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Posts Tagged ‘social networks’
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
 So much has changed in marketing and sales in the 9 years since we founded KickStart Alliance. Because we wanted to learn how our readers are operating in 2011, in April we sent a survey to our newsletter subscribers rather than publishing our usual monthly newsletter. The response rate was lower than we anticipated, at 4%, so we followed up in May asking for additional respondents. That generated just one more survey response. So while there wasn’t enough data to be statistically reliable, we’re sharing in this post some of what we did learn.
(more…)
Tags: content marketing, Marketing, Sales, social networks
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, January 14th, 2010
 Want to get some quick market research on how your product stacks up to a competitor? Ask the Internet.
I teach a course at San Francisco State University entitled, “Essentials of Integrated Marketing.” In that course, I have a case study that has proven to be a lot of fun as well as very insightful when it comes to gathering ”product comparison” data. The case study is called Video Game Wars and follows the exploits of the Microsoft Xbox, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii.
In developing the case study, I needed to somehow find a way to educate the class on these products quickly. So, I turned to the Internet. My first course of action was to do a Google search on each of the products. This yielded the expected corporate-esk press releases, data sheets, and website info. All of this was helpful in building “awareness.” But I wanted more practical information when it came to comparisons.
So I tried a search variation.
I went to Google and Youtube looking for specific product comparisons. As an example, I typed in “Xbox versus PS3” and “Why buy a Playstation?” This produced an “Aha!” moment.
The search results provided a perfect example on how the dynamics of search have changed the way people gather and process information. Here’s what I mean:
- Much of the “product comparison” data I gathered was produced by users, not corporate executives.
- I couldn’t help but feel that the more “unpolished” the presentation, the more genuine the information.
- Many of these search results also included some sort of social media commentary, meaning that the material was actually being used and discussed.
Lest we think this is only useful for consumer products, I started testing this “product comparison” research tactic on a few projects I’m working on with B2B clients. I’d do the same thing: go to Google and YouTube and search on “product A vs product B”. In every case, I found very interesting information. Now, while I don’t take everything I find to the bank, I do find that the results have added to my cumultative knowledge. It’s helps to further my skills as an investigative marketer in order to discover which product differentiators are true and meaningful, and which are bogus.
Lesson for marketers
Based on this insight, it is important for marketers to consider a couple things as they are architecting their integrated marketing campaigns:
- Producing only the traditional marketing datasheets and collateral are no longer sufficient.
- There is a mountain of “awareness” information available; but customers are also keenly interested in product comparison data (see Content & the Buying Process blog post)
- Consider adding your own product comparison articles and videos. Some companies do this already, and I applaud them for it. Prospects are looking for this information. Why not provide them with short snippets of useful information? Otherwise, someone else might do it for them.
- As you develop your own marketing materials, do a comparison search to see what people are talking about. Do your expectations match up to the user community’s reality? Might be worth checking out.
Tags: Integrated Marketing, Marketing, San Francisco State, search engine marketing, Social Media, social networks
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
 At yesterday’s Social Media World Forum in Santa Clara, CA, I attended a panel discussion entitled “Benchmarking Advertising on Social Networks.” The panelists represented American Airlines, Harley Davidson and Warner Brothers Records. I also recently attended a social media discussion with Dell Computer at the TechTarget Online ROI Summit. Here’s a recap on how these top brands are leveraging social media to acquire and engage with customers and fans.
How is Social Media Being Used?
- American Airlines (AA) uses social media in targeted geographies, known as “geo-targeting” to boost passengers on specific flights. They also provide travel-related content beyond flight information as a value-add to their passengers (restaurants, entertainment, lodging, etc.)
- Harley Davidson uses social media for new customer acquisition and to build a community of evangelists among its customer base.
- Warner Brothers recently brought its advertising in-house as it experiments with ways to monetize content that is often free on sites such as YouTube.
- Dell Computer uses social media to engage with prospects and customers and to track and respond to what people are saying about them. Dell uses blogs, online forums, bookmarketing/share widgits, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, flickr and LinkedIN. Through social media, Dell sold over $2M of product last year using a Dell Outlet promo code. Employees can engage with prospects and customers online and follow a code of conduct that requires them to identify themselves as working for Dell and to “use their best judgment”. (To see the largest collection of social media policies, check out the Social Media Governance website.)
Benchmarking Process
- AA benchmarks by setting measurable goals, such as the number of passengers on certain flights.
- Harley Davidson uses Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as 1) relationships (no. of fans or friends), 2) click-through-rate (CTR) on paid ads, 3) visitor engagements (number of times content was shared among friends) and 4) media value (profile visits, cost-per-click).
- Warner Bros. tracks and measures the amount of traffic that they drive to an artist’s site, and the number of Facebook friends and Twitter followers.
- Dell uses tools such as Buzzient to see the most active sources of a topic as well as Radian6, GoogleTrends, Google Alerts and TwitterSearch to measure their “share of voice” in comparison to competitors. They track changes in Twitter follower count, number of re-tweets, changes in website or blog traffic and their Twitter influence using a tool called Twinfluence.com.
Use of Facebook and Twitter
- AA uses Facebook to spur conversations among their passengers and to hook people to content, what they call “virtual hubs.” Twitter is used as a listening tool to monitor what people are saying about AA. Six full-time customer service reps monitor Twitter and reach out to people to assist them if appropriate. Twitter is used to deliver flight information as well – especially delays due to weather issues. As a result, calls to the AA customer support 800 number have dropped.
- Harley Davidson uses Facebook for initiating conversations with and among fans. Twitter is used by fans to see “what’s happening this moment” at Harley Davidson-sponsored events.
- Warner Bros. views Facebook as a place for conversations to happen. They post photos of fans with an artist and the fans will tag themselves. Twitter is viewed as a “digital billboard” to drive traffic to Facebook or an artist’s site. It also is used for scavenger hunts in which fans use clues delivered by Twitter posts to find CDs and concert tickets.
- Dell monitors Twitter for both positive and negative mentions of the company or their products as 20% of Tweets mention a product name or company. They have several Facebook Pages to build fans and discussions among their target user segments.
Summary
Key advice from these brands:
- Listen first – find out where your audience hangs out online and what they’re saying about you
- Integrate social media into your overall communications mix, being consistent with content and messaging
- Set measurable objectives and monitor results
At the end of the day, social media is another avenue to build a strong community and trust among your prospects, customers, partners and investors.
For more information, check out these blog posts:
Tags: Integrated Marketing, marketing trends, Social Media, social media monitoring, social networks
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
Social media is on top of everyone’s mind. Most professionals have already set up their profile on Linkedin. While many individuals are becoming conversant with Twitter and Facebook, the jury is still out on how effective and compelling these new tools are for selling in a business-to-business environment. Yet, that isn’t stopping marketers from integrating these tools into the marcom mix. Forward-thinking businesses of all sizes are being creative and clever in their social media efforts as they find new ways to dialog with and listen to customers and prospects.
A word of warning: social media is a different type of marketing tool where control of your messaging is an illusion. To avoid any miss-steps and potential embarassment, your company should have a policy on the “how, who, when, and where” questions of social media:
These are just a few of the questions which need to be addressed. The good news is that a number of companies have already penned a policy statement for their company. The marketing strategists at the Arlington Mill Group are experts in this area and wrote a blog post which offers some good advice on establishing a social media code-of-conduct.
Chris Boudreaux (of the Arlington Mill Group) has pulled together the web’s largest collection of social media policies. You’ll find policies from small companies, enterprises, non-profits, news outlets, and governments.
To quote directly from Arlington Mill Group’s recent blog post:
The ideal policy will look different for every organization, and change as your company shifts its participation in social networks over time. While developing this type of policy is hard work, it is worth it… If you haven’t examined this area of your business, now is the time to get started!
Tags: Integrated Marketing, Social Media, social media monitoring, social networks
Posted in Marketing, Social Media | No Comments »
Friday, April 10th, 2009
If you’ve been pondering whether, or how, to get your business involved in social media, a good way to evaluate the concept is to use social media for internal information exchanges and get used to some of the tools and applications. The familiar ones used externally, such as Twitter, have internal counterparts. Yammer is Twitter-like, but only works for members within your internet domain (i.e., only users who have email accounts in your business). Like Twitter, Yammer allows for short messages of 140 characters or less.
You can create internal networks similar to Facebook (i.e., Jive, Community Server), and use them to share information on market trends and the competition or to collaborate on cross-functional projects such as product development or product launches.
Internal blogs can be used to submit concepts for peer review. Unlike Blogger, WordPress or Typepad which are available and readable by anyone that finds the URL (including search engines!), Ning readership and feedback can be limited to the fixed community within your organization.
Get in and get your feet wet, and see if using these social media tools doesn’t suggest ideas to you about how you can use them or their counterparts outside of your organization to share information with customers and prospects!
Watch the KickStart Accelerator monthly e-newsletter for articles on B2B social media. If you’re not already a subscriber, you can sign up now.
Tags: Blogs, Communities, social networks
Posted in Marketing, Sales, Social Media | No Comments »
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