What I learned:
Whole Foods really does utilize the many different avenues of Social Media, and they do it well - from corporate to the local markets. They inform and engage their shoppers. Some of the many vehicles they use are Corporate + Local FB fanpages (what are they calling them now, 'like-pages'?) Gowalla, Foursquare, twitter... and on and on. They are really tapping into the new technology.
Best Buy really uses social media to connect and personalize their company for their shoppers. They concentrate on helping their customers rather than speaking to them. Employees have it on their iPhones and they respond as they see comments. Everyone is empowered to socialize.
Home Depot is also focused on customer support. They will open all night in weather emergencies and they broadcast this via Twitter. They are focusing on customer service and accessibility. Social media allows them to gather feedback and to personally reach out to their individual customers. Like Whole Foods, corporate created a Landing Page and their social media gets directed from there. It gives them a credibility that sets them apart from the fraudulent copy-cat sites.
This session was a series of quick hit case studies of how large companies use the social media, which I found interesting.
in the Q&A, some of the interesting responses were:
How many people do you have dedicated to SM? Best Buy: 2,600 (obvious), Whole Foods: 6, Home Depot: 2 dedicated and a slew of customer service reps that were already employed in this area.
How do you find a conversation and when do you jump in? Scan the 'room', do not pitch or sell within a stream.
What is the one takeaway you can share?
WF: had a retweet contest - one instance, a customer 'won' and had their tweet retweeted (with a defamatory slang) which resulted in a backlash via blogs, etc.
BB: Listen to your customers. Take the feedback seriously. Use it to shape what you do and how you do it. Take risks.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Getting the Most out of LinkedIn
I didn't have high hopes at the start of this session because the first 10 minutes were sucked up by Lewis Howes talking about how he'd had a sports injury. I was less than thrilled and figured this would be another hour-long self-promotion.
Then he got into the nitty gritty of his session.
I found it immensely useful and interesting. Personally, LinkedIn is my favorite of all the social networks because its very focused. There isn't the fluff and silly apps like there are on some of the others. As a surfer, the variety and substance of the groups is comprehensive.
He really delivered on the title of the session: Getting the Most out of LinkedIn.
He immediately addressed how to get more connections and how to be found the most in searches (to come up first in a search list, if possible), such as the 5 places you need to have your associated keywords (like Marketing, Crafts, Sports, etc.):
1) Your headline
2) Current employment
3) Past employment
4) Summary
5) Specialties
Additional areas to place keywords are in titles of articles and within the body of the articles.
But be sure to fit these keywords into your messaging, rather than forcing the words.
We all know the key to presentation content:
Tell them what you're going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you told them
Lewis suggests the same tactic for your LinkedIn profile. Say who you are and what you have to offer - you know the drill. Also, this is the place to put your website but make sure you label them in an interesting/enticing way. Instead of http://www.xyz.com/, put in something about your website thats special, for instance: LewisHowes.com free sports social media videos (this puts your keywords in yet another area).
I'm not sure this will translate on the recording, but go the far right of the 'menu' and, on the pulldown, click on Website, then click on Other. - here you can customize your website url/descriptive.
For your Headline: be sure to tell something about YOU, your goals, passions, and why you do what you do. People want to know you - who you are, why should people do business with you and who you help (your audience). One of his key hints is that it should NOT be a resume. It should look like a professional profile. One of his main hints is to get rid of bullets, they look like ppt and not the format for this forum.
Use Specialties. Here, use your keywords - at least 1-3 of them and list them vs a long string separated by commas.
Recommendations - the more you have the better. How do you get them? Give them, 'nuff said.
Welcome message: Make sure to put a call to action here, "sign up for our newsletter to get social media tips, tricks and hints". This helps build your database.
One this I found very interesting is that within a Group, you can create Sub-groups so that emails can be sent to just a region vs nationally, for instance.
To add blog applications, Amazon widgets, etc., go to MORE, this drags an rss feed and adds it to your profile.
Once you have your groups, you can create EVENTS. Signing up for your events also allows you to gather a database.
One of the questions I was wondering was: Can you create a Corporate LinkedIn profile? The answer is No, but you can create a 'company page'. This was brought up by someone else on the Q&A, and he didn't specify what that was, and I'm not certain if that is just a Group or not. Of course LinkedIn was having issues (perhaps from all of the SMSummit attendees checking out the site at the same time??) so I couldn't check it out. But I plan to.
To go to Lewis's website and get free helpful videos, go to http://www.lewishowes.com/
Then he got into the nitty gritty of his session.
I found it immensely useful and interesting. Personally, LinkedIn is my favorite of all the social networks because its very focused. There isn't the fluff and silly apps like there are on some of the others. As a surfer, the variety and substance of the groups is comprehensive.
He really delivered on the title of the session: Getting the Most out of LinkedIn.
He immediately addressed how to get more connections and how to be found the most in searches (to come up first in a search list, if possible), such as the 5 places you need to have your associated keywords (like Marketing, Crafts, Sports, etc.):
1) Your headline
2) Current employment
3) Past employment
4) Summary
5) Specialties
Additional areas to place keywords are in titles of articles and within the body of the articles.
But be sure to fit these keywords into your messaging, rather than forcing the words.
We all know the key to presentation content:
Tell them what you're going to tell them
Tell them
Tell them what you told them
Lewis suggests the same tactic for your LinkedIn profile. Say who you are and what you have to offer - you know the drill. Also, this is the place to put your website but make sure you label them in an interesting/enticing way. Instead of http://www.xyz.com/, put in something about your website thats special, for instance: LewisHowes.com free sports social media videos (this puts your keywords in yet another area).
I'm not sure this will translate on the recording, but go the far right of the 'menu' and, on the pulldown, click on Website, then click on Other. - here you can customize your website url/descriptive.
For your Headline: be sure to tell something about YOU, your goals, passions, and why you do what you do. People want to know you - who you are, why should people do business with you and who you help (your audience). One of his key hints is that it should NOT be a resume. It should look like a professional profile. One of his main hints is to get rid of bullets, they look like ppt and not the format for this forum.
Use Specialties. Here, use your keywords - at least 1-3 of them and list them vs a long string separated by commas.
Recommendations - the more you have the better. How do you get them? Give them, 'nuff said.
Welcome message: Make sure to put a call to action here, "sign up for our newsletter to get social media tips, tricks and hints". This helps build your database.
One this I found very interesting is that within a Group, you can create Sub-groups so that emails can be sent to just a region vs nationally, for instance.
To add blog applications, Amazon widgets, etc., go to MORE, this drags an rss feed and adds it to your profile.
Once you have your groups, you can create EVENTS. Signing up for your events also allows you to gather a database.
One of the questions I was wondering was: Can you create a Corporate LinkedIn profile? The answer is No, but you can create a 'company page'. This was brought up by someone else on the Q&A, and he didn't specify what that was, and I'm not certain if that is just a Group or not. Of course LinkedIn was having issues (perhaps from all of the SMSummit attendees checking out the site at the same time??) so I couldn't check it out. But I plan to.
To go to Lewis's website and get free helpful videos, go to http://www.lewishowes.com/
Friday, May 7, 2010
5 Ways to Measure Social Media Success
I didn't find this seminar particularly insightful. I felt like it was a lot of common sense on how to measure and monotize but it's good to know that nothing new has popped up in the industry yet. He did mention the following two free research sites which I think I'll check out - but they would be for small businesses mostly...not really us.
socialmention.com
Trakker
socialmention.com
Trakker
How A Chicago Pizza Man...
Okay, I was blown away by the presentation by Domino's pizza guy, Ramon Deleon. This was my favorite presentation yet and really showed creative, responsible ways to use twitter and facebook to run ultra-successful campaigns. Everyone I've heard talk about Twitter always says the same thing:
1. Use it to monitor your brands conversation online
2. Use it to respond to customer complaints and show you care
Ramon however is taking it to the next level and finding ways to engage his audience and make them feel like close personal friends of his brand. The marketing ideas he employs, although highly creative, aren't unusual. What is unusual is how he uses social media to its fullest extent by monitoring the brand conversation as well as DIRECTING the brand conversation. He uses twitter, facebook, video and photo-sharing in all the ways we've been told it will work. And it's working. The one real key to his success, in my opinion, wasn't talked about in the presentation - but it was there. He has a strategy for everything he does. He throws things against a wall - but with a conscious marketing strategy.
He uses a twitter monitoring application that allows you to monitor conversations by location - perfect for so many retail businesses. This way he isn't wasting time courting a customer in Oregon or worrying about deals he announces getting confused in other areas of the country at other Domino franchises. He also promotes other people's twitter accounts on the inside of the pizza boxes, takes pictures of the promotion and send it to the twitter account holders. Wouldn't you be loyal to someone who did that for you? Ramon is making Domino's more than a friend - he's making it a best friend and/or business partner.
I was hoping someone would ask him how much time he spends on social media since the level in which he plays in the field seemed enormously time consuming. Low and behold someone DID ask. The answer was disappointing but not surpising: an average of 8 hours a day. The guy works closer to 12 hours a day but 8 are spent on social media. It just goes to show that if you are going to do it right, you can't cheat it. You need a person who is excited to do it, given the time necessary time (all of it), and someone you trust holding your brand. ALSO the person needs to take acceptable risks, and be given the freedom to do so. These requirements are so different from the way corporations have hired in the past. It's a whole new world out there. Make sure you watch this video - it's well worth it.
1. Use it to monitor your brands conversation online
2. Use it to respond to customer complaints and show you care
Ramon however is taking it to the next level and finding ways to engage his audience and make them feel like close personal friends of his brand. The marketing ideas he employs, although highly creative, aren't unusual. What is unusual is how he uses social media to its fullest extent by monitoring the brand conversation as well as DIRECTING the brand conversation. He uses twitter, facebook, video and photo-sharing in all the ways we've been told it will work. And it's working. The one real key to his success, in my opinion, wasn't talked about in the presentation - but it was there. He has a strategy for everything he does. He throws things against a wall - but with a conscious marketing strategy.
He uses a twitter monitoring application that allows you to monitor conversations by location - perfect for so many retail businesses. This way he isn't wasting time courting a customer in Oregon or worrying about deals he announces getting confused in other areas of the country at other Domino franchises. He also promotes other people's twitter accounts on the inside of the pizza boxes, takes pictures of the promotion and send it to the twitter account holders. Wouldn't you be loyal to someone who did that for you? Ramon is making Domino's more than a friend - he's making it a best friend and/or business partner.
I was hoping someone would ask him how much time he spends on social media since the level in which he plays in the field seemed enormously time consuming. Low and behold someone DID ask. The answer was disappointing but not surpising: an average of 8 hours a day. The guy works closer to 12 hours a day but 8 are spent on social media. It just goes to show that if you are going to do it right, you can't cheat it. You need a person who is excited to do it, given the time necessary time (all of it), and someone you trust holding your brand. ALSO the person needs to take acceptable risks, and be given the freedom to do so. These requirements are so different from the way corporations have hired in the past. It's a whole new world out there. Make sure you watch this video - it's well worth it.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Optimizing Your Facebook Fan Page for Profits
Since I'm at work, I'm typing this in real time. We are about half-way into the session and so far, its just a tutorial on how to set up a FB fan page. As Neakai is saying... its FB101. Nothing new here.
Your thoughts?
Your thoughts?
Keynote: How to Use Twitter As a Marketing Weapon
Last night's webinar/presentation was given by Guy Kawasaki with a list of social media and technology credentials as long as your arm. I got in late from my monstrous commute and the home laptop was running on a combo of molasses and squirrels on a treadmill, but I eventually got on - though I missed about a third of the talk.
I was interested in taking this course because I'm not a convert to Twitter. I have my toe in the water but its barely damp. I followed people just to see how its done but I rarely check back. The most I use it is when I sign up for webinars and they force you to use Twitter in order to submit your questions to the speaker. Here is my challenge with that... they never explain how to do that. "hashtagABCD" ok... then what? When I typed it and hit 'enter' did that just go somewhere? Did that go everywhere? and the othe annoying thing about it is that the people speaking NEVER... and I use all caps purposefully.... they never enunciate so if they're telling me to send it with #SMNS, it could be #SMMS, SNNS, or any combination, and they never write it on their 'slides'. I know social media is all about immediacy and things flying by at aeronautic speed, but really, slow down and give us the information in an understandable format.
But I digress - as I will often.
Guy Kawasaki was informative for a Twitter-newbie and what I took away last night was the plethora of Twitter utility sites out there (some listed below) and I found his review of them to be handy. It was helpful because he did a quick drive-by of the +s or -s of each one and that cuts through the clutter when/if I were to go looking for which ones to use. He proports that the main reason for using Twitter as a marketer is to see how your brand is being talked about and what's being said about your brand. Ergo the concentration on Twitter searches. That is the passive reason.
To actively utilize Twitter, you need to post Tweets. He gave a few sites that automatically do it for you (some at a cost - to my understanding), and some can be timed to send them out at intervals. There are some that you can code in restrictions before it does auto-tweets. As you can imagine, there are many, many options. The key in building your audience (and therefore your brand) is to get people to notice you. Retweets help this and sites such as Tweetmeme provide widgets that you can use on your blogs to facilitate users easily passing on your link via their Twitter feed.
There was a lot of self-promotion of his site, AllTop.com. And there was a smattering of things I didn't understand - but that could be because I missed the start of it.
The other thing I found useful is that he breezed quickly by StumbleUpon and SmartBrief, which I'm aware of but have never visited. It satiated my curiosity to see someone use the sites.
Below are some of the Twitter sites he mentioned with a quick description or his opinion of them:
Twitterfeed: makes blogs a tweet, but more limited (also feeds to FB)
Twithawk: enables search conditions, can be set to auto-respond to tweets - charges 5cents per tweet to prevent spamming. Has built in conditions such as no searching for the word 'the'.
Tweetmeme - Tweet search "the hottest Twitter search on the internet" - so they say.
Twitterati - Places tweets onto your blog.
I will go back and watch/read last night's session later today, and comment if anything more pops up.
...And what did YOU think?
Addendum: Here is a link from Mashable on How to Make the Most Out of Your Twitter Profile
I was interested in taking this course because I'm not a convert to Twitter. I have my toe in the water but its barely damp. I followed people just to see how its done but I rarely check back. The most I use it is when I sign up for webinars and they force you to use Twitter in order to submit your questions to the speaker. Here is my challenge with that... they never explain how to do that. "hashtagABCD" ok... then what? When I typed it and hit 'enter' did that just go somewhere? Did that go everywhere? and the othe annoying thing about it is that the people speaking NEVER... and I use all caps purposefully.... they never enunciate so if they're telling me to send it with #SMNS, it could be #SMMS, SNNS, or any combination, and they never write it on their 'slides'. I know social media is all about immediacy and things flying by at aeronautic speed, but really, slow down and give us the information in an understandable format.
But I digress - as I will often.
Guy Kawasaki was informative for a Twitter-newbie and what I took away last night was the plethora of Twitter utility sites out there (some listed below) and I found his review of them to be handy. It was helpful because he did a quick drive-by of the +s or -s of each one and that cuts through the clutter when/if I were to go looking for which ones to use. He proports that the main reason for using Twitter as a marketer is to see how your brand is being talked about and what's being said about your brand. Ergo the concentration on Twitter searches. That is the passive reason.
To actively utilize Twitter, you need to post Tweets. He gave a few sites that automatically do it for you (some at a cost - to my understanding), and some can be timed to send them out at intervals. There are some that you can code in restrictions before it does auto-tweets. As you can imagine, there are many, many options. The key in building your audience (and therefore your brand) is to get people to notice you. Retweets help this and sites such as Tweetmeme provide widgets that you can use on your blogs to facilitate users easily passing on your link via their Twitter feed.
There was a lot of self-promotion of his site, AllTop.com. And there was a smattering of things I didn't understand - but that could be because I missed the start of it.
The other thing I found useful is that he breezed quickly by StumbleUpon and SmartBrief, which I'm aware of but have never visited. It satiated my curiosity to see someone use the sites.
Below are some of the Twitter sites he mentioned with a quick description or his opinion of them:
Twitterfeed: makes blogs a tweet, but more limited (also feeds to FB)
Twithawk: enables search conditions, can be set to auto-respond to tweets - charges 5cents per tweet to prevent spamming. Has built in conditions such as no searching for the word 'the'.
Tweetmeme - Tweet search "the hottest Twitter search on the internet" - so they say.
Twitterati - Places tweets onto your blog.
I will go back and watch/read last night's session later today, and comment if anything more pops up.
...And what did YOU think?
Addendum: Here is a link from Mashable on How to Make the Most Out of Your Twitter Profile
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