Dave

Dec 28 2009

How’s Your January Lookin?

Area 224 announces a new series of Webinars for Social Media Success: B2B Marketers Take Note!

If you’ve missed us during the 3 Weeks to Social Media Success series, that’s okay – here’s your chance to get the industry-specific Social Media Strategies your company needs.

We’re hosting Webinars starting January 5, 2010, and each one is for a different industry:

Social Media Success for Small Business: January 5
Social Media Success for Real Estate Professionals: January 6
Social Media Success for Not-for-Profits: January 7
Social Media Success for Real Estate Professionals: January 13
Social Media Success for Business-to-Business Marketing: January 14

Best part – this time around, you can just purchase one webinar seat – depending on your industry – and it’s for one low price that won’t break the budget!

Click here for more info:

Area 224 Webinars.

Dec 18 2009

Dear Groupon: that is some SERIOUS social shopping savings

Item: Groupon saves its visitors some serious cash.

Watch as we uncover from their own website what happened IN ONE DAY…

First, December 17, in the morning — as I know because Area 224 was hosting a webinar and we wanted to zero in on metrics. We used this graphic from the Groupon web page:

Next, lets’ show you what we just uncovered, from their site, a mere 30 hours later, as of about 5:30 Central Time on Friday the 18th.

In one day, they sold 27,286 “Groupons” and saved customers $4,997,629. ($183 in savings per Groupon sold.)

OR, looking at it this way — just today’s deal alone — a Brite Smile spa treatment thing — has sold 828 times, at $185 per. Generating $153,180 in revenues. Split between the companies, I’m sure.

Am I questioning their numbers? NO. I’m in awe of them.

You?

Dec 15 2009

To Avoid Hucksters, Try This Trick…

Too Many Social Media Hucksters? Try This Trick…

We watched a great video from that @garyvee guy today. In it, he says that “social media” is becoming such a worn-out phrase that, in his opinion, it will soon just be called “media.”

Good point.

Here’s another way of looking at it, and another trick you can use to sniff out hucksterism. Or huckstering. Hucksterization. Whatever…

Replace “social media” with the word “email.”

Really. Try it:

John Smith is an email guru.

Wow, those guys over there at XYZ Associates, they really “get email.”

I don’t know if I should trust a PR firm with my email marketing.

Stop thinking TOOL or you’ll soon become one. Start thinking what you’re saying, how you’re saying it, how often you’re having conversations with people, clients, customers, consumers.

(Yes, we’re guilty, too — we say “social media success” on this very site. Guilty as charged.)

BUT, the point here is that companies are rushing to shoehorn social media into their communications strategy — without having a strategy in the first place. Or an objective for even communicating.

Websites were all the rage at one point. Later, Web 2.0. And, while we do maintain that Social Media Marketing — SMM — will soon replace Search Engine Optimization — SEO — as the most important acronym…we don’t want you to forget that what you say and how you say it are so much more important than what tool you use.

Thanks. Now we need to go send a social media. I mean an email.

Dec 10 2009

Tiger Woods vs. David Letterman

Ever since the Tiger Woods story broke, we’ve been watching it from a communications perspective: How Tiger communicates, what he says when, and whether or not he’s handling this crisis right. We blogged about it last week (you can see that post here).

And, since it broke, we’ve also noticed something really eerie: for someone who talks to the press a lot, who relies on his public image for income (endorsements, public appearances, things outside of golf) — Tiger Woods has really bungled this crisis.

Then there’s David Letterman.

Remember his admission of guilt — for what would appear to be similar “transgressions” — on his TV show?

We reached out to some of our smart contacts in the Communications world to ask why David Letterman emerged from his story relatively unscathed — and Tiger’s story appears to keep going and going, putting his endorsement deals and his status as the first “Billion-Dollar Athlete” in serious jeopardy.

An About-Face of Character?

Gary Unger, Creative Genius, @garyunger on Twitter, says that when image doesn’t match reality, reporters and the public look for more:

“My initial thoughts are that Letterman has been known to be an @ss throughout the years. Recently his rants on Sarah Palin showed him to be ‘not very nice’ as far as continuing to pick on someone who lost. Not good form for the most part. (But now that Palin is back in the spotlight I think she’s fair game). And previously with Bush, Misc. sports stars, some movie stars. But more notably he was called out years ago for his philandering. I believe his wife now was his live in girlfriend for about 10 years. And he had multiple girlfriends at the same time. So Letterman’s character is ‘old news.’

Now Woods is a different story, he’s been projecting this squeaky clean image all these years. Great relationship with his dad and mom. Wasn’t photographed at strip clubs, buying drugs, or even having temper tantrums. And then all of a sudden this accident and some ‘weird’ parts to the story. Then Woods went into hiding. Not a good idea since reporters can smell the ‘weird’ and want to reconcile the weird part of the story to reality. Woods who is likely at base character a nice guy did what nice guys do, they try to stay out of the spotlight when they do something embarrassing and see that they went off the path and want to get back on the correct path.

The difference between the two: Letterman came right out and said it to America and that took the initial sting out of the issue. Reporters don’t have the ‘scoop’ and now can only report, not ‘find.’ Woods gave the sharks what they live for, the scoop. Not only that Woods is not talking, Letterman talked to whoever wanted to talk about it.

Letterman: ‘I’m an @ss, what are you going to do about it’

Woods: ‘uh….'”

Avoid the Phrase “No Comment” at All Costs

Rachel Kay (@rachelakay on Twitter), from Rachel Kay Public Relations (whose blog is called CommuniKaytrix), on Tiger’s “no comment,” thoughts she first shared right after the story broke:

“When we take clients through media training, one of the first rules we teach is to never say ‘no comment.’ The idea is that ‘no comment’ is essentially an admission of guilt. Whether or not it really is, ‘no comment’ can leave people feeling like they are uninformed, misinformed or that a concern is being disregarded. As the investigation into the accident heats up, what was concern for Tiger seems to be shifting to a feeling of what is Tiger not telling us?”

Get Out in Front, NOW.

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich Public Relations, and author of the Spin Sucks blog:

“David Letterman got out in front of his ‘situation,’ he told people what happened, what he did, and he made it a non-story. Media talked it about it maybe two days and then got bored with the story because there wasnâ€™t any dirt to dig up. With Tiger, just like what you blogged about last week, if heâ€™d gotten out in front of the story (even 24 hours later) and was honest, no one would be digging up all of his mistresses.

This is crisis PR 101. Describe the situation, be honest, apologize, say what youâ€™re going to do to fix it, and live your life. When it becomes a story is when you lie, when you avert questions, and when there clearly is something people want to find out to bring you down.”

So, we ask you, fair readers: how should Tiger communicate from here on out?

Dec 06 2009

Yes, We Want You To Invest 3 Weeks With Us!

It is only 9 webinars, after all.

But one thing we’ve heard about Social Media from just about everyone we’ve talked to:

There’s so much out there!

Our goal with the 3 Weeks to Social Media Success program is to do what we’ve been told we do best: demystify. Break the complex down into digestible chunks.

Some of you are trying to translate this for the boss. Others of you need to get social to find the next gig. Maybe you have to sort out the strategy for your company, or you need to see if a Facebook Fan Page makes any sense for your B2B firm.

We can help. And we hope you’ll join us…

Got 3 Weeks?