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Don’t Kill Direct Mail in the Name of Social Media

Chelsea Junget — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 21:32:57 +0000

A couple of mentions around the marketing world by NextDayFlyers blog and MarketingPilgrim regarding the effectiveness of direct mail have got us thinking about the integration of print and social media campaigns. Some companies have reviewed the cost savings offered by digital communications compared to cost to print, mail and design mailers, letters and postcards and have begun shifting marketing dollars for those projects. E-mail, Twitter, Facebook and other channels can be cost-effective ways to build an online presence and connect with customers and prospects. But, let’s face it, social media ROI can be difficult to measure. For some businesses, an online-only strategy might be a shortsighted approach.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Are your prospects and customers online? It’s easy to assume that everyone is “plugged in” these days. Despite the meteoric rise in popularity of Twitter and Facebook, some people are not using them regularly and some not at all. Understand your audience and how they want to interact. Social media isn’t the best fit for all companies.
Consumers are digitally saturated. The quantity of e-mails, tweets, blog posts and news articles the average consumer must sort through can be overwhelming. Relying only on communicating through these channels is taking a risk that your messages are glossed over or worse, sent directly to the trash file.
Coordinate messages across mediums. Direct mail and social media can work in concert––extend your online messaging to coordinate with mail. Use direct mail to drive traffic to your Facebook fan page or Twitter account.
No matter the method, the goal is to inspire action! The point made in the NextDayFlyers blog is well-taken. Using direct mail to solicit feedback is a great idea. Many companies are getting noticed for using Twitter for customer service purposes (notably among several is @comcastcares and @jetblue), but why not direct mail?

A marketing strategy should coordinate several channels. Here at SG, we blog, tweet, email and connect with prospects via snail mail. Oh, and in person, too! What is your company doing to create an integrated strategy?

Educating A New Generation

Chelsea Junget — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:37:25 +0000

“Things have changed since I was in school.” Sounds like something your parents said to you growing up, huh? That statement still holds true. Kids are a part of a whole new learning generation; interaction is mostly via instant message, text message, Twitter and Facebook and the internet is the first place they turn for research. The shift in marketing is taking place as we speak, but are Marketing and Public Relations instructors and professors educating their students about the phenomenon that is social media?

Back in the day, marketing majors were required to learn the 4 P’s (Product, Price, Promotion, Place) and that is still relevant, but along with the 4 P’s they need to have a basic understand of HTML, design software, e-mail marketing campaigns, search engine optimization, and knowledge of social media Twitter, Facebook, YouTube,etc). However, are recent grads receiving said education?

We’ve all read that many companies are struggling to understand social media and how it can be used in their industry. With this occurring, companies are looking to hire recent grads with degrees in Marketing and Public Relations to fill the social media gap. But, are colleges and universities integrating the new trends in marketing into their curriculum – such courses as Internet Marketing, Digital Media and New-Media Marketing? Another challenge: are college professors and faculty on top of the changing trends in the marketing world? If not, they need to be. How can you teach it, if you don’t fully understand it yourself? As the old adage states, “lead by example.”

Here’s a question for all our Marketing & PR majors out there –Are NC State, Duke and UNC teaching courses on new-media and internet marketing? Or are you educating the professors on social media?

How To Optimize your Facebook Presence

Chelsea Junget — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:25:00 +0000

Many brands have created Facebook fan pages to jump on the bandwagon, but don’t know how to optimize their page to leverage the power of social networking. Facebook fan pages offer the user many of the same options as a personal profile such as posting status updates, info and photo tabs, and application boxes. However, to be effective the user should understand the importance of placement and interaction.

Here are a few ways to optimize your fan page:

Create a vanity URL – We’ve spoken about this in a previous blog post and can’t stress it enough. Having a vanity URL makes it easier for users to find you on Facebook and increases your shareability.
Optimizing your share preview – A new feature to personal profiles as well as fan pages is the opportunity to share links. This feature allows users to select thumbnail images to be displayed when shared and allows the placement of the Facebook logo or link to your own site to drive traffic to your fan page.
Perfect Profile Picture – Having the perfect profile picture is key in attracting new fans – it’s the first thing they see when surfing for your brand. When cropping the picture make sure it’s 200px wide with a 12px border around important information since Facebook automatically crops images.

Facebook fan pages are growing in popularity, so be sure to follow these tips to ensure your brand doesn’t get lost in the shuffle and help your fans find you. An added bonus – It’s free and easy!

And become a fan of Strategic Guru while you are at it!

How Social Networking Will Impact Your Business

admin — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:42:24 +0000

From the Pony Express to airmail. From Morse code to HTML code. From email to instant messaging, live chat, blogs, and, more recently, Twitter. The human race has been on a quest to communicate with each other as fast as technology allows.

Your average 16 year old uses social networking web sites like MySpace, Xanga and Facebook the way many of us use the telephone, email and our local Starbucks. This totally online environment allows for instant gratification, communication and anonymity.

“That’s great for kids, but what has it got to do with my business?” you ask. Blogs, podcasts, RSS, instant messaging and other social network technologies are the next wave in communications. Understanding their impact and, more importantly, ways to take advantage of these groundbreaking technologies is essential in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. As a business owner, you simply cannot afford to fall behind your competition, who are adapting these technologies to gain competitive advantage.

Types of Communication

To understand the social networking phenomenon, we must first understand two distinct types of communication:

1. One-to-one communication has evolved from conversation,
to a letter, to the ubiquitous email, to instant messaging and, now, Twitter.

2. One-to-many communication has evolved from company memos, to broadcast email, to social network sites, to blogs, to RSS feeds.

Common threads to both evolutions are the internet and ever-briefer communiqués.

Connections are the New Currency

LinkedIn is an online social network for business that may be quickly replacing the exchange of business cards. More than 11 million professionals from around the world representing 150 industries are members and are building online networks of business and personal contacts. The point is raising visibility to find and be found for business opportunities.

Twitter, launched in 2006, is a social network that provides the ability to post short (140 character max) text messages from your cell phone or the web. Invited friends and/or the public can read your message in real time, transforming one-to-one texting to a one-to-many communication tool. Twitter has developed a worldwide online community and spawned Twittersearch, Twittermap and even Twittervision, where messages pop up in real time on a global map, pinpointing where the texter is located.

Think this can’t possibly relate to your business? Think again. The Portland Trailblazers have their own public Twitter account as does Dell Outlet, bringing you the most up to minute discount offers on computer equipment.

Twitter represents just one in the latest evolution of communication technology. Self-expression blogs have gone commercial with many businesses attempting to capitalize on our natural voyeuristic tendencies. But like channel surfing on television, if a blog is boring, there is little that will compel readers to stay. The key to successful blogs is engaging the audience, directly addressing them and inviting them to comment on the topic. The variety of opinions connected to the original blog can be even more compelling than the original message.

Beyond Text

Podcasts essentially turn blogs into audio. But the answer to “What’s next?” is video. Now that Google has bought YouTube, the commercial applications are endless. Samsung, Heinz, Quicksilver and Johnson & Johnson are just a few that are cashing in on the video posting phenomenon with contests aimed at attracting their youthful target audience on YouTube.

Broadcasting all this communication to a worldwide audience has been facilitated by RSS feeds. RSS, or “Really Simple Syndication”, is a format for distributing and gathering content from sources across the web, including newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Web publishers use RSS to easily create and distribute information. Yahoo! News, for example, offers dozens of RSS feeds in topics that run the gamut from sports to obituaries. And feeds are not just limited to the written word. Video is also distributed via RSS feeds.

Business Implications

Some pundits say that all this instant communication technology is leaching power away from the old information providers in the press and broadcasting and handing it to a new democracy of communicators now numbered in the millions. While television and newspapers aren’t about to disappear tomorrow, you can expect a transformation in the way we do business by encouraging new types of collaborative communication.

With today’s shortage of time and attention, combined with a focus on increased productivity, anything that enables employees to improve their working practices will be welcomed. Corporate internal use in the form of instant messaging and Twitter-type communication will grow.

But the greatest impact will be from external use, utilizing blogs, podcasts, webinars, video and RSS feeds to more cost-effectively get the word out. Consider that ISPs, entertainment companies, and wireless providers are either building social networking sites or finding a way to integrate social networking and community interactivity into their new and
existing sites.

The Bottomline

Social networking is not just for teens. It is a collaborative style of communication that every business needs to understand and find creative ways to incorporate into their communication plans. For business to business models, consider adding podcasts, webinars and video presentations to your marketing plans and get your business development staff hooked into LinkedIn. For consumer-based businesses, jump on this trend now and create your MySpace page, Twitter account or YouTube promotional video. But beware! Social networking invites public comment so blatant sales pitches are highly discouraged.

Interactive Marketing Will Grow – Is It Right For You?

Chelsea Junget — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:42:45 +0000

Interactive marketing (email, social media, online and search) is contributing to a major shift in the marketing landscape. With social media sites and mobile marketing emerging as the next big thing, some marketers are moving away from traditional tactics (print, television, display advertising), but is this wise? A recent report from Forrester predicts that interactive marketing will “cannibalize” other channels. In fact, 60% of those surveyed will increase their interactive marketing budgets by shifting funds from traditional media.

Here’s our take:

Yes, interactive marketing and social media are becoming increasingly popular, but it’s risky to place all advertising dollars in one basket or move away traditional channels altogether. It’s clear that social media’s not just for kids: the largest group of Facebook users are aged 35-54. There are still people out there that don’t engage with social media and prefer old-school communication channels-direct mail, newspapers, magazines and television. Furthermore, a recent report from Razorfish suggests that people don’t trust their online friends as much as their offline friends.

For most companies, a combination of traditional and interactive marketing still makes sense. An integrated strategy will give you a better opportunity to reach your target market through various channels. A blend of online and offline messages support each other -–print ads can drive people to a Facebook fan page and a Twitter stream can direct prospects to get a coupon to test out your service. For example, Starbucks is currently giving away coupons for free pints of their ice cream via Facebook. Are they still running print ads for their ice cream? It’s likely. An online channel (Facebook) supports an offline channel (in-store advertising).

One last thing to drive the point home, marketing and technology are ever changing, so be sure to know who your target market is and what marketing channels they prefer before making any drastic changes in your marketing plan.

CEOs Aren't Feeling the Social Media Love

Chelsea Junget — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:50:13 +0000

Does CEO Barbie Twitter?

A recent report by UberCEO indicates that top CEOs are not participating in social media, despite the staggering growth of social media marketing. They researched Fortune’s Top 100 CEOs of 2009 and the key findings were:

Two CEOs out of 100 have Twitter accounts.
13 CEOs have LinkedIn profiles, and of those only three have more than 10 connections.
Over 80% of CEOs don’t have a personal Facebook page.
Three quarters of the CEOs have some kind of Wikipedia entry, but nearly a third of those have limited or outdated information.
No Fortune 100 CEO has a blog.

Clearly, despite the buzz around social media, top CEOs are not buying it. This could be for a couple of reasons:

CEOs are usually not the public face of the brand. Of course, Steve Jobs and Apple go hand-in-hand, but many consumers are not closely acquainted with CEOs. Does following the CEO engage the consumer more with the brand? It’s debatable.
The ROI around social media is fuzzy. For a busy CEO, does the potential benefit of engaging through Facebook, Twitter and other channels really reflect the time invested? For most in the CEO spot, probably not.
Most CEOs are at the top of the heap, so to speak. They have done all the networking they need to maneuver to the leadership position in business. Connecting with via LinkedIn, primarily a business-networking site, likely does not enhance their career prospects.
It’s just not worth the risk. After many notable social media flubs, it’s entirely too easy for one false move to start a negative chain reaction that’s difficult to combat. To be inoffensive and authentic online is a challenge.

Despite the behavior of top CEOs, social media can be an integral part of a strategic marketing plan. For many businesses it’s still a great way to reach out to targets, engage them and build online real estate for the brand.

Have you secured your Facebook username yet?

Chelsea Junget — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:20:41 +0000

Not to worry you still have time! Social networking site Facebook recently offered the option to create a username to its more than 200 million active users. This new feature allows you to create your own custom URL for your profile. Don’t fret if someone has taken your name, you can request removal to prevent people from using your trademarked name. By creating a username, you are not only protecting your brand, but you’re making it easier for people to find your page on Facebook. It also increases your shareability, is good for your promotional strategy, and a viable B2B marketing channel.

Don’t wait any longer. Get yours today!

Don't be the Jerk at the Social Media Party

Chelsea Junget — Thu, 28 May 2009 15:03:20 +0000

Perry Belcher’s perspective on social media is spot-0n. Think of social media as a party – the last thing you’d do at a cocktail party filled with a mix of strangers and friends is burst in and shout “buy stuff from me!” He’s right, you’d be the biggest jerk in the room.