Pinterest continues to fascinate me by it's simplicity and ease of use.
However, if you peak behind the curtain it holds a similar sophistication to that of Twitter. Who would have thought we'd call a 140 text platform sophisticated communication?
Where this new visual social network will take us is the guess of crystal ball gazers and social media pundits. Neither of which am I.
I'm just a working gal who loves, not necessarily the technology, but the promise of what it can do to bring business back to the corner grocery story relationship. (C.B Whittemore's post) For me the two driving benefits of social media have always been:
1. Build and nuture relationships
2. Tell the story of the brand through the people who are its heart: employees and customers
If you get those right it's a marketing two step along the way to making the cash register ring. Oh by the way, don't drink so much of the Koolaid that you believe a sales is a direct result of Only a tweet or status update or even a pin.
As part of client work and creating workshops on Pinterest I develope a running list of ideas. Some are strategic and others more tactical but I thought I'd pass them along to help you frame your adventure (and it should be!) in the visual world of Pinterest.
Strategy
1. Determine how graphics as linked to content can align with your brand values brand promise
2. Determine how Pinterest will support your goals and business outcomes
3. Determine if your Pinterest page will support a specific segment or the brand at-large
4. Critical: determine your content direction that goes beyond your brands or company messaging
Board and Pin Creation
1. Include search engine optimize key words in bio, board and pin descriptors
2. Link images that you upload to an appropriate web/blog page. Amazing how many people forget to include a URL.
3. First rule of Pinterest Etiquette: never change the source link of images ‘borrowed’ from a website not your own
4. Build your Pinterest page as if it were a book: boards = chapters, pins = content body
5. Create a bio board that can be used as a “media page” for solopreneurs/small business owners
6. Create media/news board for larger businesses
7. Arrange boards in order of importance and change as needed the order as appropriate. For example, your Fourth of July board can be brought to the end until next year when you can move it to a more prominent position.
8. In creating your pin look at it through the lens of a great ad: strong visual, headline that grabs, copy that supports.
9. Board names should be creative but descriptive key words are a bonus.
10. Identify sites will you not pin (from)
Content
1. Although your pins should reflect your brand values/promise (Strategy #1) not all pins should be directly related to your products, services or company (Strategy #5). This is so important that I felt it belonged in Strataegy and Content.
2. Three pillars of Pinterest content direction: inspire, inform, imagine
3. Test live pinning for events/tradeshows. If you can't link pins to a site in real time (at the event) go back at a later time to add those important URLs. Example: Oscar De La Renta Bridal Show .. it's really cool .. go on click but come back please. To view the story read from the bottom up.
4. Create collaborative boards with clients and colleagues. Added bonus multiple pinners increase awareness of the board.
5. Review content that you’ve posted in other social networks. How can it be repurposed for Pinterest?
6. Review content that is not on digital properties e.g. white papers. How can they be included on your digital assets such as websites or blogs so that you can include them on Pinterest?
7. Test “pin it” contests. Keep in mind they will not come unless you tell them. Build an awarenss strategy into the overall plan. Example: Elizabeth Arden's PinItToGiveIt Cause Marketing used social media (Facebook, Twitter, bloggers) and traditional media (PR/Events-BlogHer). #PinChat with Christine Bennett, Manager PR for Elizabeth Arden.
8. Use Pinterest to support campaigns and programs runnng in other media
9. Pin to help your fans “create” not curate their boards
10. Take your community “behind the scenes” of your company e.g. a day in the life of …
11. Be mindful of copyrights. If in doubt reach out to the author, artist and ask for permission. Bonus you'll develop new relationships.
12. Protect your images with watermarks that include your URL or at the very least your company name. Example: Bella Cupcake
13. .Create a board to tell the story of your company/brand. Great examples from the State of Maryland Pitch Contest. Check out the Diva Marketing interview I conducted with Zoe Pagonis, Governor Martin O’Malley’s New Media Manager.
14. Highlight employees in creative and fun ways that go behind “business” accomplishments e.g. pets, shoes, sports interests, favorite quotes
Awareness
1. Cross post on social networks
2. Follow the people who follow you. Note: Following boards versus pages may be less overwhelming to your stream.
3. Comment on people's repin of your pins. It's nice to get an acknowledgment and never know where the relationship or conversations might lead. My comment on Irene Turner's board let to a new author for All The Single Girlfriends and a great new friend.
4. Build “pinner relations” programs
5. Add Pinterest links to support your media releases
6. Since Facebook does not allow for 'pinning' if you upload a graphic that might make for a great pin consider serving it on your blog/website or Flickr instead.
7. Add Pinterest link/Icon to Home page of your website And on the footer.
Research and Consumer Insights
1. Consumer insights for product development
2. Consumer insights support customer persona development
3. Completive intelligence
4. Consumer insights to understand meaning of the “ordinary” of every day life. For example what does "family" mean?
It is my pleasure to introduce you to the co-author of Marketing In The Round .. my friend Geoff Livingston.
One line in Geoff''s bio tells all you need to know to understand the man behind this newly release book. "He brings people together, virtually and physically to affect change and achieve higher knowledge."
In his third book, co-authored with Gini Dietrich, the focus is on integrating traditional and new media marketing elements and breaking down those stifling internal silos.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Let’s start this off with “Why this book?” Seriously, why does the world of marketing need this book now?
Geoff Livingston: When Gini Dietrich and I focused on multichannel integration, our logic centered on delivering ROI and outcomes for social media. So much of today’s conversation is about how marketers can get results from social. To us, that lack of results has more to do with siloed communications and a failure to integrate all marketing disciplines together. Integration also includes adding hard lead generation-oriented metrics from direct and advertising to the mix.
Even though that was a year, ago the problem persists. Two recent studies from the CMO Council and the CMO Survey showed that less than 10% of lead marketers are running well integrated digital campaigns [Geoff's post - What CEOs Want: Better Social Integration & Anaylics]. Integrating marketing and general understanding of diverse disciplines has become a lost art.
Diva Marketing/Toby: So many options. So little time, money and people. From your perspective, what is the most significant challenge facing the 21st century marketer?
Geoff Livingston: Without question, it’s understanding the modern stakeholder’s media experience.
Marketers think like media tools, literally. It’s as if we were media hammers. How can I get people to use my nail? How can I drive the nail home? But in reality, people walk around an entire media structure in which there are many nails, dry wall, support beams, screws, hex nuts, roofing, lights, tiles, etc. etc.
Until we stop marketing from our perspective, but from the perspective of the true media landscape as seen by our customers, including mobile, 21st century marketers will struggle.
Diva Marketing/Toby: The visual model ofMarketing In The Round is built with “marketing” as the center and let’s call them marketing functional areas (advertising, web/digital, content, direct mail, etc.) as spokes from the center. Based on your model, how do you define “marketing” that makes marketing unique from the functional tenants.
Geoff Livingston: The ability to build, maintain and administrate holistic communications and interaction strategy for an organization and its stakeholders.
Toby Bloomberg/Diva Marketing: Wondering... where do customer care, research and sales fit into the model?
Geoff Livingston: They definitely fit in frequently. When we present the Round concept live you’d see them brought into meetings frequently. They don’t usually end up at weekly meetings of the marketing group, but are an integral part of the larger customer experience, and as such, they end up attending CMO meetings almost every month if not more frequently. Ideally, everyone is closely seated together to help foster further integration.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Sounds like you’re restructuring the marketing department. Who leads the charge of Marketing In The Round if not the CMO? What skills/talents should that person have to make it work?
Geoff Livingston: It is the CMO.
That person should have a couple of skill sets. First, they are an administrator and a manager. Their job is to facilitate the marketing function from a resource and operational perspective, incentivize what had been here-to-fore silos to work together, and lead the department in its interface with other departments so that marketing acts as a networked component of the larger enterprise (as opposed to its own silo). Secondly, that person is usually a marketer themselves, and as such they need to have graduated from tactician to a strategist who can understand the value of branding, strategic approaches and tactics.
Diva Marketing/Toby: One of my favorite lines in the book is –“.. you lend that content to and community to outlying networks ..” (p 24) The question then becomes is what’s the source of the content and community?
Geoff Livingston: Usually, it’s the company. If the company is successful in its groundswell and top down approaches you’re seeing true customer word of mouth take place and they start developing content. Stakeholder generated content creates brand and product advocacy, as well as (hopefully) inspiring media stories, speaking engagements, analyst reports and other types of traditional professional content produced independently of the company.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Coming from a research background, I appreciate the time you dedicated to consumer insights .. both traditional and social media. It seems as though the concepts of “listening” and “monitoring” had different meanings in the book. How are you defining concept of “listening” and that of “monitoring?”
Geoff Livingston: It may be an issue of semantics on our part. They are closely related.
Listening occurs before, during and after a marketing effort. But in many ways it’s the harnessing of data – big data if you would. I think hearing is the ability to decipher that data into meaningful and regular intelligence. Monitoring to me is the practice of hearing that data intelligence formally and regularly as a company. Now, that’s my opinion based on the question. Gini may have a different take on that.
Diva Marketing/Toby: I really liked the charts, worksheets and resources that you and Gini integrated throughout the book. One of the Pros under social media (p27) indicated “inexpensive form of sponsoring messages on the social platforms.” Does this refer to “blogger relations” and are you advocating paying bloggers for their posts?
Geoff Livingston: I don’t advocate paying bloggers to blog on their site. I do advocate paying people to intelligently interact with bloggers to provide useful content ideas and guest posts wherever possible.
I pay bloggers for their posts on Inspiring Generosity. Getting great content for your site requires paying talent, in my opinion. I hate people that ask me to blog for free consistently without any clear value for my effort. It’s the primary reason why I stopped blogging for Mashable. The effort outweighed the value.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Several different dashboards ideas are presented. While I think dashboards are a great way to track and analyze do it right is a time resource/commitment. If a company can only manage One dashboard what would be your suggestion?
Geoff Livingston: There is no silver bullet, unfortunately. Whatever a company selects they will end up customizing it if they want meaningful analytics for their monitoring program. Google Analytics, Radian6, Hubspot, Marketo, and Eloqua is where I’d start depending on budget, from free to full enterprise.
Diva Marketing/Toby: In your travels Geoff, what organizations did you find that were doing it well?
Procter & Gamble does a lot better than people give them credit for. They are a brand management organization in the CMO sense, using agencies to execute tactics. I think they get social in the sense of when an agency or partner is doing a good job for them, and when they are not.
Google is doing really well, even the + network isn’t (or maybe it’s just bad press). Google clearly listens to feedback, and it seems to me they are becoming a social enterprise.
Etsy and Five Guys are brilliant at word of mouth marketing. Chrysler has proven itself to be a savvy advertising company in its current incarnation. And Apple is probably the best all around integrated multichannel marketing organization out there.
Diva Marketing/Toby: As is the tradition on Diva Marketing the last questions is yours to take and run with as you would like. What would you tell our community about integrated marketing in the round?
Geoff Livingston: This isn’t rocket science. Our book is not going to teach you black belt jujitsu. It is about the basic fundamentals of marketing together as an integrated multichannel organization. No matter how fancy your marketing strategy and tactical execution is, if you aren’t blocking and tackling, you will likely lose.
It’s a reminder about what worked before social, and what still works in the current digital marketing era, teamwork, and thinking together as collective communications team. That’s integrated strategies.
There I've said it. Now I'm definitely out of the P-closet. That does sound a bit odd .. well you know what I mean.
Couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of conducting a members only web cast for the American Marketing Association on Pinterest. The approach I took was a little different than the millions (not an exaggeration!) of webinars, presentations and posts that help you through the logistics of how to pin. Important no doubt but here at Diva Marketing it's a focus on the strategy and tactics versus the logistics.
I have so much 'good stuff' to share that I thought a series on Pinterest might be fun. Oh no Toby not another Pinterest post! Well, yes but we'll look at Pinterest a little differently.
As my friend Barb Giamanco the diva of social media for sales said to me - I get B2C but other then showing the "human side" of a B2B company I'm not sure of the application benefits. So we'll explore verticals and brands that you might not think "fit" in a social visual communication network.
Social Visual Communication
Vocabulary matters. No more pinboards when you talk to the C-suite please.
A CMO of a prominent B2B company recently told me she thought of Pinterest as a game for moms and didn't consider a "pinboard" a serious business tactic. Rather reminds me of the days of when blogs were called journals or diaries. Love this quote:
However, along the way we learned that if we thought a little differently that blogs could support business objectives. The rest, as they say, is social media history.
With Pinterest it's not only a matter of looking at the world a little differently .. but repositioning to include concepts and language that the C-suite (CMO,CEO) can understand and "get." As social media becomes more sophisticated and is integrated into the life style of our customers, it is no longer is a rogue tactic that flies under the radar and suddenly becomes the darling of the company. There is too much at stake.
I'm suggesting that we use the term Social Visual Communication.
We'll talk strategy, target market, customer insights of course. However, there are so many people that are off and running that I want to start inside out. With very basic website tactics.
Six Tips on How To Make Your Website Pinterest Friendly
1. When you're planning content on your site include an image as part of each text article
2. If you're not serving videos publicly e.g. YouTube include a graphic near the video.
3. Graphics should align with your brand promise and values.
4.Consider what images your target audience will feel comfortable pinning.
5. Consider how your banner is created. If someone wants to pin your page versus an article is there a non flash image that can be taken?
6. Last, but important since people are still hesitant to pin because of copyright issues*, indicate that you encourage pinning. Best placement would be above the fold. *Poll taken during the AMA Pinterest webcast .. 80% of respondents were hesitant to go forward with Pinterest because of legal issues.
Bonus if you're really forward thinking: I do believe the Pinterest format: horizontal, graphics, sharing will become integrated into websites as the norm.
Read more .. Diva Marketing Interviews with smozy/Kotex and Microsoft
By default this series began a few weeks ago with an interview with the CEO,Yael Linen-Zuchman, of an Israeli digital agency smoyz and the brand manager of their client Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly. They launched an innovative Pinner Relations (think blogger relations) program.
I also had the pleasure of interviewing BJ O'Hare, the woman in charge of Microsoft's Mouse Design Pinterest contest.
Reach out if I can help you with a Pinterest strategy. As you might guess, I've been sipping the Koolaid on this one (smile).
Recently Jay Baerasked a question on his blog that led to over 100 comments. Based on an interview that Guy Kawasaki conducted with INC Magaine, Jay wanted to know, "Is social media strategy required or redundant?" As I began to join the comment thread, I realized that my response was a "post" and not a "comment." Toss of a pink boa to Jay for inspiring this post.
From the content on Diva Marketing, you can probably guess which side of the fence I'm on. Not to make things more complicated, but especially in social media marketing, you can't expect to build a strategy without first understanding the "tools" e.g. blogs, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. etc. etc.
Much of our learning about social media/networking is derived from experience and experimentation.
When a new social network tool hits the virtual scene making the decision to include or not to include and when takes you down a different road than if you were to incorporate email, advertising or public relations. Why? Glad you asked.
Answer: We have no history to base our decision. At the early stage there are probably few examples from specific industries or customer bases. Dare I say it, at this point in the game there are no "best practices." It's not a surprise that many marketers take the wait and watch approach.
Although I agree strategy is critical, in order to determine if a technology should be considered you must first understand the tool. Although most social networking platforms include some sort of engagement and sharing features, each new category tool is slightly different. Each also brings a unique set of benefits and challenges.
I created a 4 step, call it a road map, to help you think thought the process. Let's use the newest darling of the social networks -- Pinterest as an example.
New Social Media Network Road Map
I. Before You Begin Questions
1. Does the brand lend itself to social visual content/communication?
2. Do we have the resources e.g. time, people and budget to create and maintain?
3. Will our customers and prospects enjoy and use this tool? Note: Your answer to this may be "yes" but your customers may not be using the technology yet. Now would be a good time for early learnings and testings.
4. Is our culture open to learning without direct ROI? Note: In the early stages of a social media technology don't fool yourself that you know where the real benefits will occur.
5. What unique issues might your company face? For Pinterest that might include: Terms of service, copyright, pinabilty of your own visuals.
II. Tool Specifics Incorporated Into Enterprise Social Media Guidelines
Example social network: Pinterest
Note: We'll assume that your company has created Enterprise Social Media Guidelines. If not here are some examples.
Note: These are not strategies
1. What type of graphics are appropriate and which are not?
2. What type of sites will you pin from and which will you avoid?
3. How will you manage Terms of Service and copyright?
4. How will links to your pins be handled?
5. How will attribution be acknowledged?
III. Create A Whisper Campaign
1. To learn in a (relatively) safe environment, I encourage clients to explore and experiment with the tool by creating a page that does not relate to the company, brand or aspects of their personal lives that they don't want to share in a public forum.
Perhaps it's about a hobby, favorite sport or your favorite shoe designer. Not only will you have an understanding of the logistics but of the culture .. critical in social media/networks. Have fun, learn and when you're done feel free to delete the page.
2. Don't have time to develop your own knowledge base? Find support through a consultant who has done the ground work and understands not only the tool but how it can support your brand, your culture and that of the social network. She can share critical learnings as she guides you to avoid mishaps in a new social networking space.
IV. Strategy
Now you're ready to hit the strategy route.
You know the drill here: goals/objectives, metrics, content and the beat goes on .. Keep in mind there are two ways to incorporate social networks into your marketing or business plan.
1. Stand alone - the social network is maintained as a long-term tactic.
2. Integrated - into other initiatives e.g. advertising campaign, trade show, new product launch campaign. For the most part, integrating social media into an imitative has a beginning, middle and end.
An example is the Pinterest Kotex Campaign where the boards were deleted after the campaign was over. (Diva Marketing Post: Kotex + Pinterest + Innovative Campaign) Or for a trade show the social media/networking elements may live forever on a special micro site.
Seems we can’t turn a virtual corner without bumping into a post about the hottest social network Pinterest.
What started as a playground for mostly women to share life style images is morphing into a serious business platform. Many brands, B2b, B2C, as well as, nonprofit and even the military and higher ed are pinning.
Recently I was contacted by an Israeli agency about a Pinterest campaign that they launched for Kotex: Kotex Inspiration Day.The strategy capitalized on Pinterest in an innovative way beyond brand pins on a board. Let’s call it a “Pinterst” relationship strategy a la blogger relations. In fact, it might be the first. But I can assure you it will not be the last.
Yael Linen-Zuchman, CEO of the agency smoyz, kindly agreed to fill us in on the back-story, offer her insights about the strategy and share some lessons learned.
About Yael Linen-Zuchman, CEO of smoyz. She is a 30 year-old who graduated with a BA in business in 2009 at IDC Herztelia Israel. She established smoyz, a creative agency in 2010. She's "always looking for the next (simple yet brilliant) big thing."
About smoyz. A creative agency founded in 2010. smoyz is an agency for unique marketing on New Media, specializing in creative and novel content activities and building optimal platform for the brand on the web.
In several questions Yael asked Eran Sion, Digital Marketing Manager at Hogla-Kimberly to share his views. We have a unique view of the campaign from two perspectives: the brand and the agency.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Yael, let’s start at the beginning. How did the idea to reach out to pinners come about?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: To communicate the launch of "Kotex Design" designed pads and panty liners by Kotex. We searched for an innovative social platform where women can express themselves freely and openly in a unique way.
Pinterest, and especially pinners, were found to be the best candidates because of the simple and brilliant (and not too invasive) way Pinterest works. In one simple action (pin) you can express yourself.
Diva Marketing/Toby: So, if I understand you, it seems that before you could reach out to women to give them the unique gifts from Kotex you first had to identify them and Pinterest was how you chose to do that.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: That is correct!
Diva Marketing /Toby: Although you were going into a new area of social marketing… call it social visual communication, as marketers we seem to always be held to the standard of achieving goals/objectives. What were the goals/objectives that the client wanted to achieve for this program?
Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly: Kotex is "the underdog brand" at the feminine category in Israel and therefore we looked for a unique and unconventional activity that will encourage Israeli women to talk about the products and rethink their habits and attitude towards the brand.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Since this was a novel approach to Pinterest, what did you/smoyz want to learn from the experience that might have been different from Kotex’s goals?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: We generally think the same as Hogla-Kimberly. We were looking for an activity that would generate buzz around the product/brand. My brief was to create the conversation and maintain the brand as the creator of the move.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Creating a YouTube video to tell your story of the brand strategy was nothing short of brilliant. Note: if you have not seen the video it's worth a click and watch.
In the video you indicated that 50 women were contacted. Let’s dive into what many marketers would like to understand .. your process of the hows and whys. Now, we’re not expecting you to give away any trade secrets Yael but a high level over view would be great.
How were the women identified? In other words was it done manually or through technology?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: The women were identified by a few categories: viral, trendsetters and active on pinterest (many profiles on pinterest are open though not active enough to be relevant for this campaign). The women were identified first via social media monitoring and analysis technology and then manually picked the most inspiring ones.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Did smoyz and Kotex develop a set of criteria e.g. age, country, type of interests, etc?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: We looked for profiles / pictures that could creatively be transformed into "real life products."
Diva Marketing /Toby: I guess it goes without saying, the women were from Israel (smile). Was an “influencer” or “power pinner” part of your criteria? If so how did you define that e.g. by number of pins, followers, ect?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: Yes, an influencer & power pinner were part of our criteria; we looked for profiles which are both active and both viral (followers wise).
Diva Marketing /Toby: What were some of the challenges that you encountered?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: The main challenge was to make the pinners cooperate with a commercial activity owned by Kotex. Because we were very accurate and relevant to the Pinners, we received fantastic collaboration.
Diva Marketing /Toby: From the video it seemed as though the gifts were a surprise. I’m curious as to how the women’s addresses were located.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: After monitoring an inspiring pin we prepared the gift and pinned a photo on our Pinterest profile (Get Inspired). Then, on each pin that we monitored we commented and added a link to the gift, in order to receive the gift all they needed to do was repin our photo.
The repin was a signal of their interest, the addresses were taken via personal message approach. We used both the @ symbol and both the pin & like in order to get their attention properly.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Your results were beyond impressive; especially since the women posted across multiple social networks. How did you track the analytics? Note: almost 100% participation.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: Technical social media monitoring and manually monitoring these 50 women.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Yael , I’d love to see how the women positioned their pins? Can you share a couple of the Pinterest board with our community?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyze: The profile we created, was deleted and no longer exist, that's why you can't see the photos. We decided to open the Kotex Pinterest "Get Inspired" profile temporarily and closed it after the campaign. (Note: Eran addresses this approach further below.)
Following are some of the women who participated in the Pinterest Kotex campaign.
Diva Marketing /Toby: My friends (and I admit me too!) are so curious .. what were some of the presents that were in the boxes? That must have been a fun part of the project .. making sure the gifts reflected the pinner’s interests.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: This was the most amazing part of the campaign. After locating each womens inspiration smoyz team went out for an inspiration treasure hunt.
We went to markets, malls, searched the internet..and finally bought 50 unique inspiring gifts. After buying these gifts artists designed on these gift the new kotex design look. Among the gifts:
A women pinning cat photos received two bowls designed and with her cats names. (Note: Maxie pup approves!)
A women that pinned sweets, got a kotex designed jar full of hearted sweets.
A women that pinned cupcakes & got kotex designed cupcakes.
A young girl pinned diaries & got a pocket diary with her name painted on the diary.
A women that pinned pastry-cooking stuff received a cooking kit designed with her initials.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Yael what fun .. buying presents. I want that job! By the way, does Kotex have a Pinterest page? And if they do would you be so kind as to give us the link? If not are any plans in the works that you can share with us?
Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly: We believe that any activity on behalf of the brand, should give true value to our consumers and reflect the core values of the brand. The latest activity did just that. We are in a constant search for a platform that will enable us to provide added value to our consumers – It does not have to be a long lasting engagement, short term relations are also welcome.
Diva Marketing/Toby: Interesting approach to Pinterest and social media. Not only short term boards for campaigns but taking them down after the run of the campaign. Eran, I'm curious .. why wouldn’t Kotex want the long-term awareness that the board would bring?
Eran Sion/Hogla-Kimberly: The main goal of our digital platforms is to promote awareness to the brand and we support them constantly. Nevertheless it would be ambitious to create constant excitement on behalf of Kotex on a Pinterest profile; but due the success of the "Kotex Inspiration Day" activity, we will examine our long term presence on the platform.
Diva Marketing /Toby: Diva Marketing is all about learning from each other. Yael, would you please share a couple of the overall lessons that you learned?
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz:
In my opinion New media marketing in 2012 is all about creating intimate moments with the brand.
These amazing platforms enable the brands to touch their audience in the most intimate way.
Conventional advertising and marketing cannot stand alone today without a simple yet brilliant touch to blow people away and create a real organic engagement.
Diva Marketing /Toby: In the tradition of Diva Marketing interviews, you get the last word. So the virtual stage is yours .. wrap it up any way you’d like.
Yael Linen-Zuchman/smoyz: Would it be cheesy if I quote my most favorite one? Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication -- Leonardo de Vinci
A few weeks ago I had an ah ha moment. It was something so obvious that it was almost a dah ah moment.
Within an organization social media is a catalyst for change.
Not only does social media come tied up in ribbons of change but it is wrapped in paper comprised of shades of gray. For enterprise cultures that are built on black and white directives introducing social media can be very uncomfortable.
Social media does indeed change the game for every company. Its impact is felt within business units/departments that traditionally were customer touch points (customer service, sales) to those that rarely engaged with customers (PR, IT).
Within Robert Frost's poem Directives, written in 1947, I found truths that spoke to me about social media and change.
There is a house that is no more a house
Upon a farm that is no more a farm
And in a town that is no more a town.
Sometimes, even before social media is integrated into the organization, the fabric of a company from profit to nonprofit to higher education, healthcare, government and all in between begins to unravel. Just a little. It might begin with just one thread. Perhaps it takes the form of a tweet that demands service when traditional channels disappointed.
One small call out that begins the process of enterprise change and a shift in culture. Is it no wonder that management often looks at social media with suspicion and trepidation? A cry goes out .. bring in the social media experts. Take care of who you choose as a sherpa. As Robert Frost's poem goes on to say --
The road there, if you’ll let a guide direct you
Who only has at heart your getting lost,
While an outside perspective from someone who knows the social media landscape, including where the land mines are buried, can be critical to success, the end of the road must lead back to your own company, culture and employees.
Involving your employees in authentic, public conversations is often one of the biggest hurdles facing the "social enterprise." How can you safeguard the brand, uphold the integrity of the brand's promise while allowing people to be what I call the "unmessaged" voices of the brand?
Jeff Wuorio has written an interesting post for MSN's Business On Main which provides ideas on how to begin to empower employees. My favorite suggestion is from Shilonda Downing of Virtual Work Team. Shilonda .. sound employee decisions should be rewarded not just through financial benefit, but also visibility.
Which brings us to the last lines of Directives ..
Here are your waters and your watering place.
Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.
Although social media serves as a change agent, which at first usually creates confusion and insecurities, social media gives back more than it takes.
Social media's secret gifts are in creating a stronger organization that is more responsive to customer concerns and more integrated employee involvement.
The results are opportunities for customer and employee loyalty .. which can lead to increased sales and decreased churn rates. Change can be a good thing!
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Business professionals plan. That's the way the DNA is programmed. Not only do we plan but if the organization has 2 people or more we meet. We committee. We review. We analyze. We build consensus. Then we implement.
In the world of social media where interaction follows a less controlling flow there is a fallacy that planning gets in the way.
Q: How many marketers does it take to respond to a tweet? A: As many as in your committee.
That's not planning it's the execution step. With smart planning the answer could be "one."
With that in mind savvy business owners are planning how they'll handle the biggest, craziest online retail day of the year .. Cyber Monday.
Wondering what surprises the Groupons and Scout Mobs of the digital coupon world have in store for us. (Side bar: retrevo post on the impact on Black Friday.) Wondering how mobile commerce will be used. Wondering how Facebook and Twitter will play the game. With so many options, you'd better plan!
On his MSN Business On Main post Cyber Monday: Is Your Business Ready? Randy Myers offers a few good get ready tips. My favorite is test your site. This is not the day for crash and burn. I'd have all of your IT people standing by to jump into action .. just in case.
So let's swing the pendulum to midnight on Cyber Monday. The last sale has check in. Your planning paid off. Your sales were off the charts from both your current customers and new customers. You made the sale now what? The big question is how can you plan to use social media to keep in touch beyond the sale? Of course this type of strategy took place during your pre sales meeting .. right?
Adding Extra fun. An Easy Contest Where You Win $100!
MSN Business On Main had given me 100 bucks cold cash to run a monthly contest. Thank you kindly MSN!
Your challenge: Share 1 idea how a business or nonprofit organization can use social media after the sale (or donation) to continue the relationship.
The idea that Max, I and our uber special guest judge, Paul Chaney, choose will win 100 dollars! Just in time for your Cyber Monday purchases.
When I think of Paul Chaney two thoughts come to mind: 1. pioneer in social media marketing and 2. a true southern gentleman. Paul calls himself the Social Media Handyman but his talents go far beyond. He's the author of three books, his latest Digital Handshake, contributing editor at Social Commerce Today and a very smart dude! Say "hey" to him on Twitter @pchaney and on Facebook.
Rules of The Business on Main/Diva Marketing Social Media Small Business Tips Contest
1. Post your tip for how to use social media for branding on this Diva Marketing post And on this MSN Business On Main Post. If you don't post on MSN BOM and indicate Diva Marketing you are not part of the game.
2. Identify your post on Business On Main with the words Diva Marketing
6. A valid eMail address must be included on the "Post a Comment Section" of your Diva Marketing comment. (How will I know where to contact you to send your check?)
That's it .. now it's your turn! Wouldn't $100 extra be nice this time of year?
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MNS Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
Paul's reason for his pick. I choose #1. Not only did the commenter provide more detail about his or her use of social media, but the approach taken is a good fit where brand-building is concerned.
It ties directly to what the brand is all about, encourages community members to engage pro-actively buy submitting content and, in so doing, helps them take ownership of the brand.
Thanks to everyone who participated and especially Mr. Paul Chaney, our guest judge.
.. a short post on a passing idea before the wind blows it away.
One of my guilty pleasures is watching food TV shows a la the Food Network. I'm no chef but I do ♥ to cook and ♥ these quasi reality shows. Shh .. my secret dream is to be a judge on the Iron Chef.
Recently I was watching the new show Sweet Genius. One of the contestants added apples to his baked dish. A lovely ingredient that would give his dish some nice flavor. The host, Ron Ben-Israel, noted the contestant didn't take into consideration how the extra moisture from the apples would effect the baking time and in turn the finished product. And thus this contestant was .. no sweet genius!
So I got to thinking .. how often do we add social media elements to our marketing strategies without taking into consideration how it will impact other departments e.g., customer service? Or the main goal of the strategy? Or that it might even cannibalize other campaigns?
One off tactic in your plan and you are .. no social media marketing genius!
How do you determine business success? Not only in marketing communications but in customer service or even with nonprofit programs. Just asking ..
"Why Toby," You might say. "You set a numerical goal and then see if you can meet it. It's called measurement and metrics."
"Ah, " I might say. "Yes that's good. Or is it really? Or might it be misleading? Is it enough? Could it be doing us a disservice?" Just asking ..
This week I was chatting with a friend who recently joined the staff of a nonprofit organiztion. Her focus is to manage social media for one of the non profit's community education programs.
She said two things to me that inspired this post. #1 - Her boss expected the number of friends, followers, hits to the site, etc. to increase within weeks. #2 - The major funding grant placed a high emphsis on site visitors.
Sidebar: In another lifetime I was marketing director for a nonprofit. Among other elements, our grants measured success by the number of people we serviced; as well as the out reach we did. So I am familar with the demands of funding source reporting. However, In this case, there is a huge disconnect and lack of understanding of social media from my friend's boss and the funding source. Perhaps a post for another day.
We use numbers as a gauge of success. It's fairly easy to count. We learned it watching Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, The Count and my favorite Elmo!
But is that really sufficient to determine the worth of your strategies? Just asking ..
I admit, going behind the numbers takes more time and resources. When was the last time you determined if you hit the "right" people? Or if "they" took away the end objectives e.g, behaviour changes (finding information online versus your call center), perception changes (branding), new skills learned (training)?
What was the impact beyond the numbers? Just asking ..
It's not difficult to understand the why we are stuck on the numbers. The history of business "success" is based on the quantitative.
Back in the Mad Men advertising days broadcast media success was about the reach and numbers. High Nielsen ratings were the gold ring. Decisions lived and died based on the figures. In newspapers and print publications (remember those?) the number of subcribers were what drove the ad dollars. It gave us a baseline. It was ok.
Then we stepped into the digital world and WoW! it was like walking into the Disney World of analytics. We could count Everything .. happy days! Our challenge became which ride (metric) to go on first (or pay attention to).
Then came social media. We had learned how to count our online strategy "results" from banner ads to website analytics. We transfered our hard earned knowledge from the web and began counting. Counting followers, likes, comments, posts. Life was good. Management could understand that type of "success."
However, with social media came something else. Something that we were never able to determine: who were the People Behind The Numbers. Huge. Powerful. Scary.
Hold on to your boas .. we can determine:
.. if we are reaching our target audiences
.. if we are acheiving our beyond the numbers goals
.. if we are relevant to our target audience
We are now really accountable for if our strategies resonant with our customers and prospects. Oh sure the numbers should matter but to a lesser degree. We should also be paying attention to if we are attracting and sustaining the right people.
Go Beyond The Numbers Tips
1. Review the profiles of the people who are Likes, Followers, G+, etc.
2. Analyze your LinkedIn connects based on the niche you want to attract as clients.
3. Segment as much as possible within limits of the social network platform. For example, on LinkedIn tag people, in Google+ put them into circles, on Twitter create lists.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10! What are your thoughts? Just asking ..
Update: Example of going behind the numbers - Brian Solis and ReSearch.ly analyzed 50,000 of Starbucks’ Twitter followers. What resulted was a rich,complex profile and a indepth understanding of likes and lifestyles. So much more interesting than just the numbers.
Ask two people if you should include social media as a part of your business communication strategy and you'll get at least three different answers.
MSN Business On Main offers an interesting post written by Polly Schneider Traylor Are You Wasting Your Time On Facebook and Twitter? Polly's post includes insights from a range of people working in B2B and B2C. She reminds us that for social media to be effective it circle backs to building a strategy that takes into account not only business goals (that can be measured) but understand where your customers are, as I like to say, hangin' out on the social web.
Part of my due diligence in helping people create social media plans includes talking .. lots of talking. Well .. perhaps not so much talking on my side more so listening.
I listen to the people within the organization. I listen to their customers/clients. I listen to what is happening in the "industry village" of their social web. This occurs before a decision is made on where to go or even if go.
Everyone who has ever created a stratgic plan understands this first step is nothing new but it is a critical piece of the foundation. Not only is it important to understand the views and expectations from both employees and the people they service e.g., customers but it's often the first step in building cross department buy-in. Keep in mind social media is more than a new tool; for many it is a change in how they approach business .. internally and externally.
To help you structure the due diligence part of your planning here are a 3 Questions To Ask to get you started on the road to building a successful social media stategy. Of course you will include more in your guide that reflects your objectives, customer needs and industry.
3 Questions To Ask Before You Build Your Social Media Plan
1. What does social media mean to you? The answers may surprise you. You'll find some people will define social media by the tools e.g., Facebook, Twitter, etc. while others by the outcomes such as sharing information online. The insights from this one question are extremely valuable to help you understand the different orientations.
2. Who do you think is doing social media right and why? This question has a couple of benefits. First, it provides tangible insights into what the person thinks is of value. Second, if nothing comes to mind it is a red flag the person might not be as active in the social web as he indicated. Or it could be an indication that there is a gap in the industry when it comes to providing social media innovation.
3. What type of content would add value to you building your business? This seems like a no brainer but lots of surprises surface when you include the words add value to you. You're taking this into what I call the realm of selfless content that may not directly include information about the your brand or products or services. The result is a stronger parternship relationship.
Bonus Tip! If you feel that you have to jump in and justify or respond to the answers then you are not the right person to conduct this type of interview. The more you (or someone else) is able to stay objective .. to listen .. the more you'll learn. And the result is? Right! A Successful Social Media Plan.
I'd love to hear and to share with our communty other questions that people ask as part of their pre planning due dilegence. Drop a comment. Thanks!
Diva Marketing is part of an online influencer network for MSN Business on Main. I receive incentives to share my views on a monthly basis. All opinions are 100% mine.
