by Miriam Hara | May 29, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
With mobile technology and the rapid integration of Social Media the world is speeding… no longer respecting any speed limit! In a blink of an eye the business landscape changes and many businesses are at a loss of what comes next. All business types are affected however it seems that B2B businesses are more at a loss of what solutions to employ. In a world that is speaking to each other 24/7, the lines are increasingly blurry on what is a B2B or a B2C strategy. It has been my experience that the strategies employed for B2B or B2C were always similar. It was the employment of tactics and the weight of each of those tactics that differed. In today’s environment I would say the tactics are now the same. Social Media and technology has allowed for niche marketing at a whole no new level.
Business resistant change is the symptom of change resistant individuals. Unfortunately or fortunately, a business in today’s world hinges on its ability to adapt, change and adopt new channels of communications. The market conditions have shifted and many who hold key roles in the B2B arena have no idea how the game is being played and what is the picture of success. So what to do?
1) Determine your objective. What will be your “picture of success”? How else will you measure?
2) Implement a strategy… one with a 360° degree viewpoint. Not one that does away with all traditional (classic) tactics just because everyone saying that print and direct mail are dead… but one that introduces some of the properties of social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, Mobile Apps, Blogging, Twitter, etc… The key word is some and not all…. there needs to be a good assessment of what will work for your business and what won’t.
3) Assess your web site. No longer is it enough to just have a brochure type of site. Your site needs to reflect your business’ social conscious and ability. You can’t create any sort of social metric if your site doesn’t support the initiatives. Remember, your strategy must be holistic.
4) Implement a 15-month plan with built in schedule measurement reports allowing for the possibility of changing, adding or modifying the existing creative properties to ensure success. Feedback is important for resonance. You need your marketing plan to reflect your audience as intimately as possible. The beauty of these new channels is the ability to adapt… to change… quickly!
5) This may sound like a Marketing 101, but here goes…. don’t do it yourself or in-house. You’re in the business of your business. You can’t assume to know everything, that is why community reach out, tests, surveys and all those old marketing tricks are important not only for accuracy, but for the growth of your strategy and a leg up on your competition. The business of branding, advertising and social media is a profession. At the risk of sounding like a rant: Just because you speak and write English, that doesn’t make you a writer… and just because you have a Facebook Page or a LinkedIn page, doesn’t make you a social media expert. Contact a Marketing Advertising agency and leave it to them to make your business shine. Your business will be their priority as opposed to fitting it in.
For any type of business an environment of much talk that “it” doesn’t own can be pretty scary. One of my Marketing Understood biz-ims (#23) is “Get bent!”… Yes! Flexibility is a must! There’s no use burying your head in the sand. That won’t help your business. At the speed of business and of life you need to get a handle (twitter) and a pulse (social engagement) before your target stops you or pulls your business over for not keeping your business up to speed.
by Christine Marr | May 2, 2012 | Branding, Interactive
In today’s market environment we want information instantly and that goes hand in hand with web site performance. We increasingly have a shorter attention span and more and more the concept of brand loyalty is taking on a broader definition than, say, a decade ago. The most relevant reason for all of these to have occurred rests on the “internet”… and more specifically, web sites. It is a property that has taken its place in the brand conversation in junction with social media. No longer can you separate the two. Both combine to provide a stronger brand presence and brand premise. So how can you maximize your ROI on your web site performance and social media. How can you develop, build and maintain that elusive relationship with your consumers, audience and market.
The short answer is that it is no longer important only to get visitors to go to your site… your site is now the basis of the total social media umbrella. Enhancing your web site performance is key. Your web site should be the gateway and the destination through your other social media properties such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Branch Out, Pinterest…. How to do that?
Here’s a quick list:
1. Navigation should be intuitive and make sense. Make your visitor comfortable, it should be easy for them to find what they want from the home page. It goes without saying that you need to look at your competition and see what they are doing. However, you must determine what will provide optimal user experience for your target. The faster and easier the navigation, the more customers will return to your site and stay longer.
2. Content is king… it is important to address your customers’ pain. Do this visually for greatest impact…. and do this copy wise for clarity of position as well as keyword optimization. Find out what keywords are “key” to your industry and speak to them. I am not suggesting that you place every key word on every page… that’s not going to do well. Exercise judgement and common sense. Seasoned marketing professionals and writers will know how to do this well. Make sure you provide your target with a clear understanding of what their pain is, what their needs are and how you can help eliminate their pain. Connect with them on an emotional basis.
3. Again….content is king… it’s important to get in your target’s radar by providing them relevant and timely information. Gone is the the brochure-type of web site. Sites that don’t allow for fresh updates, new posts or tips are losing a huge opportunity in engaging with their customer base and developing a dialogue and relationship with customers. Write tips or mini articles…. share them on Facebook, tweet….regularly and consistently. This will to a long way in gaining the trust of your customers and convince them that you can answer their pain. Blogging is great for keeping your content fresh, so you are found more often.
4. One more time….content is king…. it is no longer important to only get visitors to go to your site… your site needs to motivate them to spend time browsing through your pages withe information that is relevant to them, so much so that they feel compelled to provide their information on your website so then you can engage them on a one to one, or digitally or as part of your community. This is what is called inbound marketing. Create relevant information that lives independently of your site… but still adds value to your potential customers… and adds value to your brand. Web sites need to be built integrating forums or blogs, and providing fresh and diverse information on the home page to continually improve SEO (Search engine optimization) and get found. More importantly this provides a very effective way to generate leads and integrate sales initiatives.
5. Create buzz and excitement driving people through facebook, LinkedIn and traditional and digital media. We are currently running a campaign for Kressmann Wines through Facebook, Twitter, digital and print ads. In less then 24 hours we received over 1400 likes on Facebook and have now started engaging with our community. We are constantly commenting and interfacing with our customers and of course, driving them to the web site as well! This can easily be done in the b2b arenas, niche markets and for community businesses. The digital arena allows for such precise slices of target segments so every dollar you spend is accounted for and relevant!
6. Information, not data, is key as success is in the measurement….! Track your site’s and social media progress and traffic, and respond accordingly. It’s not about just creating a promotion and just leaving it alone. You need to work it! It’s important to set your google analytics properly so you can respond and react to the information you are receiving. Metrics are important to evaluate where your visitors are coming from, why, and what actions they have taken once they land on the site.
7. Keep it fresh… is not only a good adage for food, but for web sites too. Monitor your site on a regular basis. Monitor every page of your site, catch broken links or improve on the elements, make sure pages load quickly. Revisit the site with fresh eyes and fine tune accordingly. Don’t let it go stale. Too often, sites get all the attention when they are being developed and then left alone. That’s a sure way of not being in harmony with the market!
Simple, compelling, engaging, fresh, exciting and trackable. Make your site work for you! Achieve inner peace with your site… Ohmmm.
by Madi Secareanu | Apr 24, 2012 | Branding, Business Success, Interactive, Social Media
Just in time for spring, something new is in the air and it’s time for you and your business to BranchOut!
When my colleague Sal mentioned that he had been invited to join BranchOut, I wasn’t familiar with what it was. Was it a Facebook app? Was it a new network? No… it’s actually a free application that allows you to create a professional profile on Facebook! But, that’s not all it is… it offers Facebook users much more than that. Now that I was aware of it, I started seeing it everywhere. The Internet was buzzing with headlines about BranchOut being LinkedIn’s biggest competition. But back to our initial question, what exactly is it? Is is a LinkedIn me too?
With BranchOut, users can use their Facebook friend networks to find jobs, recruit employees, and strengthen relationships with professional contacts. BranchOut is quite simple. Users can find connections through their extended friend network. When users search for a company on BranchOut, they get a list of friends and friends-of-friends who work at that specific company and they can request to connect with them.
It differs from LinkedIn quite a bit, but there are some similarities as well.
The similarity to LinkedIn: Although it offers a networking opportunity, BranchOut seems to push the user’s ability to access jobs and recruit talent more than anything – building on the idea that landing a job depends on who you know.
The difference with LinkedIn: LinkedIn also has the job-recruiting element and also allows users to have and make an online professional network but it differs by encouraging users to participate in online networking through interest groups and company pages. This is also where brands and companies tend to have the most presence and the most success on LinkedIn.
What does BranchOut offer and what doesn’t it offer?
BranchOut, for now, does not seem to offer the ability to create interest groups or company groups. So, aside from recruiting, how can brands and marketers benefit from BranchOut?
For one, it’s worth having a presence on BranchOut. With over 400 million professional profiles, presence marketing on BranchOut is key. If you are an individual and you represent your brand, it’s worth expanding your reach…it’s another place to promote your brand and yourself while connecting with potential new clients or like-minded professionals. 3H is on BranchOut, you can connect with my colleague, and 3H CCO, Miriam Hara here.
Like all social media, I’m sure BranchOut will grow and evolve. The seeds have been planted but we’ll have to stay-turned and see how it evolves to meet our brand and marketing needs. What features do you think BranchOut should add in order for it to grow to benefit brands and marketers alike?
Join the conversation! Leave your comments below and subscribe to 3H hoopla! here!
by Miriam Hara | Apr 5, 2012 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Social Media
Is the way we are communicating SAFE? Has the less “physical” interaction that we are now all adopting with so much enthusiasm curtailed our ability to develop original thinking and thought provocative inventions and innovations? Has being faceless allowed us to be impolite, rude and COLD?
Humans have never been more “social” then in the present… and yet, recently, on a discussion I posted on Linkedin, I received one statement that left me quite chilled! My discussion point was very succinct: Is the way we communicate digitally impacting negatively on the way we network in business or not? This discussion topic, based on a post to our company blog Hoopla, written by one of my colleagues about the “social in social media.”
With the onslaught of social media, the ability to communicate has never been easier nor more immediate. But does more mean less? Is the quality of the communication and the connection as important or as necessary as it was in the past, a mere 2 or 3 years ago? Has our ability to be considerate been diminished by the fact that we can be impersonal. That we are one step removed from the person trying to connect with us. No longer is a voice or a face to the conversation reminding us that there is a person at the other end of the communication. We have become fonts and letters.
In my original discussion, there was much conversation over how relevant the Connections were and that having replaced the “personal” in the interaction with a computer screen that communication has become faceless. The one comment that I previously referred to was stated by a fellow group member from the Marketing Executives Group, Caron Hughs , and it is the one I really would like your opinion on. This statement is the reason for this post.
“… There are few left who practice manners in acknowledging a phone call, or an email. It is far easier to ignore someone’s plea for help if you are not looking into their eyes. It is far easier to miss a career changing proposal because you are too busy to read an email or return a phone call. We are becoming a very SAFE society in the way we communicate … and there are no manners, or “outside of the box” thinking in our communications. We choose to respond to what is safe and what is familiar … and from that the great new ideas that could be born to life in a collaborative effort are fading away. Even in entertainment … could there be any more remakes from stories of old or copycat competitions born from the original’s success?”
When I read her comment, it made me realize how much of what she said is accurate. You only have to look to fashion, listen to music, look at design and see how re-inventing the old has become the norm. Where is the trend-setting? What is new and novel? Even Lady Gaga… has taken so much of Madonna… in attitude but also in sound and music. Madonna was the first, Micheal Jackson was a first, the Beatles were a first and so were the Rolling Stones. They were and are original. They made the moves. They struck the cords. They established the trends. Okay, so that is music…. what about fashion? Dare I say sunglasses…. big buggy sunglasses, or how about the new Aviator look? And let’s speak to design… Retro is in!!! Yes indeed… everything new… well, isn’t.
So has social media and the ease of communication lessened our ability to think outside the box because we spend so much time staring into a frame….so to speak?
What are your thoughts on this?
by Christine Marr | Mar 2, 2012 | Business Success, Social Media
I love the ‘social’ in social media. The Creative Director at 3H says: Social Media is the new way of networking… and she is absolutely right. Just think, every time you post a comment to a group discussion on Linkedin, or stumble upon a peer’s blog, when you have something to say… it starts the social networking process. We aren’t going to an event nor do we have a glass of wine in our hands (or maybe we do!), but the premise is the same. Meeting people (peers, or contacts) connecting in a way that adds value. As we evolve in our own social media worlds, it’s nice to see that online social behavior is pretty much the same as it is in real life settings. People help people, share secrets, share stories, complain, compliment…
Recently, we started a discussion within a peer group on Linkedin which lead to one of my colleagues, Miriam Hara, to participate and comment on a post, outside of our blog… outside of any of our usual social media circles. Unknown to us, Miriam’s image did not appear beside her post. We were pleasantly surprised to be notified by Andrew, the voice behind SteinVox, the blog where we had participated in a discussion. He notified Miriam that her image was not beside her post and took the time to write Miriam an email, advising her of the issue and providing her the information to fix the issue. We had already set up and created an account with Gravatar but I guess something was amiss… so we simply updated the image and it appeared. What left a smile on our face was the gesture from Andrew, that he took the time to explain this to us, someone we had only online interaction with. Just before the holidays I wrote a post about random acts of kindness that spoke to human interaction…This is in the same league.
So what is Gravatar? Gravatar is associated with WordPress and it is brilliant. Your “Gravatar” is an image of you that appears beside your name when you do things like comment or post on a blog. This image helps identify your posts on blogs and web forums. It is very simple to do, and it’s free!
Simple features such as a Gravatar add to our overall virtual experience and make social media seem more real. Furthermore, social media is continuously finding ways to help bridge the gap between online and offline communication by discovering ways to make social networking more “social.” No matter where we are or what we do, we are able to stay connected with friends and family through the virtual world and this is something that was not available prior to the introduction of social networking. We now have the ability to have multiple conversations on-the-go. We can form new relationships and strengthen existing ones regardless of location and even time zones.
Humans have an innate drive for interpersonal communication and the need to form relationships. We are social creatures and new technology such as social media helps to fulfill our social need and ultimately brings us closer together. On a professional level, it is simply awesome. It has never been easier to interact with people that have like-minded interests within the business community…worldwide…instantly.
