Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30 minutes. 2 maybe 3 guests. 1 topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer..
On today's Diva Marketing Talks we're exploring how a "traditional" interactive tactic .. eMail can be integrated with social media to produce more compelling campaigns.
Joining me as to talk about, what to some people seems a bit anti-intuitive, are Simms Jenkins, CEO, BrightWave Marketing and Morgan Stewart, Principal, ExactTarget's Research and Education Group.
Simms Jenkins is CEO of BrightWave Marketing, an award-winning agency specializing in email marketing and digital targeted messaging programs. BrightWave Marketing partners with clients in the development, management and strategic optimization of digital messaging programs that drive revenue, cut costs and build relationships. Jenkins has led BrightWave Marketing in establishing a top tier client list including Affiliated Computer Services (A Xerox Company), Chick-fil-A, Cox Business, O’Charley’s, RaceTrac Petroleum and Ted’s Montana Grill as well as leading advertising and marketing firms.
In 2010, Jenkins was awarded the prestigious AMY 2010 Marketer of the Year from the American Marketing Association’s Atlanta Chapter for being the top agency marketer. Jenkins is regarded as one of the leading experts in the email marketing industry and is the author of The Truth About Email Marketing, which was published by Pearson's Financial Times Press.
Jenkins is currently the Email Marketing Best Practices Columnist for ClickZ, the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference in the world, online or off-. His industry articles have been called one of the top 21 information sources for email marketers.
Additionally, Jenkins is the creator of EmailStatCenter.com, the leading authority on email marketing metrics. Prior to founding BrightWave Marketing, Jenkins headed the CRM group at Cox Interactive Media.
Jenkins serves on the eMarketing Association's Board of Advisors and recently completed his tenure as a Board Member of Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA). Jenkins is a graduate of Denison University in Granville, Ohio and resides in Atlanta’s Brookwood Hills neighborhood with his wife and three children.
Morgan Stewart is the Principal ofExact Target's Research and Education Group. Morgan began his email marketing journey in 1999 when he managed the development of Pampers websites and email marketing programs across the U.S., Western Europe, and South America. Morgan came to ExactTarget in 2004 to launch ExactTarget's strategic consulting group, which he managed for more than 3 years. His true interests lie in demographics and studying how consumers interact with brands. He now serves as ExactTarget's industry expert on marketing trends across all interactive channels.
Considered one of the industry's thought leaders in interactive marketing research, Morgan is a regular columnist for Mediapost's Email Insider and frequently appears in industry publications such as MarketingProfs and iMediaConnection. His work has also been featured in leading publications such as Fortune, Forbes, Newsweek, Mashable, and AdWeek.
Social is Email’s New Best Buddy So Get Used To It
Know Your Audience
Follow Your Customers
Don’t Market in Silos
Talk Uniquely Where Your Customers Are
Don't Be the Cut-and-Paste Social Marketer
Share Content and Value
Use Both to Build Permission Databases
Test & Measure
Complements of Morgan Stewart
Email, Twitter and Facebook all have unique strengths (and weaknesses) in the minds of consumers
Email’s key strengths are Relevance and Exclusivity – consumers expect highly tailored content that makes them feel special
Twitter’s key strength is Influence and Interaction – the people that are most active on Twitter have huge voices across the internet and they want to interact directly with brand insiders
Facebook’s key strengths are Entertainment and Discovery - Consumers use Facebook because it’s fun to see what their friends are into... Which includes brands. Consumers don’t go on Facebook planning to interact with brands, but they consistently find new things that peek interest through friends.
Marketers need to understand and leverage these nuances in order to develop integrated and optimized messaging strategies.
Consumers do not operate in digital silos. Marketers can’t afford to operate in silos either.
Diva Marketing Talks is
a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30 minutes. 2 maybe 3
guests. 1 topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you
understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting
blown-up. Miss the show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen
on your computer.
On today's Diva Marketing Talks Fard Johnmar, Envision Solutions and Steve Woodruff, Impactiviti, join me to explore how social media impacts healthcare, with a focus on the pharmaceutical industry. In November the FDA held two days of open hearings that began the process of their development of regulation guidelines for Pharma. For any enterprise stepping into the social web can be a challenge. However, for companies in highly regulated industries, especially healhcare, the stakes are high to get it "right."
Fard Johnmar, M.A., founder of Envision Solutions, has extensive experience in the healthcare marketing communications arena. He has developed and implemented programs for numerous major global and domestic pharmaceutical companies, nonprofits, medical associations and government organizations. Pfizer Inc., Eli Lilly and Company, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks are just a few of the organizations he has completed engagements with.
Mr. Johnmar has special expertise in cardiovascular disease, mental health,infectious disease, oncology, social media communications, public health and health policy. He holds a Master of Arts degree from New York University's well-regarded Gallatin School of Individualized Study in communications and health policy. He completed his undergraduate degree at Amherst College where he earned a B.A. in jazz ethnomusicology with additional concentrations in pre-medical studies and political science.
Mr. Johnmar writes regularly on healthcare marketing, policy and related subjects for Know More Media (KMM), a leading global business blogging network and other publications. His blog on KMM, HealthCareVox, was recognized as one of the world's top 50 English-language health blogs by edrugsearch.com. Follow Fard on Twitter.
Steve Woodruff is President of Impactiviti, a pharma network advocating new on-line solutions for communications, and "matchmaking" pharmaceutical clients with best-in-class vendor/providers. Steve has over 23 years of experiences in the life sciences arena, and is a well-respected thought leader in the social media field.
Steve has rich experience consulting with numerous pharmaceutical clients (such as Pfizer, Wyeth, Novartis, J&J, Abbott, Takeda, Sanofi-Aventis, Daiichi Sankyo, and many others) on training and marketing solutions, including technology platforms and global applications. Having consulted on the design and implementation of many types of learning initiatives (virtual universities, pre-launch training, printed modules, on-line tutorials, product portals, assessments, webcasts, etc.) for a wide variety of companies, Steve brings a broad perspective to clients as new training and marketing activities are planned.
Steve contributes to the Small Business Branding blog, Marketing Profs Daily Fix, and was recently featured in an article on Better Branding in TheStreet.com. Steve has also launched several on-line portals with aggregated content feeds from the blogging community; PharmaCentral, the Marketing Bloggers portal, and BrandingWire. He has contributed to two recently published “group-authored” books, Age of Conversation and Not Quite What I Was Planning. His branding/marketing/social media blog is called StickyFigure. Follow Steve on Twitter.
In The Diva Bag
Complement of Fard Johnsmar
1. Understand what you face: Pharma companies should understand how e-patients feel about them journeying into the social media space. According to a national survey we recently conducted, they aren't too happy about pharma communicating with them via social media.
However, drug firms may be able to improve e-patient perceptions by providing them with what they want: the straight facts about medicines and valuable information about the conditions they or their loved ones face.
2. Remember, this is Washington: A lot of the commentary I've seen focusing on the FDA hearings deals with the mechanics of Internet promotion and how pharmaceutical companies are being restrained from participating fully.
However, people have to remember that the FDA is not just going to listen to industry insiders when developing policy. They have to deal with Congress and very active and vocal patient/consumer activists who will have a lot to say about the regulations the FDA releases. Back in the 1990s when FDA decided to approve more robust DTC marketing, many said that the agency went too far.
Now, we have the Internet, which is some ways, is a much more powerful and pervasive medium than television. We have to remember that FDA is being pushed in many different directions. We may get regulations, but we may not like what the FDA does.
In addition, we have an article on our new knowledge community, Living the Path, summarizing the FDA's changing regulatory stance and how it impacts pharma and health companies.
Diva Marketing Talks is
a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30 minutes. 2 maybe 3
guests. 1 topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you
understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting
blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen
on your computer.
On today's Diva Marketing Talks we're Taking Tweet Chats Beyond 140 Characters. Twitter opened the door to interactive, real time networking, relationship building and learning .. one 140 character tweet at a time. The next generation of tweets takes it up a notch to structured conversations among many.
Note: Tweet chats are structured Twitter discussions that are
held at a specified time. All tweets in the stream are tagged with a
special hashtag to make it easy to follow the conversation.
Mack Collier is a social media consultant, trainer and speaker. He has been actively immersed in social media since 2005. While being passionate about the social media space, what truly excites Mack is the human connections that can result from the proper use of these social tools. His motto is "Don't focus on the tools, focus on the connections that the tools help facilitate."
His social media 'homebase' is The Viral Garden. In 3-years Mack has grown it into an influential marketing/social media blog with a monthly readership of over 175,000. He is also a frequent contributor to the website Marketing Profs, as well as the marketing blog Daily Fix, and small business blog Search Engine Guide. His writings have been referenced in several mainstream publications and websites, including The Washington Post, MSNBC.com, Ad Age, CNET, and The Boston Globe. @mackcollier#blogchat
Dana Lewis is an experienced consultant and freelance writer in the fields of healthcare communications, social media, public relations, and more. Currently an undergraduate at The University of Alabama, she will complete two bachelor's degrees in public relations and political science in May 2010. Dana co-created and moderates the weekly #hcsm (healthcare communications and social media) conversation. @danamlewis#hcsm
Marc Meyer is the co-founder of Hashtagsocialmedia.com. He's also the Director of Search & Social Media for Digital Response Marketing Group, A boutique digital marketing agency based out of Naples, Florida, and he writes about all things marketing, media and technology related at Direct Marketing Observations. @marc_meyer #socialmedia
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Dana Lewis
1. TweetChats are about people using Twitter to talk about one or more related things - don't put up barriers to keep people from joining the conversation. Also, don't expect to control the conversation. The best discussions aren't structured and are the ones that naturally emerge from the built-in community.
2. TweetChats aren't the answer to every "problem" facing a group of people. At some point, action is needed. The best TweetChats are those that serve as a water cooler for a community that is diversified and widespread. It's important to bring people together to share triumphs & brainstorm ideas to overcome challenges. It's also important to remember that we should take action & keep pushing the envelope!
3. There may be such a thing as "too many TweetChats". Don't feel pressured to take part in every group. Feel free to pick and choose when to participate actively and when to "lurk" or read over transcripts at a later time. Use these chats as resources & take advantage of the people who migrate to various chats - they can be perfect resources for your next challenge or project!
Complements of Marc Meyer
My tips come from some of my past blog posts:
1. Always be a first-rate version of yourself on Twitter, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else
2. Yea Twitter is cool, but in actuality what if it disappears tomorrow?. What will you do? So nurture the connections that you make and not the platform
3. What are you doing to enhance what you know and what you do? Are you enhancing the relationship, the way that you connect or creating a better conversation? Keep moving forward.
Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30 minutes. 2 maybe 3 guests. 1 topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
On today's Diva Marketing Talks we're exploring the world of online publications. What makes a great magazine? Content of course. Writers who have a
unique view point and whose “voices” are enjoyable to read. However,
with the onset of social media your favorite author may not be a staff
writer but a reader .. just like you. Publishing is turning into a
collaborative effort.
Deanna Sutton publisher – Clutch Magazine, Angela Benton publisher–BlackWeb 2.0 and Heidi Richards Mooney, publisher- WE Magazine for Women join me to discuss how online publications are dealing with this new genre.
Deanna "Dede" Sutton is the Founder and Editorial Director of Sutton Media, publisher of Clutch Magazine, The Clutch Blog Network and soon to launch -- Cullen Magazine, which serves as the brother publication to Clutch. After graduating with a degree in Marketing, Deanna Sutton set out to launch Clutch as a print magazine.
After successfully launching as a regional magazine, she soon learned that the print publishing industry served as a bigger challenge than she expected. In 2006, Dede saw a huge void in compelling and relevant online publications for young women of color. In 2007, she decided to take a risk and launch the first on-line magazine for young, contemporary women of color – Clutch.
Dede's vision was for Clutch Magazine to become one of the leading online magazines for multicultural women ages 18-35. With a passion for all things social media, she recognizes the power and opportunity that the new media platform presents. At Sutton Media, she is responsible for business development, marketing initiatives, and editorial and creative direction. Follow Dede on Twitter @clutchmagazineFacebookMySpace
Angela Benton is the Founder and Publisher of BlackWeb 2.0. BlackWeb20.com is a blog that analyzes emerging web trends as it relates to African-Americans and African-American culture.
Her experience spans a variety of industries including consultative
relationships with companies such as UPS, Bizjournals.com,
Realestate.com, and Lendingtree.com.Angela is a frequent guest speakers on topics such as diversity in the web and media industries, web trends, web strategy, and web 2.0’s effects on urban entertainment. She has participated on panels at conferences such as South by Southwest and Experience Music Project Pop Conference.
Angela graduated Magna Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communications with a specialization in Digital Design. She has also completed postgraduate coursework in Graphic Design from Savannah College of Art and Design.Follow Angela@abentonFacebook
For the past seven years Heidi has been studying the Internet particularly as it relates to growing a business online. Her focus for the past three years has been social networking. Heidi participates in more than a dozen social networking sites including MySpace, FaceBook, Linkedin, RYZE, eCademy, Xing, Yahoo Groups to name a few. During her quest for more information about Social Media and Social Networking in particular, Heidi has interviewed hundreds of experts on the topic including bloggers, email experts, forum leaders and Internet celebrities in the top ten Social Networking Sites.
In 2003 Heidi was named one of 50 women shaping the Internet by the International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce. Earlier this year she was named a Twitter Woman to Follow by Only2Clicks.com and in April her story: The Twitter Phenomenon appeared in Twitter Success Stories with Willie Crawford and 17 other Social Networking Experts. On Sept. 1st was named Social Networker of the Year by HER Mastermind Network (a top 20 RYZE network forum in the US). Follow Heidi @HeidiRichards
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Deanna "Dede" Sutton
1. Survey and Listen to your readers. 2. Create content that connects to your readers. 3. Continue to learn and grow as a new media professional by talking to others enthusiast and resources.
Complements of Heidi RIchards Mooney
1. Keep your audience in mind ~ know your niche. I made the mistake of trying to appeal to a much younger audience when my main audience is made up of Gen X and Boomers. I do still interview younger women in the 18-30 are range but that is more of a tactic to see if the younger audience is interested. I can tell by the number of comments if they are or not.
2. Find ways to make your magazine stand out ~ for instance I wanted to offer more than one viewing choice for my readers. In addition to the traditional PDF, blog posts and rss feeds, I wanted to offer the magazine in turning page technology. I looked at several options and because many of them were out of my budget or they didnt' offer all the features I wanted (such as a way to search contents and instructions for the user) I put the idea on the back burner.
About a month after I did all the research I received an email from a good friend of mine, Penny Haynes who is a software developer. She had created a program that not only did the turning page it also could automatically turn blog posts (by any category) into an ebook. I loved the technology and immediately signed up. Since then a few other of my magazine publishing friends have used her product. It is called Rss Zine.
3. Enlist the help of experts when you can. When I first started WE Magazine I went to the store and bought several women's magazines. I cut out all the pages of the things I liked about them. It helped us get a good start.
But I didn't understand about format. So we had lots of mixed fonts, text sizes and one big booboo, we didn't use columns to construct our articles. That made it difficult for our readers to read. A good friend of mine who had previously worked with a major national magazine called me and offered her help. Of course I said yes. We now have what I consider a "user friendly" magazine. We also have about 85% content and 15% advertsing which helps it stand out.
4. And finally, if possible join a peer group; if one is not available in your area, start one. Also another great group I stumbled upon was Magazine Launch. Although the site is relatively new, they have created a community where I have met and been able to discuss challenges with a couple of other digital publishers as well as help them solve a few of their own challenges. The best part is having a place to share resources and learn about the latest and greatest technology.
Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
On today's Diva Marketing Talks CK Kerley - Epiphany and
Valeria Maltoni -Conversation Agent join me to discuss what is frequently at the center of social media marketing .. the infamous "conversation." Can tools like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc., that were created
for just people to keep in touch with friends and family - not to promote
the latest computer or coffee products, be used by marketers to have authentic
conversations with their customers? How do we over come hurdles to keepin’ it real? And by the way .. what is real any way?
High-energy, high-impact marketing specialist Christina Kerley--known simply as "CK"--has been bolstering businesses, brands and causes for over 15 years. Her approach leverages the best of new world and old by blending tried-and-true marketing principles with new technologies (and new practices). More information, tips and goodies available at CK-Blog.
Valeria Maltoni
Valeria Maltoni helps businesses understand how customers and communities have changed marketing, public relations, and communications - and how to build value in this new environment. As a communicator with 20 years of experience, 10 of which online, she specializes in marketing communications, customer dialogue, and brand management.
Valeria has come to define modern business as a long and open conversation. Conversation Agent is recognized among the world's top online marketing blogs. Valeria was handpicked by Fast Company as Expert blogger to write about creating conversations between marketer and customer. She built one of the first online communities affiliated with the magazine.
She is a contributor to Marketing Profs Daily Fix, Marketing 2.0, Social Media Today, and The Blog Herald. She is on the Advisory Board of SmartBrief on Social Media. She is a co-author of The Age of Conversation, a groundbreaking eBook collaboration by 103 of today's top marketing writers. Valeria’s deep experience across a broad array of mid-to-large sized companies in the technology, health care, manufacturing, risk management consulting, non-profit and public sectors have provided her with a wealth of experience and insights.
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Christina "CK" Kerley
1: To succeed in social media, brands must get past thinking “technology” and, instead, think “humans.” As silly as this might sound, you would be amazed how often companies get sidetracked with “all they can do” with Web 2.0 technologies instead of “all the relationships they can build” through these tools.
Yet amid all this high-tech, we need to remember that people are on the other side of all the blog posts, comments, updates and tweets… and naturally, want to be treated as such. Thus, if a company wants to connect with people, they need to be more human, too. Otherwise, just like a lifeless ad, brands are going to be ignored (or worse, mocked).
*Action Point*: In all of your social media programs and communications, instead of focusing on the technology, focus on the people you can connect with and how you will use these tools to open communications with them, add value to their work and/or lives and help them connect with others who share like interests. This simple shift in focus will net extraordinary rewards.
2: Moving from ‘The’ to ‘Me’ is tough stuff (but leap we must). Up until now, when companies have spoken with their markets it's been in broadcasts from “THE” brand, not communications in the “Me” voice. Due to this sea change in communicating with customers, it can be difficult at first to find one’s footing and personal voice... but once companies do, they find it refreshingly natural and their markets find it much easier to communicate with them. Remember, it's hard to like a machine; but it's easy to love a person.
*Action Point* Decide which individuals in your company will represent your brand online and how their unique personalities will dovetail with the personality that you’ve already established for your brand. These representatives will now come to signify and be synonymous with the brand since consumers and professionals can now communicate with them (instead of one-way communications found in other media).
In turn, these representatives are able to build valuable customer relationships and brand advocates that will serve to benefit the brand through Word-of-Mouth mentions, referrals and recommendations.
3: To increase buzz, drop the buzzwords. Learning how customers actually speak can be a big learning curve. We have become so comfortable in our “buzzword bubbles” that we lose sight of how silly we often sound—this is especially true in B2B communications since the subject matter can be quite complex.
But we no longer need to guess or assume how our markets speak, because the Social Web enables us to see how they speak every day (and for free!). And the best marketers aren’t talking nearly as much as they’re listening.
*Action Point* Review online conversations from your market and compare those to your own communications… then assess where your language can be more conversational, less like a talking brochure. After all, social media is a dialogue not a monologue and people become very sensitive to sterile messaging and buzzword-laden conversations.
And for B2B brands, just because you’re speaking in a more conversational manner does not mean you’ll come off as unprofessional or too casual—you’ll just be that much more relatable to your markets.
Complements of Valeria Maltoni
1. Be honest about what you're looking for and you will gain insights in return. According to the 2009 Tribalization of Media study conducted by BeeLine Labs in conjunction with with Deloitte and The Society for New Media Research, market research and insight is the top purpose for companies that seek to build online communities. Successful companies:
Think about “tribes” and not market segments Treat their community as a network and not a channel Are customer-centric instead of company or product-centric Understand what it means to be social
Social media is not about a new media channel, it’s about the social taking root in all aspects of business. Businesses that are increasinly seeking more word of mouth for their products and services should be aware of the impact of group behavior on product and service influence and engagement - externally and internally.
2. Celebrate the people where they are, not the products. People within an organization who are blogging, or tweeting, etc. as part of their jobs can have “real” conversations and still represent the brand if they focus on customers and act human. Encouraging fans and evangelists, instead of shutting them down or worse, hitting them with IP infringement sanctions, goes a long way in doing that.
For example, why would you close down a fan site that is generating thousands of hits? Yet, that's exactly what Mars did. This is a cultural thing. Usually top management is focused on remaining competitive and that means on those processes that will allow the organization to operate efficiently and stay aligned behind its own message. Customers and employees rarely have a moment of celebration that is theirs in this kind of environment.
3. You need to like who you are and accept it. I recently wrote a post about it. Even on the Web, you've got to like who you are to sound authentic. This is valid for companies, brands, and people. The relationships, business, followers, whatever that may be, are all outcomes.
To have the outcomes, you need to be open to them. It goes beyond having a personality to embracing what you're about. It means allowing your employees to show their humanity. Is your organization encouraging that for real or are you just going through the moves? This is such a gray area at the moment.
For example, has your organization given any thought as to what it's going to do with the accounts in the names of the employees it is asking to tweet and blog on its behalf? Is it going to take over the account once the employee moves on?
That kind of consideration may be holding you back. Employees are also who you are - perhaps even more so, if they're engaging customers. Successful companies are embracing and facilitating conversations where and how they're happening without worrying too much about keeping it all inside the walls or about the popularity of line employees vs. the C-Suite.
Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
Today's Diva Marketing Talks with Susan Getgood, Roadmaps (blog) and Getgood Strategic Marketing and Liz Gumbinner, Cool Mom Picks and Mom-101 about how to build successful and respectful blogger relationships programs. Blogger Relations, as other social media strategies, have grown in complexity. The stakes are high and the give aways often over the top. But is it a credible marketing strategy?.
Susan Getgood has been involved in online marketing since the early 90s, and watched the web evolve from the first browsers to the interactive communities we participate in today. Since 2004, her firm GetGood Strategic Marketing has been advising organizations of all shapes and sizes on integrated social media outreach and internet marketing strategies that help businesses craft a positive internet presence, meet their customers online, build their brands, and drive revenue.
Prior to founding GetGood Strategic Marketing, Susan was Senior Vice President of Marketing at Internet software company SurfControl. Her professional marketing blog, where she writes about blogger outreach, internet branding and social media marketing strategies, is Marketing Roadmaps. She also writes a personal blog, Snapshot Chronicles, and a family travel blog, Snapshot Chronicles Roadtrip. Susan was named a Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research in 2008 and speaks regularly at social media conferences like BlogHer and New Comm Forum.
Liz Gumbinner
Offline, Liz Gumbinner is a New York-based freelance ad agency creative director and copywriter who's developed award-winning campaigns for brands including Old Navy, Mitsubishi, Ray Ban, and Universal Theme Parks. But online she's best known as the author of the popular parenting blog Mom-101, and the cofounder and editor of Cool Mom Picks, the influential shopping blog which was called "the online arbiter of cool for the swingset crowd" by Parents Magazine.
Liz was recently named among Nielsen's Power Mom 50 for 2009, and called one of ten Mommy 'Hood Gurus by Forbes. Liz is a frequent conference speaker and consultant to marketers on the evolving and sometimes volatile relationship between bloggers and brands.
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Susan Getgood
1. Good blogger relations goes beyond just getting the mechanics right – reading the blogs first, making sure the pitch is relevant, a fit for the interests of the blogger etc. You have to develop a pitch that is both relevant and adds value to the blog. If you can’t add value, you should advertise.
You want the blogger to pass the information on, through the blog, Twitter or another social network, and she or he is only going to do that if you give them something truly worth passing on. My post The Secret Sauce for the Perfect Pitch gives some ideas on the kinds of things you might consider. You also want to look beyond the features of your product to how your customer uses the product, what she cares about when she is using the product, and build your story around those feelings.
2. Don’t limit yourself to just the top bloggers in your space. Don’t ignore them either, but remember that the key is influence, not volume. A blogger with fewer readers but whose interests really match up to your product and service is probably going to do you more good that a high traffic blogger who is only slightly interested. Why? Because the smaller blogger may write about you more and likely has more influence with the readers about the topic.
3. The big splashy events get all the press, but small gestures can be far more effective in building relationships and your brand. For example, 1-800-Flowers did a great campaign recently honoring mom bloggers. Coinstar did a really fun, simple Twitter campaign on St. Patrick’s Day.
Build measurement into the program upfront, and base it on a measurable outcome, not an output. Think of it this way: No one ever went into business to raise awareness. The goal is to close the sale. So ground your measurement in a behavior, preferably purchase behavior.
Complements of Liz Gumbinner
1. Know your audience. Not all tech blogs, mom blogs, or food blogs are the same. You wouldn't pitch a story on a snazzy new drum kit to Sports Illustrated simply because "the demographic is men," and similarly, you need to be sure you're sending the right message to the right blogger.
2. Don't forget the word "social" in social media. Blogger outreach should be about relationships, not press releases, and I'll always give a closer look to the emails I get from PR folks I know. If you get to know a few targeted, influential bloggers and cultivate relationships, you're more likely to have better results than if you buy a list of 1000 and e-blast the whole lot of them.
3. Blogger influence goes beyond page views and traffic numbers. Those are old media metrics and only give a small piece of the picture. You'll also want to consider reader engagement through comments, inbound links on Technorati, Twitter followers, news media presence, and other places a blogger blogs. In fact high traffic may be at times a factor of good SEO and not engaged readership.
4. The pitch is always on the record, unless you have an agreement with the blogger that it is not. Which means bad pitch or an awkward exchange may make a better story for a blogger than the product you're pitching. If you keep that in mind every time you hit send, you'll generally be in great shape
More About Blogger Relations: Diva Marketing Pulse of the Industry Blogger Relations Study
Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
Today's Diva Marketing Talks explores a "new" demographic that is joining the social media conversation. Think that social media is all about Mils, Gen X or Gen Y? Think again. The Boomer Generation may be late to this party but will the shear numbers of the demographic influence SM? Des Walsh - Des Walsh dot Com, Barbara Rozgonyi -Wired PR Works and Carlos Hernandez - iRM Consulting, join me to talk about will the Woodstock generation be as open to naked conversations as they were to dancing in the rain sans clothes?
Topic for April 9, 2009: Boomers Step Into Social Media Time: 6:00p - 6:30p Eastern/ 5:p - 5:30p Central/ 4:00p -4:30p Mountain/ 3:00p - 43:30p Pacific Call-in Guest Number: 718.508.9924 .
Des Walsh
Des Walsh is passionate about the potential of social media for business transformation. As a strategist and coach he helps businesses and entrepreneurs navigate the social media maze and become savvy participants, developing their own roadmaps to fit their own strategic objectives.
He has been in business for twenty years as a communications consultant and coach, following a public service career with senior positions in education, the arts and major events planning. He draws on that experience to help companies handle the cultural challenge in changing from a traditional command and control approach to marketing and communications, to the more open, transparent world of social media.
Des is co-author of LinkedIn for Recruiting, now in its second edition and an e-book for small businesses, 7 Step Business Blog, recently translated into Mandarin Chinese. He is an Associate of China-based company CultureFish Media, which assists companies promoting their business online in China. He is also a Partner with the Colorado, based company ITBrix, which produces the social media, community building and collaboration platform WordFrame.
He is a regular speaker on blogging and social media and has spoken at conferences in Australia, the USA and China. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the International Blogging and New Media Association and a member of the Board of Governors of the International Association of Coaching. Des blogs at Des Walsh dot Com and Thinking Home Business. @deswalsh
He is based on Australia's Gold Coast and his motto is “have netbook, will travel”.
Barbara Rozgonyi
Barbara is the founder of CoryWest Media, LLC, a strategic social media, marketing and PR consultancy based in the Chicago area. She also publishes Wired PR Works, which is listed on Alltop, ranked in the Ad Age Power 150 and mentioned as one of the top sources for marketing content by junta42. Founder and chair of Chicago ’s Social Media Club, Barbara speaks frequently about how to get new media to work for you. WiredPRWorks@wiredprworks
Wired Works PR
Carlos Hernandes
Carlos is a Social Media Catalyst & Trainer to people desiring to be Web 2.0 savvy, but especially to Baby Boomers. Why so? In February of 2007, he elected to pursue a calling to help people. He especially identified with fellow Baby Boomers who were intimidated by emerging social media technologies.
He has been successful by working with individuals and businesses to leverage Web 2.0 technology in the sales and marketing initiatives. Carlos' has shown fellow professionals how to develop networks and connections via LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in an integrated and cross-promotional manner.
Carlos made this conscious decision capitalizing on his gifts of public speaking, problem solving and teaching. His knowledge is grounded in a 28 year professional career working for Westinghouse Electric & Eaton Corporations in technical solution sales, marketing and project management. Academically, he studied Civil Engineering at Stanford University's School of Engineering. iRM Consulting@carloshernandez
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Des Walsh
<>One of the best things and also one of the worst things about social media is that there are so many tools available which can help you build a business or kick-start a new career, and which are either no-cost or low cost. It's one of the best things because we now have, on a low or zero expenditure budget, tools which not too many years ago would have cost us thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars to buy or have built for us.
One of the worst things is that there are so many tools, so many services competing for our attention and love, that we can easily get confused, waste time with services that are not quite right and just get overwhelmed. We need to work on our social media business strategy, not just on tactics, tips and tools.
<>Baby Boomers who have been in business are familiar with the Japanese word “kaizen”, which when used in the context of Western manufacturing and other industrial and business processes is usually translated as “continuous improvement”: Tony Robbins re-badged “kaizen” as CANI – “Continuous And Never-ending Improvement.
Part of this kaizen approach is making small changes as you go, not just waiting for some major overhaul. So in the social media context, with low cost or no cost tools so readily available you can make changes as you go. And you no longer have to be a techie to make many of the changes.
<>Think global – if you want to. Or think small and local. One of the great things about social media from a small business point of view is that it allows so many people to live where they want and build a business which can be local, regional, or national or global, as they choose.
Learn how to be findable online, using blogging and other social media. More and more people go online to find what they are looking for, the product they want, the service they need. It's our choice as to whether they find us and like what they find, or find our competitors and never know about us.
Complements of Barbara Rozgonyi
<>Own your age by celebrating your accomplishments
<>Promote your technology heritage as being an early adopter way back when
<>Connect cross-generationally via alumni, networking and social groups
<>Position yourself as a mentor for people starting out in your profession
<>Talk about your collections, hobbies and interests to round out your profile
<>Post flattering and current profile pictures that look like who you are today
<>Be a leader people seek out for social media connections
<>Start out with LinkedIn and develop your professional profile
<>Go through your network and invite friends to connect online
<>Recommend and refer others when you see someone looking for help
<>Don't be surprised if you become labeled a "lurker" for just reading blog posts and the like. It is okay to go slow and learn about the various social media communities. You will know when you are ready to contribute a comment, status update or tweet.
<>Become more than a job seeker on social media networks such as LinkedIn. Tap your passion and knowledge to grow into becoming a thought leader. It's one of the benefits of being older by having made mistakes and learning along the way.
<>I like Tara Hunt's perspective, who was a recent presenter at Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco (Twitter's @missrogue). "What can you give away that won't make you broke?" Social media lets you share your talent for the betterment of others
Diva Marketing Talks is a live, internet radio (BlogTalkRadio) show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
Today's Diva Marketing Talks takes a dive into Social Media Communities or social networks. Liz Strauss, Successful Blog, and Nancy White, Full Circle, are our rock star guests who will explore if relationships built within social networks are real or an illusion. If there is value in social communities then how do you build and nurture them? In other words how do you get the "community" into communities?
Liz (Successful Blog) is a social web strategist and community builder. Coming from a background of publishing, business, and instructional design, Liz understands how people perceive a blog, a product, and an experience — how the head and heart engage to make a fiercely loyal customer. She can articulate what makes things irresistible — what keeps people coming back — from literacy, editorial, design, and marketing sensitivities.
Liz works with businesses, universities, and individuals to help them understand how text, words, and images work in the culture of the social web. She has over 20 years in print, software, and online publishing, and has strategized with publishers in Europe, Australia, the UK, and Ireland. She was recently a featured speaker at the Cass Business School of City University in London and will return in the fall to give a presentation and seminar for students at Oxford University.
Liz is a founder of the highly successful business bloggers conference SOBCon — that gained the attention of BusinessWeek, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Innovation Initiative of the Kellogg School of Business. She has been named to the Top 100 Social Media & Internet Marketing Bloggers Top 100 Most Influential Marketers of 2008, the 50 of the Most Powerful and Influential Women of Social Media, NxE’s Fifty Most Influential ‘Female’ Bloggers and her blog is listed on Alltop-Socialmedia and Alltop-Twitterati
Nancy White
Founder of Full Circle Associates (Full Circle), Nancy helps organizations connect through online and offline strategies. Nancy is an online interaction designer, facilitator and coach for distributed communities of practice, online learning, distributed teams and online communities.
She has a special interest in the NGO/NPO sector. Nancy blogs at http://www.fullcirc.com/ as well as teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media ( http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitymanual.htm). She is co-author with Etienne Wenger and John Smith of the upcoming book “Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities.”
Nancy confesses to online interaction, learning and chocolate addiction. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two grown sons.
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Liz Strauss
Some points that interest me right now ...
Malcolm Gladwell talks about it in his book, Outliers: The Story of Successon page 39 when he says … the thing that distinguishes one performer from another is how hard he o she works. That’s it. And what’s more, the people at the very top don’t work just harder or even much harder than everyone else. They work much, much harder. They do the work.
We're taught to be leaders on someone else's path. What path would be ours if we were never taught or graded?
Irresistible takes head, heard and purpose aligned toward the same goal.
1. Is this a community of friends/colleagues or a network? If the latter, how much of your personal identity is useful and what should you keep to yourself? (explore issues of boundaries, transparency and identity) Know how to figure out which is what!
2. Experiment - many of the uses of these tools are just emerging. But don't think you have to play with all of them. Better yet, experiment WITH others.
3. Be clear on what you need/want to do and get out of social networks. Purpose drives clarity to a path of useful participation!
Diva Marketing Talksis
a live, internet radio show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about
social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate
in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show?
You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
Today's Diva Marketing Talks explores the impact of social media sponsored conversations from both sides of the virtual fence: brand and content creator. "Auntie" Melanie Notkin, founder of the innovative community for aunts, SavvyAuntie andScott Monty, Global Digital Communications Ford Motor, discuss the impact accepting money or products/services can have on social credibility. We'll also talk about where blogger relations and pay per click fits into the picture. Question: Are social media content creators the new NASCAR drivers?
Topic for March 19, 2009:Do Sponsored Conversations Make Social Media Content Creators the New NASCAR Drivers? Time: 7:00p - 7:30p Eastern/ 6:p - 6:30p Central/ 5:00p -5:30p Mountain/ 4:00p - 4:30p Pacific Call-in Guest Number: 718.508.9924
Guests
Melanie Notkin is the founder and CEO of SavvyAuntie.com, the first online community for cool aunts, great aunts, godmothers and all women who love kids. Before launching Savvy Auntie, in July 2008, Melanie was an interactive marketing and communications executive for global Fortune 500 companies, including New York Times Digital and American Express, as well as L'Oréal.
Melanie is a regular panelist on the Strategy Room on FoxNews.com and a contributing editor to Toy Wishes Magazine. She and Savvy Auntie have been featured on NBC, CBS, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Charlotte Observer, Huffington Post, Mashable and TechCrunch, among others.
SavvyAuntie.com was ranked as one of Springwise's Top 10 Entreprenerial Ideas of the Year (2008) and Melanie was recently named a Heeb Magazine HEEB 100.
Scott Monty describes himself as a "Renaissance Man." Although he is a marketer and communications professional focused on the digital industry his career spans a number of industries from healthcare, pharma, biotech, travel, automotive, tech, to communications. Some of Scott’s past clients include American Airlines, Audi, Starwood Hotels, IBM Healthcare & Life Sciences, Boston Scientific, The Coca-Cola Company, Millipore, Motorola and Kraft Foods,
Scott is currently the head of social media for Ford Motor Company, where he holds the title Global Digital & Multimedia Communications Manager. While his role is based in the Corporate Communications area, he is a strategic advisor on all social media activities across the company. From blogger relations to marketing support to customer service to internal communications and more, social media touches many facets of Ford business, and Scott is there to ensure it is consistent across all of them.
Scott is an active blogger and podcaster. He writes about issues relevant to the intersection of advertising, marketing and PR at The Social Media Marketing Blog and also writes The Baker Street Blog, a literary undertaking. Scott has been featured in numerous news and business publications, on a variety of podcasts, and on national television. Scott is a recognized thought leader in the social media industry and frequently speaks at industry events. Scott received his Master's in Medical Science from Boston University's School of Medicine concurrently with his MBA from BU's Graduate School of Management.
1. Trust is something you earn. And it's the most valuable asset you have. Deserve it or fail.
2. As a company, you can't wake up one day and decide you are going to be authentic and transparent. It has to be something you were born with. And if you weren't born with it, apologize and be authentic and transparent about your journey to authenticity and transparency.
3. Social media and digital media enable us to be transparent and authentic. The minute you hire an intern to tweet for you is the minute you give the steering wheel to a student driver. From another country. Where they drive on the other side of the road. You'll never make it back home Complements of Scott Monty
1. You know the phrase from Glengarry Glen Ross , "Always Be Closing"? Forget it. Instead, your mantra should be "Always Be Listening." Thanks to the open nature of the web and the ability for any one of us to create content, we have the ability to track and understand what they're saying about us. Listening is the first step to providing value for your community. If you know what they're saying and what their expectations are, you're well along the way.
2. Give your community a unique experience. Most likely, you work in a market where you're competing for your customers' attention, whether you sell consumer packaged goods, consulting services, or technology. If you can create an opportunity for them to learn or get something from you that no other competitor can offer them, they'll remember you better and come back for more.
3. Be human above all else. Let people know that there are real people working for your company, whether its a small business or a multinational entity. If you can let their personalities shine through and make it easy for people to relate to them, they'll be more likely to trust you with their business.
Diva Marketing Talksis a live, internet radio show. 30-minutes. 2-guests. 1-topic about social media marketing. Why? To help you understand how to participate in the "new" conversation without getting blown-up. Miss today's show? You can pick it up as a podcast or listen on your computer.
Today's Diva Marketing Talks explores how nonprofit organizations are using social media to not only tell their stories but to encourage donations to their causes, build community and expand their reach. Beth Kanter, prominent social media consultant and founder of BethKanter.org, and Alex Brown, visionary of AlexBrownRacing, will share their insights about the most effective social media tactics to the ROI of social media to how to make it all work on a budget of limited funds and human capital.
A much in demand speaker and trainer, and she has trained nonprofits in social media techniques literally around the world. In 2009, she was named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week's "Voices of Innovation for Social Media." In March, 2009, she will serve as the 2009 Scholar in Residence for Social Media and Nonprofits for the Packard Foundation. You can also reach Beth on Twitter.
Prior to his involvement in AlexBrownRacing Alex worked in Business School Admissions and managed online communities for Wharton (Alex's interview with Diva Marketing). He's also written whitepapers on Engagement Marketing and Transparency and is a sought after conference speaker. In 1997, Alex was one of the first to teach Internet Marketing in 1997 at a higher education level. He taught the topic for 10 years and his innovative approach included to teaching was one of the first to include student and course blogs.
Tips From The Diva Bag
Complements of Alex Brown
1. Integrate and be deliberate. Your social media campaign should be integrated within itself and the remainder of your marketing. And you should be very deliberate in your strategy and tactics. ex. If you have a facebook group, and e-mail the group members. Then what is the strategy regarding using this e-mail outlet, and how do the e-mails integrate with other vehicles used. Just because you can should not mean you should!
2. Just because there is a social media tool does not mean you need to use it. Myspace may or may not work. Facebook may or may not work for you. Take risks and experiment, but then stick with what works for you.
3. Don't forget "old" social media tools. A discussion board is older than the web itself, yet it still might be your most useful social media tool.
