Archive for the ‘PR / Word-of-Mouth’ Category
Social Media . . . Brave New World?
What’s happening with social media? How does it compare with traditional media?
Check out this insightful (and, brief!) video from Marcel Lebrun, CEO of Radian6 — a cutting edge social media company:
Social media is changing the very foundations on which business is conducted.
The way you communicate and interact is changing how you and your world interact. As a result, social media is arguably the biggest change in business communication since the introduction of mass media when ‘Mad Men’ become the leaders. Now, those leaders are you and me. How cool is that!
Social Media and Intelligence Gathering
I have a friend, Fred Wergeles who is a talented, educated and highly successful individual. Fred once worked at the CIA. His expertise? Intelligence Gathering.
Knowing what’s happening in the world is key to either avoiding problems or preventing them from happening.
It’s the same with your business.
You want ‘intelligence’ about your industry, competitors, clients, your own business.
And the Internet . . . the social media that use it (not just social networks) . . . is where you’ll find that intelligence.
THE PROBLEM
There’s a lot of data on the web. Too much. That’s why it’s called ‘noise’. I call it the ’sea of sewage’. In fact, there’s so much data that you can drown in it (how’s that for an image, eh?) before you get something useful out of it.
THE SOLUTION
Filter the noise out. Focus it into something that has meaning for you and your business.
Today, making business decisions with limited information is dangerous and likely to cost you dearly. But, having ‘intelligence’ so you can make better informed decisions . . . is smart. Very smart! For example:
An executive engaged in negotiation uncovers an obscure blog post about a competitors plant closing, giving him leverage in the negotiation process to seal a deal with the most favorable terms.
A salesperson discovers that a prospect she has been trying to crack tweets about a problem her company can address. She reaches out and puts one more qualified receptive lead into her pipeline.
A brand manager sees a comment left by a disgruntled customer blasting his customer relations experience. The brand manager responds to the post within a few minutes, engages the customer in constructive conversation and recovers the goodwill that might have been devastating to have lost forever.
An investor is evaluating an opportunity and the entrepreneurs tell a compelling story. When the investor probes further into the competition, it is clear that the entrepreneurs are unaware of several large and dangerous competitors. No Deal.
What do these events have in common?
They are making better, more informed decisions using readily available ‘intelligence’ on the Internet.
THE OTHER PROBLEM
Knowing the information is ‘Out There’ is one thing. Making sense of the mounds of data and transforming it into useful information . . . i.e. ‘intelligence’ you can use is quite another!
The days of reading the same publications and hoping you come across the information you need are as relevant as getting a ‘TripTik’ at the AAA before going on a vacation. It’s OLD SCHOOL!
Social Media is both an opportunity and a challenge
The opportunity is the quantity of information it offers, the challenge is finding the quality of information you want and can process efficiently.
In Duct Tape Marketing University’s Social Media PRO — an online / offline coaching program for using social media to drive traffic to your site and put revenues in your bank . . . one of the many tools we use to do this is . . .
FiltrBox
This is just one of several very cool tools for monitoring selective data streams across various social media on the internet. Using it you can ‘listen’ for what you need-to-know . . . and only what you need . . . information . . . intelligence . . . that makes your business decision-making better . . . and THAT . . . makes you money!
FiltrBox helps you search millions of sources, qualify results, remove duplication and delivers a ranked report to you . . . every day . . . in a very clean, ‘dashboard’ interface:
The old way of gathering intelligence is evolving and its time to embrace the change
Check out FiltrBox . . . it’s a new ‘cool tool’ that is making the task of managing the mounds of data the net offers . . . a realistic and, dare I say it, a fun event!
And, if you liked learning about this topic . . . you’ll LOVE our new online course from Duct Tape Marketing University: Social Media PRO.
Check it out here: Social Media PRO
Looking for a Social Network?
Social networks are everywhere. And it seems everyone is on at least one.
At last count, you have hundreds of them to choose from.
The biggies are, of course:
- Myspace
After these, your choices become practically ridiculous.
Regardless of which one (or, ones!) you choose, how much value you’ll realize from any social network reflects three factors:
Relevance
This reflects the value of the content you get from the SN website. It’s perhaps why you first visited a social networking website. It’s definitely why you’ll return, too.
Focus
This reflects the degree to which the social network website ’screens and cleans’ the information it makes available to you. If a social network has millions of members (and all the above sites do!) you may find that the sheer volume of information it offers you is, well . . . overwhelming. That’s not good. If a site offers ways to make the information meaningful and manageable, that’s what you want!
Participation
This is probably the most essential factor in whether you’re a one-time visitor or an ongoing member. Participation means you don’t just observe others comments, posts, etc. but that you become an active member of the social network site.
POINT:
Whatever social network you choose . . . use these three factors to help you find the most productive and valuable one (or, ones!) for you and your business objectives.
It’s a Mad, Mad World!
In the past, conventional wisdom held that people who had a ‘good’ experience with your company might tell 1 - 2 others.
But, if they have a ‘not-so-good’ experience with your company, they would tell 7 - 9 people.
The point was made. Do a good job and it’s no big deal. In fact, it’s expected. “Whoa, you did surgery and the patient lived to tell about it? That’s excellent!”. See, delivering ‘the goods’ is expected. And, rightly so.
But screw things up. Drop the ball. Smash the customer’s expectations like pumpkins on Halloween . . . and you open yourself and your company to a LOT of problems. And in today’s socially networked world, the truth that ‘bad news’ spreads quickly and widely is more true now than ever before.
United Airlines learned this lesson the hard way after after mishandling (no pun intended) a damaged baggage claim.
It seems a passenger, a musician named David Carroll from Nova Scotia, Canada had his rather pricey Taylor guitar literally destroyed by some United Airlines baggage handlers during a stop-over in Chicago, IL. Here’s how the new media covered it:
Now ________ happens . . . bags do get lost and damaged. (Heck, United lost my bags when I was returning from Hawaii a few years ago. Took them about 8 months but I did get them back. And the contents were intact! Go figure.)
Back to the guitar incident.
David’s request for ‘compensation’ for damages (literally!) were not ignored. They were refused! By United Airlines. So, David wrote a song and produced a video about the incident and put it on You-Tube! It went ‘viral’ and the word about how “United Breaks Guitars” is now more likely what people think when they hear United Airlines than anything about ‘friendly’ skies.
Here’s the actual video that’s now been seen by millions of people because of the PR debacle at United Airlines:
According to one analyst, the stock of United Airlines dropped about 10% drop in value following the You-Tube video release. Roughly about $180,000,000! That’s a lot more than the ‘cost’ of making good on a damaged Taylor guitar!
The problem isn’t that ‘legally’ United was within its rights to deny the claim for reparations. It was. The problem is that the moral compass of the airline, judged by the public (uh, that’s why they call it ‘public’ relations) was deserving of a stiff sentencing. And they sure handed one expensive sentence to United Airlines.
POINT:
Today, the world is more connected than ever. The ‘effort’ to spread news — good or bad — is so much easier than in times past. That means you must be good to the hands that feed you. You must treat your customers and clients with at least a modicum of respect and regard. Why? Because if you don’t, someone else — a competitor — WILL. And if you get bad PR, more people will learn of your ‘crimes’ sooner. And that . . . will not bode well for you. So stay sharp! Keep your customers happy and give them reasons to say ‘nice’ things about you and your business!
Chicken-Little is Alive and Well
- “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”
Chicken-little was so sure the sky was falling that the entire barnyard was turned into a frenzied bunch of fearful characters.
There was no where near the basis for concern that Chicken-little claimed. But it didn’t matter. The survive-at-all-costs instinct kicked in and made every animal hyper-sensitive and act appropriately . . . IF . . . the sky was falling.
But it wasn’t. And neither is the economy, beaten up as it is, in a depression or a state of total collapse. It’s tough out there. No argument. But it’s not all that bad, either.
This is a wonderful time to do some marketing. Wisely, of course.
This economy is a gift! It’s your opportunity to focus on solid value propositions and service packages that are:
- clearly communicated,
- aligned around meaningful results, and
- ardently desired by your prospects
Oh yes, and listen to LESS radio and TV . . . we are what we hear and think about. And if we get too much of the media talking about how the sky is falling . . . we’re more likely to believe it’s as desperate as they say. Next thing, we get nervous and support a perception (it’s still reality, right?) of scarcity. That is not good for any of us.
Be a leader. Don’t buy the media’s ‘message’.
Remember, it may sell papers but it is definitely not good for your mental health and future wealth.
