Blog

3 Social Media F-Words (and 3 Companies That Use Them)

There are many well-known examples of companies doing some wonderful stuff with social media and marketing. Often, though, we hear about the usual suspects. Comcast, Zappos, Sharpie, JetBlue and Southwest are doing great things in the social space, but other businesses have many other fresh social media marketing ideas that you may not have heard about. What sets them apart and makes them worth a look? These companies share the common traits expressed by three F-words: They are Friendly, Focused, and Fertile. Here’s what I mean: Friendly. Social platforms and tools aren’t one-way broadcasting tools or mouthpieces to just talk about your own stuff. Instead, they are tools for engagement, and they give a business an enormous opportunity to put a face and personality and voice to the corporate edifice by communicating directly with their customers in a very real way. In other words, the countenance of a Friendly company is human, genuine and sincere. It’s clear who manages accounts on various platforms, so that customers (or would-be customers) can easily feel the presence of an actual person (or persons). Who does this well: Wiggly Wigglers, based in Hereford (UK), is a natural gardening company that sells to the backyard gardener. Founder Heather Gorringe is a lively, approachable presence on Twitter (Her husband, “Farmer Phil,” posts there, too.) I particularly like Wiggly Wigglers Facebook page for its friendly, community vibe, and for its model of including the voices of other Wiggly staffers—even its bookkeeper! Focused. Social platforms give companies the ability to connect with an enormous number of would-be customers. But what’s the use in amassing followers or friends or whatever if you aren’t talking to people who are actually interested in your products or services? What’s the use of collecting friends on Facebook, for example, if you don’t have the capacity to maintain an active presence there? In other words, 200 active participants are ultimately more meaningful than thousands of passive followers; what really counts is creating engaged relationships. Smart companies focus their efforts in two ways: growing their social networks by honing in on the quality (not quantity) of a specific network; and selectively choosing which networks suit their business as well as their own individual character and temperament. Who does this well: Cynthia Sutton at the Silver Barn Antiques maintains an active Facebook presence and a blog, but I like the way that her Twitter presence has allowed her to grow her shop beyond the confines of Columbus, Texas, helping her to take her business national. Fertile. Every business with a website or an online presence is a publisher, which means producing content is increasingly important to businesses. Smart companies are approaching their publishing with a broader view than a “one and done” campaign approach. They treat anything they develop or create asfertile pieces of a larger whole, cross-pollinating or using their content creatively across more than one social media venue. They are repurposing each piece of content into other formats, or “atomizing” it into smaller bits to share, as my [...]

9 Things to do Before Entering Social Media

You’re going to give this social media thing a solid chance. You’ve heard that social media delivers leads, connects you with customers and you’re confident that you can avoid falling victim to the many social media myths. All that’s left to do is create the accounts hop in. Wait! Not so fast. Before you enter in the world of social media, make sure you’re presenting your best possible face. Getting things in order before you take your first public steps will help customers trust your interactions and get things start on the right foot. You wouldn’t show up to your wedding without taking some time to primp, right? Here are 9 things to do BEFORE you enter social media. Create a rulebook: Before you step onto that field, memorize your plays. Study the channels you plan to use, listen to the conversation, understand the behavior and create your rulebook for how your company will engage. Identify how you’ll handle common support issues, the tone you’ll take, how you’ll address negativity, how fans will be rewarded, etc. Work up fake scenarios and create a plan for how you’ll deal with them. Look at issues competitors have had in social media and map out how you’ll do it better. The more you prepare, the better off you’ll be. Negative commenters are a lot less imitating when you have a plan for how you’ll convert them to your side. Assign responsibility: Make it known who is going to be responsible for social media BEFORE everyone stands around looking at each other. Figure out things like: Who will be responsible for creating the content, pushing it, talking to people, responding to questions, etc? Who will implement any changes/issues discovered through social media? How much time should this be taking from everyone’s day and is the number you just came up with realistic or did you just make it up? Unless social media is someone’s responsibility, it’s no one’s responsibility. Increase your customer support: When you open the social media floodgates, you’re creating a new channel for people to come and get help for issues they’re experiencing. You may need to increase your staff in order to handle that. If you’re a small business, that may mean rearranging your customer support system or, if you’re a little larger, it may mean adding actual bodies. Either way, you’re now going to have a live stream of people coming to you with questions, concerns and things they need fixed. You can’t ignore them. Put systems in place to handle the increases customer service tickets. Fix your issues: You live in your business. You know that sometimes your service is flaky. You know the number one problem with your product. You know your most common complaints. Do your best to get these under control, or at least on the mend, before you enter social media. People aren’t going to suddenly stop noticing that you could be better just because you’re talking to them. Maybe start your social media [...]

9 tareas antes de entrar a una red social

Vas a dar a esta cosa medios sociales una oportunidad sólida. Usted ha oído que los medios sociales dirige clientes potenciales, que conecta con los clientes y que está seguro de que puede evitar ser víctima de los muchos mitos de medios sociales. Todo lo que queda por hacer es crear las cuentas en hop. ¡Espere! No tan rapido. Antes de entrar en el mundo de los medios sociales, asegúrese de que está presentando su mejor cara posible. Para ordenar las cosas antes de tomar sus primeros pasos públicos ayudará a los clientes confían en sus interacciones y obtener las cosas comienzan con el pie derecho. No se presentaba a su boda sin tomar algún tiempo para acicalarse, ¿verdad? Aquí hay 9 cosas que hacer antes de entrar en las redes sociales. Crear un libro de reglas: Antes que paso en ese campo, memorizar sus jugadas. Estudiar los canales que desee usar, escuchar la conversación, entender el comportamiento y crear su libro de reglas de cómo se acoplará a su empresa. Identificar cómo va a manejar los problemas comunes de apoyo, el tono que va a tomar, cómo va a abordar la negatividad, ¿cómo serán recompensados ​​ventiladores, etc. trabajar hasta escenarios falsos y crear un plan de cómo va a lidiar con ellos. Fijamos en cuestiones competidores han tenido en los medios sociales y trazar la forma en que va a hacer mejor. Cuanto más se prepare, mejor serás. comentaristas negativos son mucho menos imitando cuando se tiene un plan de cómo va a convertirlos en su lado. Asignar la responsabilidad: Que se sepa quién va a ser responsable de las redes sociales antes que los stands alrededor mirando el uno al otro. Averiguar cosas como: ¿Quién será responsable de crear el contenido, empujándolo, hablando con la gente, respondiendo a las preguntas, etc? ¿Quién va a poner en práctica cualquier cambio / problemas detectados a través de los medios sociales? ¿Cuánto tiempo debería estar tomando esto desde el primer día de todos y es el número que acaba de llegar con realistas o acabas de hacer las paces? A menos que los medios de comunicación social es responsabilidad de alguien, es responsabilidad de nadie. Aumentar su atención al cliente: Al abrir las compuertas de medios sociales, se está creando un nuevo canal para que la gente venga y obtener ayuda para los problemas que están experimentando. Es posible que tenga que aumentar su personal con el fin de manejar eso. Si usted es una pequeña empresa, que puede significar la reordenación de su sistema de atención al cliente o, si usted es un poco más grande, puede significar la adición de cuerpos reales. De cualquier manera, usted está ahora va a tener una transmisión en vivo de la gente que viene a usted con preguntas, preocupaciones y cosas que necesitan corregidos. No se puede ignorar. Establecer sistemas para manejar las entradas servicio aumenta cliente. Solucionar sus problemas: Usted vive en su negocio. Ya sabes que a veces su servicio es [...]

10 Common Mistakes In Logo Design

With the power of the Web, and more people searching than ever, it’s essential for your company to communicate and distinguish itself from competitors with a clear and unique message. The easiest and quickest way people recognize and remember a company is by its logo.Logo design mistakes, however, can cause the opposite effect. People won’t remember your business, or if they do, their opinion won’t lead to a purchase. This reaction is often applicable to online shopping, where your website and logo design needs to convey professionalism and trust for consumers to shop with you.Find out about what makes a bad logo design in our roundup of the top 10 common logo design mistakes you need to avoid, whether you’re a business owner or a graphic designer, to create a professional and successful logo. A Logo Made by an Amateur Designer One of the biggest mistakes in logo designs is relying on an amateur, versus a professional, graphic designer to create your business logo. Business owners often hesitate to put money into a logo, even though they make similar investments in their company’s website or equipment. A growing trend for small businesses is to rely on logo design competition websites, which provide you with several different logo designs for a small fee. The problem, however, is that many amateur graphic designers use these sites and make many of the logo design mistakes outlined in this list. A Logo Featuring Design Trends Trends are temporary and make your logo a time capsule, rather than timeless. Swooshes, bevels and glows are a few examples of past graphic design trends. They’re also a favorite cliché design effect among amateur designers. Professional graphic designers ignore trends when creating your logo. While they’re up-to-date on the latest craze hitting the industry, like geometric shapes and stripes, through websites like Logolounge, they also ensure those trends don’t become a part of your company’s custom logo. A Logo Using Raster Images Raster images are a common logo design mistake. Logo designs either use raster or vector images. Raster graphics consist of pixels, while vector graphics feature precise points. The benefit of vector graphics, and why professional graphic designers use them, is because they scale to any digital or print size without a loss of quality. Raster graphics do not. Instead, the image becomes blurred or pixelated. New graphic designers, as well as business owners, are often unaware that they should be using vector graphic software, like Adobe Illustrator, and instead use raster graphic software like Adobe Photoshop. Because of the popularity of logo design competition websites among new graphic designers, it’s common for businesses to unknowingly purchase and invest in a logo that uses raster images. The result is a logo that becomes blurred when enlarged, preventing you from using it for multiple purposes. A Logo Containing Stock Art Amateur designers, whether a family friend or yourself, may know about vector graphics, but look to the internet for vector imagery to create a company logo. It’s a [...]

10 Ways to Deny the Recession

I saw a bumper sticker the other day that said “Refuse to Participate in the Recession.”  I have no idea if that driver had a job or was looking for one, but he was obviously electing to make the most of the challenges he faced. Many say the U.S. economy is still in a recession based on the fact that unemployment is still high and consumers are continuing to temper their spending habits–two elements that define a recession. However, anyone with the desire to be an entrepreneur has to have the attitude of my friend with the bumper sticker. So how does an entrepreneur succeed in a recession? Become Indispensable In a tricky economy, it’s natural for people to want to protect the security they still have. In the service industry, one way to prove that your product or service is part of the solution is to point out the consequences that could occur if the service was not around. Try “secret shopping” your customers and document the outcomes; then secret shop a business that doesn’t use your service or product. If there’s an obvious difference, use these stories to sell your businessback to your customers. Invest in the Future Most recessions last only a year or two. Companies that fail to continually invest in business improvements, training and marketing are way behind when the economy recovers. In terms of training, consider how to cross-train your team members while business is slow. It may enable you to perform better later on. Seek Out Referrals Nowadays, many businesses assume there are no sales to be made, so they stop trying and sit on the sidelines. While sales may be harder to come by, make contacts now so they will pay off later. Furthermore, if you’re pulling back on your advertising budget, referrals may be your best bet for generating customers. You should also create a program that rewards current customers for referrals. Buy Weaker Companies If you can manage the integration process, a down economy can be a great time to acquire a business. Strengthen Your ROI Pricing Offers Customers often question the cost of a product or service because they can’t always tie it to a result, and that scrutiny only increases in a bad economy. Offer pricing related to specific results. For example, I heard of a PR firm that only charges for placements, not advice, writing or strategy development. This approach enables the agency to charge more for its services, but customers know upfront what they’re getting. Be Loyal and Focus on Retention When the recession is over, your employees will be more likely to stick with you. This may mean eliminating free coffee, for example, but have an honest conversation with your employees, and they will usually help you cut costs even further. Maintain a Fun Environment When companies cut out the fun, it can negatively impact employee job performance. If you’ve sponsored parties at work for years, continue these events. A consistent culture will encourage your staff to provide consistent service to your [...]