The Week That Was – February 19, 2011

February 19, 2011 By 1 Comment

Dogfish Head

Thanks, Dogfish Head

Let’s focus on the good stuff, eh?

Social Media Highlight of the Week? One errant tweet from Red Cross, and one classy follow-up – not just from the Red Cross itself, but the brand mentioned (Dogfish Head) and its community (craft beer folks). Go to the source for this one:

#gettingslizzered For a Good Cause.

NOTE: Red Cross true to its mission. Person in charge said, pretty much, “mistakes happen, and we deal with life-and-death issues all the time. This is not life-and-death.”

Toyota had a Mommy Blogger “incident” that they handled swiftly. You can read the background here, in Shelly Kramer’s excellent summary.

Toyota Buying Mom Bloggers?

NOTE: Brands get ripped on all the time on the web; in this situation, Toyota was well within their rights to go after the team that made it seem like they were authorized, when, in fact, they were not. And Toyota scores serious points for how quickly they moved on this one – setting the record straight in real time.

And a Twitter client called “UberTwitter” got suspended. Twitter took the step of telling us on their support page – but…honestly…the more interesting piece on the Twitter blog was this one:

Join Twitter, Win the World Series.

NOTE: We hope the Cubs start tweeting a ton.

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All The Single Realtors

February 18, 2011 By 7 Comments

Act Now

But Act on What?

…For the Love of Mike, if Your Realtor is doing any of this…

Make no mistake, every single industry is seeing a cultural shift. Gone are the days when Ye Olde Tyme ways of Marketing, Selling and Promoting your business will be effective.

AND, Realtors are the Absolute Worst.

You may argue that you ARE one of the Realtors who is doing it correctly. Good on ya, mate.

Realtors who use Social Media effectively are in the minority.

In fact, the biggest mistake Realtors are making with Social Media?

The lack of a Personal Niche-Driven Brand.

Here’s what we mean: the typical search for real estate on the part of the buyer goes one of two ways.

Way 1: Drive down street, see For Sale sign. Proceed to Google, iPhone, or some other method of choice to get more information about home. Then make decision on what Realtor to potentially use. Decision based on several factors. Findability and “shelf of the mind” are the top ones.

Way 2: From comfort of own home, using computer, laptop, iPhone, iPad or other device, Google some long-tail search term. “El Paso Texas homes $400,000.” See who pops up. Surf their web presence, decide to use them, or return to beginning and start over.

Do you see either of these equations involving any of the following:

  • Vanity URL – 123anytownlane.info?
  • Foursquare checkins?
  • National Real Estate Brand searches (e.g., ReMax.com)?
  • Facebook search?

And here’s where most Realtors — 99% or more — mess this up.

The Vanity URL is a waste of $10.

Foursquare checkins have no value in the real estate business. If your Realtor checks into their office, question what they are doing for you.

Most National Brands don’t have the search thing figured out.

Oh, and Realtors on Facebook trying to sell you on their services? NO. On their personality, or their ties to the community….yes, eventually.

What’s a “single” Realtor – the one who so desperately needs clients – to do?

Build a Personal, Niche-Focused Brand.

Personal: John Smith, Realtor.

Niche-Focused: John needs to look at his last 12 listings or sales and find out what his niche is. “West Side.” Then, it’s about building community in the West Side.

This is where your online extension of the off-line you comes in handy.

Takes time, but when it works, it can work wonders.

 

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UPDATED: Groupon, GoDaddy Lose Brand Bowl

February 7, 2011 By 3 Comments

Pets.com Sock Pupper

Pets.com Sock Puppet, cc, Flickr

NOTE Groupon has updated their blog and let more comments in – including ours. Original text from earlier this morning is here:

Groupon. Much will be said about their “poking fun” at the plight of Tibet, at the expense of half-price Himalayan food coupons. Our beef?

“Your comment is awaiting moderation.”

For a social (commerce) darling, we expected much better in terms of blog, and response, from Groupon.

First of all, see here – the Groupon blog – where they explain their reasoning and, it seems, how pumped they were to get actor Timothy Hutton.

Then, see here – which hasn’t been updated as of 3:05 AM Central Time, Monday, February 7:

Groupon Blog

You’re telling me that “Annie” is the ONLY person who commented?

No – because we commented – but were told “Your comment is awaiting moderation.”

Hint: if you wanna be truly “social,” have someone at the helm at least letting a few more comments into the mix. Also, this is a great place to score feedback, at better than 90% off, since the feedback is mostly free.

GoDaddy. We, for one, can’t wait to see the “.co” extension spread like wildfire.

We jest – but GoDaddy lost the Brand Bowl in this case to one competitor: Network Solutions. Who didn’t even run a Super Bowl ad. Instead, they hired Cloris Leachmann and made fun of GoDaddy.

For the love of Mike, they’ll even let you embed the ad on your own blog.

The buzz before the game was so great that, by the time GoDaddy showed who their spokesperson was – Joan Rivers! – they were out-hipped by “Go Granny.”

Note: We don’t use either company for anything here at Area 224 HQ. But, from a purely “social” standpoint – clever, meme-worthy, promoting sharing, truly social – Network Solutions kicked GoDaddy’s bottom.

Now, we return you to regular programming.

Filed Under: smm

An Emerging Industry

January 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Arrow

Thanks, Speedysigns.com

It has all the signs…

Imagine a process, or discipline, that can call itself an “industry.”

For instance, let’s say there are a couple of factions in this emerging industry that are almost constantly at odds with each other. One side has always done things one way – the other side has always done things another way.

And a third group emerges – they have their own ideas, and they are dead set against the normal ways of doing things. They are the cowboys – and cowgirls. They are going to win the overall battle – because they’re the loudest and most boisterous. Not necessarily because they know the most stuff.

While they can argue, disagree and have spirited debates, it is obvious that, for their industry to be successful, they absolutely have to work together.

What Industry Am I Talking About?

The “Turnaround” Industry, also known as “Corporate Renewal.” Circa 1999.

Gotcha.

I was there, in the middle of it all. I had a “cup of coffee” as the Director of Public Relations for the Turnaround Management Association, circa 1998 and 1999. And I watched this battle unfold – between three distinct groups that made up the membership.

Group One: Bankruptcy Attorneys. Staid and by the book, their mission is to follow the rule of the law and make sure that assets are redistributed accordingly. Don’t piss them off.

Group Two: Asset-based Lenders. They want to know two things: what do you have as collateral, and what are the odds you will pay back a loan. While you’re at it, don’t piss them off, either.

Group Three: Turnaround Managers. These folks were unknown a few years prior to my arrival. And there were a few “Turnaround Artists” who gave the moniker “Turnaround Manager” a bad name.

What is really interesting, as I think of the parallels between Social Media Marketing and Turnaround Management, is how there were no absolutes.

Really – it wasn’t as simple as ticking the Yes box next to “Did you turn that business around?” There was always a complex give-and-take between the groups.

And the objectives would differ in each case, meaning the strategy could be markedly different. Boil down turnaround management to its essence, and you get one of my favorite questions.

What business problem are you trying to solve?

Which is why it is an apt discipline to compare to Social Media.

You’ve got the three groups – Ad Agencies, PR People and Social Media Marketers.

They can argue and complain; they can claim that they were here first.

Or they can work together and answer the “What business problem are you trying to solve” question.

Go forth and turn things around.

Filed Under: brand communications, smm, Social Trends

Learn from the Big Boys – Connections R Us

January 5, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Fiber Optics

Thanks, watradehub.com

Want to be a real, live, in-the-flesh Social Media Marketer Extraordinaire? Start with these steps. Seriously.

The Daily Dose of Advice comes from Scott Stratten, UnMarketing himself.

“Reminder to take 5 minutes to reply to others today. Engage. Interact. Build.”

But how, really, truly, do you DO that? And can you invest only 5 minutes and make connections?

Well, yes. And no. We went with 10 minutes, you may want 15 or 20 or 30. But 2011 is all about small steps toward big things. So here goes.

1. Set the e.ggtimer. We said that you can learn from the big boys here, and there’s no bigger boy in the world of lifestyle redesign than Tim Ferriss. He’s the guy who first tipped us onto the timer. It is awesome for two reasons: (1) simplicity and (2) keeping you on task. We recommend you set it for 10 Minutes.

2. Begin surfing. We recommend you do this BEFORE looking at emails but AFTER getting your daily fix of Facebook and Twitter. Why? You want to get some mental cues from what you’ve seen on those sites – but you don’t want to make this reliant on what work is clogging your inbox.

Huh? Well, there are folks we are friends with on Facebook and connected with on Twitter who aren’t world famous. That’s part of the mission here. Learn from the Big Boys, but connect with the others, too.

3. Comment if you have something to add. We hit up a couple sites upon the recommendations of friends and contacts. On Quora, which is getting a tremendous amount of buzz, we had, well, nothing to add. Yet. But the standout site from Danny Brown got us thinking. And commenting.

4. Keep track. Chris Brogan recommends a spreadsheet or a Google Doc or a CRM program. Awesome.

Is that it?

Well, this should be part of a daily ritual. ESPECIALLY if you want to make real connections with real people.

Filed Under: blogging, brand communications, Influencers, LinkedIn, PR, smm, Social Trends Tagged With:

Revolutions vs. Resolutions

January 3, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Here’s the question: are you going to do something “Revolutionary” in the New Year?

First Work Day of 2011. Lists, Best Of, How Tos. Maybe there’s a self-help book or three waiting for you. Maybe you’ve downloaded some e-books and you can’t wait to get started.

Or Maybe You Shouldn’t Get Started On The Same Old Stuff.

I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions. They always seem too big, and aren’t broken down into small enough chunks for me.

Instead, it’s the small simple goals that work best for me – and may work for your company, too, as you figure out exactly how to market your “stuff.”

As long as these goals add up to something “revolutionary” – then you’re headed in the right direction.

Let us give you a for-instance…

The “revolutionary” idea for Dave from Area 224 was, simply, build a startup. The small goals leading up to that date were attainable in chunks – but would have been too too much to accomplish all in one big bite. Incorporate. Build the website. Find partners. Build brand.

In fact, the revolution was built over a few months, as opposed to overnight.

But, when a big change came – downsizing, in this case – the backup plan was already in motion.

Revolutionary ideas, sure. Small chunks, well-planned, got the idea off the ground.

The New Year’s Resolution, then, shouldn’t (in our opinion) be “Lose Weight.” “Quit smoking.” Or “Build the Startup.”

Those can be the New Year’s Revolution – just break them down into smaller, more attainable chunks.

“Eat Smaller Portions.”

“Chew Carrot Sticks.”

“Set Up the Website.”

Go. Be Revolutionary.

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