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Focus on 3 Things for Social Media Optimization

We are often asked how and where to start for Social Media “Optimization” – We Suggest these 3 Things…

Consistency. It’s important to be consistent with where you spend your Social Media time, and how you look on the social web. If people know to find you, your company, your product or your brand sharing information on Twitter but not really using Facebook — we think that is fine.

We also think that using a consistent voice, look and feel are all vital. If a clown is your company mascot and your brand tweets on behalf of the clown, great. Just don’t have the clown start talking politics on us.

Empathy. Folks like Al Ferretti on Twitter use the term “Go-giver.” Said another way – people who put helping others – sharing information, links, even positive vibes – ahead of their own needs on social media.

When empathizing, remember that you, too, started out somewhere. Maybe you opened up a Facebook account and didn’t exactly know why – but then someone friended you and you were off and rolling.

Fun. I spent virtually my entire social media time this weekend sharing links to YouTube music videos on Facebook. Throw in some back-and-forth with people I have met IRL (in real life), and a few comments with people who I genuinely enjoy interacting with.

Business took a backseat.

Three tips. Quick stuff for a Monday. Go get ’em.

3 Statistics That Will Change How You Think About Marketing

Just 3 stats – from 3 different corners of the marketing world. Our goal: help you learn more about the customer experience – or something we call “Empathy Marketing.” Enjoy.

Stat #1: “2 Million Plus Uniques on Foursquare.com in March.”

This means: Foursquare is “four real” – but has a ways to go. Evidence: these greater than 2 million unique visitors in the month of March represent exponential growth since October of last year, when Foursquare launched.

For the Empathy Marketer: How is location-based marketing changing the way you think? That depends – are you a B2B brand, or a restaurant looking to micro-target? Put your brand in the shoes of a customer or prospect. Will folks care if someone unlocks a badge when they visit your location. THEN figure out if it makes sense.

Stat #2: 75 Million Mexicans are Unbanked.

If you think the online world is the one to play in 24/7, the above estimate comes from a March article in Institutional Investor.

For the Empathy Marketer: Online bells and whistles are great IF you rely on online traffic. Foot traffic is probably much more important to Mexican businesses. Think Western Union focuses its efforts on online marketing – or on making sure that they reach Mexicans living in the US who need to wire money back home?

Oh, and Western Union might not ask much about Social Media Marketing. Social Media Marketing cannot sell your product to someone without a computer.

Stat #3: 65+3>96

The NCAA announced it was expanding its Men’s Basketball Tournament by just three teams, going from 65 to 68 teams.

This is better than the alternative – a rumored expansion to a 96 team format that would have been a disaster.

But I’m not alone in editorializing – and the NCAA scores points for (a) floating the trial balloon about this expansion, (b) listening to the hue and cry from fans about how lame it would be to expand to 96 and (c) backing down.

For the Empathy Marketer: Test and learn. Test and learn.

So, just three little stats; and from three random places. Empathy Marketers: don’t forget to put yourselves in the shoes of prospects, customers, fans. Listen to what they’re saying – to your face and behind your back.

How to be Memorable with Your Marketing

Isn’t it interesting how some things stick out in your mind – and others, well, you either can’t (or don’t) remember?

This can be true with marketing. I’m talking all kinds of marketing: ad campaigns, direct mail pieces, social media marketing, outreach, events…gosh, the list goes on.

So…

How do you make your marketing “memorable?”

Here are five tips:

1. Have a point. This may seem trite, but so many people forget it with their marketing. For example, I was just on the website of a company that a friend of a friend suggested I check out. The most annoying thing about this site could have been its flash graphics (always a bad idea, IMHO). Or maybe the crappy color scheme. (They did that.) Bad design. (An overall valueless website.)

These were not the biggest failings — the biggest failing was the lack of a point. I read and re-read what it was they do and it had the feel of a website that was built by committee. With no point.

2. Distill your messages down to the WIIFM. To that end, every piece of marketing MUST be written as if you’re the target audience asking “What’s in it for me?” This gets back to benefit vs. feature. Feature: what the executives decide management should care about when launching the product.

Benefit: what the buyer will want to get FROM BUYING THE PRODUCT. How will I benefit? What’s in it for me?

3. Ask “why should I care?” Search has a mastermind person named Avinash Kaushik – @avinashkaushik — and he talks about the “3 layers of So What?” I love this because it takes the above “Benefit vs. Feature” question, the WIIFM concept, and ratchets it up big time.

To paraphrase Avinas: keep asking “so what?”

For example…”I’m launching a new service that delivers cufflinks to your door within 24 hours?” So What? “The cufflinks are handmade in Africa?” So What? “Every time you buy a pair for $35 we buy a cow for the villagers who made the cufflinks and they get 25% of every sale in cash.”

Editor’s note — this service, as far as I know, doesn’t exist yet.

4. Look for the niche within the niche. Fellow savvy marketer Jim Alexander and I have been working on a book whose code name is “Nichification.” This is a lot of work — interviews with people who have launched products and services and successfully sold and marketed them in various niche businesses.

One emerging theme in this book is the niche within the niche.

Put simply, take a subset of the population that would buy your niche product (if you use the above, try “cufflinks enthusiasts”). Then, take a subset of THAT population and cater your marketing to them. 75% of those who wear cufflinks are rich guys. The other 25% might be those who want to know that every cufflinks purchase helps support the global economy.

Write for those people.

5. Cut out unnecessary words and puffery. I find myself increasingly annoyed with marketing that is memorably BAD for its over-blown, long-winded, crap-o-rama.

We’ve all seen the web pages that go on and on and on, where you have to keep scrolling down to find out what they’re selling and how much it sells for.

I love Mark Twain’s line: “I am sorry I am writing a long letter, I didn’t have the time to write a short one.”

Get to the point with your words, marketers. We’ll thank you…

So, now that you’re ready to be memorable with your marketing…what tips do YOU have to share?

WWSMMD – What Would Social Media Marketing Do?

Background: I’m at the bank, and watched a situation unfold. I tweeted about it.

Dave Tweets from the Front LinesHere’s a blow-by-blow of what I witnessed:

  1. Customer comes in, under control but clearly upset, as he had used an ATM to withdraw $400 — but the machine did not dispense his cash, just a receipt.
  2. The person at the Information Desk tells him that, since he was not using a card from Chase, he needed to get his own bank to handle the situation.
  3. They got his bank on the phone, and he was told he needed to file an online complaint.
  4. He was even madder now; since Chase was not offering to rectify the situation.
  5. He mentioned that someone behind the counter said “that machine is always broken.”
  6. The Chase rep said they couldn’t put an “Out of Order” sign on the ATM.
  7. The customer again asked for Chase to give him his $400.
  8. The person behind the counter said “No” because it’s not their policy.
  9. He asked to speak to the manager.
  10. The person behind the counter, the same one who was helping all along, said “I am the manager.”
  11. The customer left.

This is what I witnessed; I tweeted about this situation in the hopes that someone would weigh in.

So I ask you, fair readers, “What Would Social Media Marketing Do?”

It’s probably better to ask “What COULD SMM Do?”

(I’m obviously biased in my opinion, but not for a reason you’d think. I was at the bank waiting to get a Notary. I ended up sitting down with a Notary who then introduced a sales guy who wanted to go over my account information. He offered to help me with business stuff; he seemed flummoxed that I was actually working with a very helpful Chase rep in Phoenix, Arizona, on my business account.)

So, Chase (and any other company looking to dip their toes into a pool filled with their own customers, the happy ones and the rabid ones), here are some thoughts:

  1. Monitor this stuff. Take one of these sales dudes and make it his job to see what is being said about the company, in real time, online. I’m not just saying Twitter (though that’s a start), but Facebook and YouTube and other places.
  2. Get your booty on Foursquare. I don’t use Foursquare but that is beside the point. Location-based marketing is here, and if someone is audacious enough to announce to the world that they are AT YOUR BANK RIGHT NOW…well, saying hello would be a good thing.
  3. Want to be my local bank? BE MY LOCAL BANK ON (INSERT SITE HERE). Tweeting from the Evanston, Illinois Chase Branch? Why not. In fact, I’d feel a heck of a lot more comfortable if someone from the bank branch got on and said “Hi from the bank branch, stop by and say hello.” YouTube is great for this stuff. I don’t care if 5 people view the video.

These are just a few ideas — I’d love to hear yours. Banks have a ways to go in this social media stuff, but I’d love to see baby steps.

What do you think?

Fan Pro Quo – A Social Experiment Aimed at Small Business Referrals

Insomnia gave us this nifty little idea…

It’s actually not our idea, but that of a really clever guy named Larry Brauner, whose Online Social Networking site did something similar earlier this year.

Here’s how it works:

  1. You visit the Area 224 Page on Facebook.
  2. If you aren’t already a fan of Area 224, consider becoming one. No purchase necessary, valid in all 50 states and throughout the world.
  3. Then, once you’re a fan, you can post to the Area 224 Wall. SO, while you’re posting to our wall, why not post about YOUR BUSINESS? Yes, type in the name of your business or organization’s fan page, and other fans will see it.
  4. Also, while you’re there — consider checking out other companies and organizations. Maybe even become a fan.

Fan Pro Quo!

Other companies we like — like Arment Dietrich, for instance — have done some clever things (like “fan of the week”), too. So, feel free to share other fun Facebook Business Strategies while you’re on the Area 224 Page.

Cheers!

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