doesn’t happen all by itself.

In the era of Google, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, there is still irrefutable value in the good old fashioned card. Business cards, arguably one of the oldest and most important marketing tools, have been in the marketing news as of late and deserve our attention, as well they should. The business card is an essential part of your marketing strategy and should never be overlooked.

MSNBC has recently been quoted to say business cards are becoming obsolete, being replaced with complete profiles on LinkedIn and digital cards with mobile applications. Some believe this is necessary new technology, but I’m not quite convinced. Don’t overlook your business card as part of your overall marketing strategy as it plays a key role in your business image.

I am confident technology will never replace the business card as the first brand representation of yourself, other than your physical being. In many situations, business cards are the first presentation of your brand image other than your physical being. Inc.com did a story on creative, innovative, business cards, but there is no need to be that extravagant. Your card needs to carry the necessary information so a prospective client can easily contact you.

Don’t chintz on developing a quality business card—use a quality, heavyweight cardstock. Consider hiring a graphic designer. Are the business card elements consistent with your company brand image? Is your  logo and slogan included along with all your phone numbers, address, email and other pertinent information? Don’t underestimate your business card, this marketing tool has power: the power to sell your brand — how you want others to perceive you.

As antiquated as it may seem, sharing a quality business card is also a remembrance of a more civil time, pre-DUB era. (DUB is the abbreviation of DubMeNow, an electronic business card application said to be replacing physical business cards.)

A personable time when face-to-face contact concluded with, “Do you have a card?” And how nice it is that this has endured.

Roger Bannister’s name may not be a household name, but still turns heads at road races and track and field events as the first man to break the 4-minute-mile barrier way back in 1954.

Why should we lowly marketing gurus care about a 4-minute-mile?  Because they told him it couldn’t be done. They – doctors and scientists and even his fans – said it was impossible. To which Roger Bannister said, ‘I don’t think so.’

Actually, I don’t know exactly what he said, because I was barely walking, let alone running, in 1954. But as a small business owner and a consultant, advisor, marketer, and cheerleader for countless others, I know what happens in the pit of my stomach and to the hair on the back of my neck when they tell me something I want to do is impossible. I turn defiantly away and figure out how — exactly how — I can get the job done, on time and on budget. And so should you.

Do the work. Then do some more. Research, reinvent, reduce, remake and realize your impossibilities. Visualize your success. This is not new-age hogwash: it’s science.

Roger Bannister was systematic and methodical in his approach to achieving the impossible. He devoted countless hours to research, theory and practice. He immersed himself in the study of human physiology. And where he took his physical being, his mind followed. He used mental imagery to visualize success, and in doing so, reached his goal of being the first to break a 4-minute-mile.

What’s your business goal? Do you have a strategic plan to reach it? Or did someone, somewhere, tell you it was impossible?