Persuasive Picks for the week of 06/13/11

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Tony Hsieh9 Questions: Tony Hsieh, Zappos
Get a quick injection of entrepreneurial motivation from this quick and inspirational interview with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on the American Express Open Forum.

Take a Twitter Audit
Chris Brogan provides 10 questions for you to answer that will help in determining how effective your efforts on Twitter really are.

Should all your staff be engaging in social media?
Letting your entire staff engage in the social space on behalf of your brand can be a tough idea to grasp, not to mention implement with success. Gain some insight on how to approach allowing this in your business via this eConsultancy blog guest post from FreshNetworks‘ Matt Rhodes.

7 Ways to Gain Leads Through Social Media Networking
If used properly, social media has the ability to help you gain more leads, close more deals and build more business partnerships. The SEO Agency’s Tony B share some basic tips to help start increasing your business’s lead generation in the social space via this post on SocialMediaToday.com.

Social Media Videos: The Custom Creative Paradox
Poptent President Neil Perry encourages brands to continue publishing video to their social platforms, but first urges some careful and creative planning in the subject matter and usefulness of video-based content creation.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 06/06/11

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PieBy the numbers: Social media’s slice of the marketing pie
Get up to speed on how companies with small, medium and large social marketing budgets are spending their money via these highlights of several recent Hubspot, Nielsen and Altimeter reports compiled by Dan Taylor – in this post on TheNextWeb.com.

4 Ways Video Can Help Your Social Media Marketing Success
This Clickz.com post from Liana Evans provides some practical advice for creating useful video for your business rather than shooting for the that virtually unobtainable “viral” brass ring.

How Southwest Airlines Is Connecting With Customers Via Social Media
Last week’s picks featured a look at how JetBlue has been finding success with their social media efforts. This week you can also take a peek at how they’re doing it over at Southwest – via this video post over on SocialMediaExaminer.com.

56% Of Content Shared Online Occurs Via Facebook
Not using Facebook as part of your social marketing strategy yet? You might want to reconsider it. Get a quick rundown of some pretty impressive stats when it comes to sharing content online – via this AllFacebook.com post from Jennifer Moire.

Facebook And Twitter: What If The Real World Was Like Social Media?
This week’s round of picks wraps up with this very funny video from the English National Opera that shows what things would be like if you applied your online life to the real world. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Salim Virji

The Secret to Selling

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I never thought of myself as a sales person but as a business owner, you are always selling. You sell your ideas, your products, your people. your culture, your leadership. I often get asked about the new business process and what our secret to success is. Of course there are a variety of elements that go into winning a prospect – relationships and chemistry have a great deal to do with it – but the one thing I’ve found that always works is simple – ask questions.

So many people go into a new business pitch thinking they’re supposed to have all the answers (and you should know your stuff, of course) and that asking questions is a bad thing. I find that asking questions accomplishes two things:

– It shows you are interested in the person/company you’re talking to

– It makes the prospect feel important and gets them talking

And when people talk about themselves or their company, and they feel they are being heard (hint: ask more questions based on what they say), they are likely to feel a stronger connection to you. They are likely to think you are brilliant. And they often walk away from the meeting feeling really, really good.

So go ahead, next time you’re trying to win a new client or prospect, ask questions. Let me know how it works out.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 05/30/11

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JetBlueHow JetBlue’s Social Media Strategy Took Flight
Mashable‘s Todd Wasserman shares an interesting Q&A with JetBlue Marketing SVP Marty St. George that provides some insight into the company’s tremendous success with their social efforts.

5 top social media security threats
There’s plenty of information out there about the benefits of integrating social media into your overall marketing strategy and how to dip your toes in the water. But how much thought have you given to the risks? This Network World post from Chris Nerney covers five of the biggest social media security threats that enterprises could encounter.

SEO + Social Media + Blogging: When Will Big Business Catch Up?
Crispin Sheridan, Senior Director of Search Marketing at SAP in New York, shares highlights from Hubspot‘s recent “2011 State of Inbound Marketing Report” via this post on Clickz.com.

Behold the Awesome Power of Social Media
Bnet‘s Steve Tobak recaps the recent viral social media storm surrounding artist Stevie Koerner and retailer Urban Outfitters. The article shows how social media has the power to emotionally charge a situation and negatively impact a brand regardless if the company is legally in the right.

B2B Marketers and Social Media – The Catch 22 Situation
Sometimes it might feel like the success of our social content and SEO optimization efforts are tied to the whims of Google and their continual tweaking of their search algorithms. To some degree it may be, but this Technorati post from Amit Saxena provides some helpful direction to B2B marketers on how to cope with the fluctuations.

Scan Me! QR codes–the Connection between Offline and Online Worlds

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Quick Response codes (QR codes) are going mainstream and creating quite the buzz.  Similar to a barcode—QR codes are used by businesses to track inventory and price products at the point of sale; however, unlike one-dimensional barcodes, QR codes are two-dimensional and have the ability to hold more information, making them increasingly popular for retailers.

Home Depot and QR CodesA few weeks ago, I received a direct mail piece from Home Depot featuring a QR code. I immediately noticed it, whipped out my Blackberry and scanned away. I was directed to Home Depot’s mobile site, giving me access to product ratings, reviews, how-to guides and product-specific videos. The entire process was convenient, quick, and simply cool.  According to Tom Sweeney, Senior Director of Online Strategy at HomeDepot.com, “The main objective…is to further enhance the customer shopping experience by offering additional product and project know-how and increase customer conversion.”

A recent study called “The Naked Facts: Whiplash Edition” by Mobio Identity Systems, an international mobile payment and marketing company, shows an unbelievable 4549% increase in QR barcode scanning across the continent for the first 3 months of 2011. In terms of the type of media scanned, social media accounts for 70% of scans, TV 22%, offline four percent, online three percent, and print one percent. The report also highlights that Generation X and females continue to dominate the scanning world. And while some skeptics may think that consumers are just trying the QR code technology—the report points out that repeat scanners account for 62% of the market.

QR Code - Image from DaylifeQR codes also have the ability to become a powerful new method to reach target audiences with your public relations messaging and enhance communication strategies by offering more benefits. When executed correctly, consumers can see a QR code, scan it, and become instantly engaged in a brand’s message. Not only are QR codes a great way to understand the mobile audience, but they can be used in print media to connect a customer or prospect to additional content while offering a more interactive experience. It is apparent that this technology can be extremely powerful and an effective way to integrate media (print, web, multimedia) inside and outside a store for both consumers and businesses alike.

eBayOne company I came across that is taking QR scanning to the next level is the world’s leading e-commerce company, eBay.  In December 2010, eBay announced the integration of Milo— a localized shopping search engine that catalogs and categorizes real-time inventory at more than 50,000 stores– into its free barcode scanning app RedLaser. According to Steve Yankovich, Vice President of Mobile at eBay, Milo - Local Shopping“By including Milo shopping results in the RedLaser iPhone and Android apps, we are providing access to real-time, accurate local inventory and the power of offline and online comparison-pricing. This provides our RedLaser users even more choice and flexibility when they come to us first to comparison shop.”

This integration proves eBay’s e-commerce prowess is unshakeable—as it has resulted in new opportunities for eBay to connect with buyers and sellers globally while creating a bridge between traditional and online retail.  With over 9 million downloads, RedLaser has about 4,000 QR code scans per day. And this past month, RedLaser updated its app so that users can now create their own QR codes generated from contacts, URLs, or text.

Like most customers looking to save money and time, I am excited about the integration of Milo into RedLaser, and QR scanning. I like being in control of my shopping experience. It’s as if eBay, Milo, and RedLaser were all thinking about me when they integrated this app. While searching for a specific product, the results let me choose the best retailer for me based on price and location. I like that.

What do you think – are QR codes here to stay? Or are they overhyped marketing? When is the last time you scanned a QR code and what was was your experience like? If you haven’t tried them yet, why not? And if you’re a marketer, are you using them yet in your outreach strategies?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 05/16/11

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sm_expert.pngI Will Never Hire a “Social Media Expert,” and Neither Should You
Lets start things off with my favorite post of the week. Peter Shankman provides a wake up call for the so called “Social Media Experts” and the companies that have made the poor choice of hiring them in this entertaining post that puts everything in perspective.

Study: Marketers Reporting Social Media ROI of 100, 200, Even 1,000 Percent
Aprimo CMO Lisa Arthur highlights four key findings from MarketingSherpa‘s 2011 Social Marketing Benchmark Report via this post on Forbes.com.

6 Ways to Boost Return on Twitter
So you’ve found your groove on Twitter, but are your efforts as effective as they could be? Riverside Marketing Strategies President, Heidi Cohen provides “Six strategies to boost your Twitter return” via this post on Clickz.com.

7 Guidelines To Taking Your Global Brand Local Via Social Media. And Vice Versa
Enjoy some great nuggets of advice on how to make your big company more personable, or how to make your small company look bigger, via this post on MarketingVox.com.

Unfollow, Unfriend, Retweet: AP Stylebook Adds Another 21 Words
Keep your writing in check by getting a quick brush-up on the latest social media-oriented additions to the AP Stylebook via this post from Ann Handley on MPDailyFix.com.

 

 

“New Marketing” and “Social PR” are Simple. Talk With Me.

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I constantly see chatter, blogs, articles and tweets out there about “New marketing” and “How PR works – or if it’s even necessary” now that social media is so mainstream, easy and accessible. Oy, I am so tired of the misconceptions that social media has somehow replaced these important roles in business. But I’m even more tired of everyone over-thinking this whole “new marketing” thing. Is it really that complicated? Here are a few quick “rules” to it that I think anyone can grasp:

– Social media is a tactic tied into a larger communications strategy. Key word: strategy. Have one. Actually, have more than one, because it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that there are different communications strategies across different parts of your business. Communicating with customers about a service issue is not the same as trying to sell to a prospect or get the attention of a journalist. Make social media a part of how your business communicates. But don’t tell me your “social media plan” replaces solid marketing and PR.

– Marketing has changed in that marketers (and others, like politicians) now have to talk with their audience, not just at them. One of my favorite quotes on this is from Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff in the book Groundswell: “Marketers don’t understand channels where you have to talk and listen at the same time.” That was in 2009, and I think that while many marketers are now understanding that they need to be on social channels, they still don’t know how to start actual conversations that lead to valuable interactions between their business and its audiences.

– New marketers (and PR execs) make their audiences feel important. You can only do this by building a two-way relationship. That means that you listen as much as you “talk,” even when the “conversation” gets uncomfortable (i.e., complaints about your business or products). Be prepared to handle both your brand champions and your detractors – but always let them know how important they are by talking with them. Ask questions, recognize them, make it clear in your content (Twitter updates, Facebook posts, videos, what have you) that you’ve listened to them. Need an easy example? Think Old Spice. People watched, listened, shared because they were a part of it – feeling important and recognized – even if but for a second.

– Share great content. You’ve heard this a zillion times –  but maybe it’s more important to say share interactive and meaningful content that others will want to share as well. Oh, and it should be relevant to your business, whether it’s meant to be a revenue-generator, a branding campaign or simply an awareness builder. A favorite example of mine is Life is Good Radio. It’s sticky content that ties in perfectly to their culture and company mission. If you don’t know how to build good content, get help. Seriously – without it, you are not marketing in today’s world.

– Remember, it’s not that complicated. It’s just changed. Quite simply, you can’t dance if you don’t stop leaning against the wall hoping someone will talk to you. You have to start the conversation. If you don’t know what this means, you probably shouldn’t be in marketing in the first place.

What are your best tips for “new” marketers and social PR?

The Way I Am Working Isn’t Working

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SprinterAt least that is what I found out at my favorite SXSW session, “The 90 Minute Solution: Live Like a Sprinter,” with Tony Schwartz, bestselling author of “Be Excellent at Anything: The Four Keys to Transforming the Way We Work and Live.”  If you are like me, always tired, always working too long but not getting enough accomplished and being distracted by too many things, then this is for you.

Most people would consider me a workaholic – I work hard, I’m not afraid of long hours and I thrive on pressure and on getting things done.  But here is what I found out. I am living by the myth that the best way to get more done is to work more hours.

I am operating like a marathon runner. In my life, I am working and living in a long distance race with no end. And as a marathoner, I am reserving energy – always holding some back, because I don’t know when I will need it. The result is I am never fully engaged in a task, and since there is no end, I am never fully engaged in rest. According to Tony, we are not meant to be “always on” like a computer – our bodies are meant to pulse rhythmically between working and re-energizing. He says, “the sad truth is that most of us don’t do either one very well.”

What I need to do is work and live like a sprinter. A sprinter is fully engaged for the entire race. A sprinter knows there is an end and can see it, so they can put everything they have into that race and then they rest at the end.

According to Tony, the best way to live like a sprinter is to build in a rhythmic workflow with intermittent renewal.   Tony explained in detail how sleep and rejuvenation are more important than food, and why our bodies demand recovery during the day every 90 minutes. His advice boiled down to this:

  1. Go to sleep earlier, because you can’t get up later – most of us are already getting up at the very last minute possible, but aren’t getting to sleep when we can. He said to prepare for sleep and make it ritualistic so that you ensure that you get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night.
  2. Spend your energy more skillfully. Work in 90 minute bursts like you are sprinting in a race. Pick an activity and completely focus on that activity for a full 90 minutes. At the end of the 90 minutes, take a break. This could be taking a walk, breathing deeply, stretching, a 10 minute nap – but something that will allow you to rejuvenate and be ready for the next sprint.
  3. Do the most important task you have first. Chose this task the night before so that you can sleep knowing you have a plan. Give that task your full attention for the first 90 minutes of your day and you will see yourself getting more done.

What resonated with me most about his talk was when he said – we’ve lost our finish lines and we need to reinsert them in our lives. When we are engaged we need to be fully engaged. When we are resting we need to be fully engaged in rest.

I once asked my dad when I was a kid, “at work, how do you know when you are done for the day?” He told me, “I’m never done.” Like him, I have no finish lines. So I am going to give this a try, I am hoping it will make me be more productive, less distracted, better rested, and probably a much more enjoyable person to be around.

I’m interested – do you work like a marathoner or a sprinter?  Do you see any value to this advice and do you think it could make you better at your job and your personal life?

Note: I wrote this in 90 minutes. Time for a break.

Photo credit: Sheffield Tiger

Persuasive Picks for the week of 05/02/11

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Measure Metrics6 Social Media Metrics for SMBs To Track
Congrats! You’ve finally launched your brand on a few social platforms and you’re starting to make some headway with your efforts – but, how do you really know if you’re doing it right or if its working? Tracking a few basic metrics will help keep you on track, and Lisa Barone suggests a few to help get you started via this post on SmallBizTrends.com.

Social Media And The Modern Startup
Fast Company Expert Blogger Aaron Arnold explains how “social media allows early adopters to share the experience without the risk of being the entrepreneur creating it” via his own personal experience.

Social Media Policies: Let’s Talk About What You Should Do
Creating a social media policy for your organization can be a tricky task. Its almost like you need to be controlling without being controlling, right? Most organizations base their policies on telling employees what they can’t do when it comes to using social media. This GigaOm.com post from Mathew Ingram suggests trying to create a social policy with a positive stance, and he provides a few suggestions on how to do so.

Video and Social Media Marketing: Getting C-Suite Executives To Lead
Getting executive level buy-in for social marketing campaigns can be difficult – even more so if you want the executive to be physically involved with the project. David Murdico from Supercool Creative shares some helpful tips in gaining their support and participation in this article on MediaPost.com.

How Barbie & Ken Were Reunited by Social Media
Mashable‘s Erica Swallow began writing about Mattel’s social campaign to reunite Barbie and Ken earlier this year, and I selected her initial post as a Persuasive Pick back in January. This week, she follows up with more detail about the campaign and shares the results of its success.

Image Credit: RambergMediaImages

Most sincerely and lovingly yours, Lisa – How should we sign off on business emails?

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As PR experts, we field hundreds of emails a day, at least. Recently, I have become obsessed with how people sign off on their emails and with finding the best way. It seems like there should be some kind of industry standard on how to sign a business email, or maybe a few choices for clients, your boss, your co-workers, your vendors, etc.  But, given the variety I see daily, it’s clear that no one agrees on one best way.

I asked about this topic on Twitter and Facebook recently and the answers were not only varied, but in some cases, the topic got heated, especially when I explained my unadulterated hatred for “Best.”  Who knew people were so passionate about the way they sign off on emails.

Here are some of the responses I received:

  • Most sincerely yours
  • Thanks
  • Best
  • All the best
  • Best Regards
  • Warm Regards
  • Regards
  • Warmest Regards
  • Thank you
  • Yours truly
  • Sincerely
  • Cheers
  • Truly
  • Very truly
  • Warmly
  • None

I am really not a fan of any of these, but I don’t really have a better answer either.  I know that “best” or anything describing the warmness of the sender’s regards is like nails on a chalk board to me. I tend to use “thanks” for an informal email and “thank you” for more formal. But my colleague recently hipped me to her favorite, the “~ plus first name” sign off. I love it because it skips the awkwardness of pledging yourself to belonging “truly” to your copy paper vendor, keeps a business tone to the email, but doesn’t look too formal or unfriendly.

I am going to start a petition for “~ plus first name” to become the industry standard for signing business emails.  Who is with me? And who has other sign offs to suggest or ridicule? Please post your thoughts here.

~ Lisa