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Yes, Content Rules… With a Clear Strategy

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We’re proud sponsors of tomorrow’s launch party for the new book Content Rules by Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs), and C.C. Chapman (founder of DigitalDads). We’re big fans of both authors and know their ongoing content quite well – so I know the book will become a social media business bible of sorts.

Content has been on my mind quite a lot this week as we’ve been working with clients to create marketing and sales content. One thing I’ve noticed is that many businesses are getting caught up in creating content but have no strategy behind it. They want us to create a custom Facebook tab or an event microsite or a video to tell a story. But what I’ve found is that they aren’t always thinking about who they want to tell the story to, or what they want the story to accomplish – or even what action or return they are expecting from issuing their content. And, they’re usually not sure where they want the content to live – or why they want it in a certain place over another.

Jumping into content development without a strategy in mind is indicative of some of the social media hype. Brands just want to get “something cool” out there and they aren’t thinking about the RRR – resource to return ratio. At the same time, many complain that involvement in social media takes too much time and the ROI isn’t yet clear. That’s what happens when you don’t have a strategy!

Creating content for content’s sake is not a good use of your resources: time, money or people. It’s one of the reasons that I believe PR and marketing should be involved in the social media process for businesses. Sure, the marketing department doesn’t have to create the content necessarily, but they should have a hand in helping to shape the messages within it, as well as where it should live and how it should be promoted. Marketers are experts at messaging – and if your content has an empty or off-kilter message, it’s just noise.

Here are a few simple things businesses should be thinking about before they jump into creating social media content:

  • What do we want to share?
  • In what form do we want to share it?
  • Who do we we want sharing it? (CEO? Customers? Partners? Spokesperson?)
  • Who do we want to say it to?
  • Why will they listen/watch/read/care?
  • What do we want them to do as a result? (If anything)
  • What will we consider a success as a result of creating this content?
  • How will we track and measure that success?
  • What resources do we need?
  • Do we expect people to interact with this content? Share it? Write about it? How do we make that happen?
  • Where do we want it to live?
  • How will we share and promote it?

It sounds simple, but you would be surprised at how many brands jump into content development without asking these basic questions. They see something that worked for another brand (ex: Old Spice) and they say, “Hey, we can do that!” – without thinking about how it applies to their customers, their business and their goals.

Don’t create noise. Create content with a purpose. A purpose comes from defining a clear strategy before you begin.

Got more tips for businesses looking to create social content? We’d love for you to share them in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Persuasive Picks for the week of 11/08/10

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Mobile Users Want Branded Apps that Are Useful, Not Just for Marketing
Thinking of building a mobile app for your brand? This ReadWriteWeb post from Frederic Lardinois highlights recent findings and advice from app development agency EffectiveUI – to point you in the right direction.

Want to Lead Corporate Social Strategy? Read This.
Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford Motor Company, shares highlights from Altimeter‘s “Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist” report. The Slideshare version of the report is also included.

Could Facebook replace your e-mail inbox?
Mashable‘s Pete Cashmore speculates on Facebook‘s rumored plunge into the email provider space. Do they have what it takes to lure people away from the likes of GMail and Yahoo Mail? Read on for one perspective.

B2B Social Media Resources
Chris Brogan shares a plethora of great B2B resources that go beyond his ongoing collection of case studies on Delicious.

Social Media’s Impact on Offline Sales
Elizabeth Glagowski explains how social media can impact the bottom line through actual sales and provides several real world examples of businesses that are doing it right.

Claire Russell and Wayne Sutton at IMS10 – Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, MA – Part 2

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In Part II of my interview with Wayne Sutton, we talk all things geolocation and location based services. A self-proclaimed location based services “geek”, Wayne is the Business Development/Marketing Strategist for TriOut, a location-based services application developed to help individuals explore the Triangle area and discover its cultural treasures.

During this interview, Wayne shares great insight on the location based services market landscape, how it works and what it means for consumers. And, most importantly, what retailers and brands need to think about when considering a location-based campaign as part of their marketing strategy.

Marketers – considering geolocation or location-based services as part of your future marketing campaigns? Which services are you reviewing and why? How will location tie into your online and offline initiatives? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Claire Russell Interviews Wayne Sutton at IMS10, Part 1

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Last month I attended and presented at the Inbound Marketing Summit 2010 in Foxboro, MA. It was great to be back in Boston, catching up with friends and colleagues. But a true highlight of my visit, ironically (since we live in the same area), was finally getting the opportunity to catch up with Wayne Sutton – or SocialWayne as he’s known here in ‘The Triangle’ of North Carolina.

For those that may not know Wayne, he holds nearly 10 years of experience in technology and social media. He is the Business Development/Marketing Strategist for TriOut, a location-based services application developed to help individuals explore the Triangle area and discover its cultural treasures. Wayne is also a consultant, helping start-ups and established businesses succeed in understanding how to best communicate their brand strategy through social media, as well as location-based services.

In this first of a two-part series, Wayne shares three tips for new entrepreneurs thinking about launching in today’s market:

  • Hire good people you can trust
  • Build a revenue model that adds value and solves a problem
  • Try not to spend or take money if you don’t need it

He also gives his take on the Raleigh tech/social media scene.

I hope you enjoy the interview  – our Part II interview will feature Wayne talking about the impact of location-based services on corporate marketing strategies. What should marketers be thinking about as they plan their 2011 Marketing budgets? We’d love to get your thoughts/advice.

 

 

Getting Social—Social Media’s Boost for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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Pink—it’s everywhere this month. My local newspaper is dyed pink. NFL Football players are sporting pink sneakers and wristbands. Niagara Falls and the Georgia Aquarium are showing their support for breast cancer by lighting up in pink for the entire month. And even Microsoft issued a pink mouse to celebrate the cause. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness month— a time for women and men to learn, to remember, and to survive.

Nearly everyone knows someone, has a story, or has been affected by this disease somehow, someway. My Grandmother survived — she had a double mastectomy in her seventies. My Aunt died. She was in her forties and had two kids in high school. It’s a cause that nearly everyone can put a human face behind and, as sad as that is, this could be the reason breast cancer is such a well-recognized and widely supported cause.

In fact, breast cancer is now a brand in itself. It has a logo. Sponsored events. Spokespeople and celebrity endorsements. A trademark color. It has an elected month. It’s a successful brand in part because of its ability to create an emotional link with its audience; however, with the ever-changing social media landscape, this brand (along with many other brands) is challenged. Brands need to engage their audience by sharing content – they need to speak and listen—ultimately developing a valuable rapport with its target audience. Interestingly, over the past few years, and gaining momentum each passing year, breast cancer awareness is being touted through various social networks and social media campaigns. It’s clear that breast cancer awareness has an active voice within the social network community.

Social media has the power to be a huge platform for advocating awareness and spreading the word. The YouTube “Pink Glove Dance” video by the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Oregon proved to be an online sensation. The dance is meant to raise awareness for early detection, pump up hospital employees, and encourage those in the fight against breast cancer. With over 1.8 million hits on YouTube, this social media campaign demonstrated such huge success that Medline, the Chicago-area company that makes the pink gloves and produced the video, decided to create a sequel—with more than 4,000 healthcare workers and breast cancer survivors.

On the other hand, some Facebook campaigns for breast cancer awareness month are quite curious. For example, last year the women of Facebook wrote the color of their bra— and nothing else– as their Facebook statuses. This year, women are using their statuses to fill in the statement about their handbags or pocketbooks: “I like it on the…” Ultimately, they’re trying to sound scandalous, but it’s the lack of correlation between the disease and these campaigns that are confusing. The campaigns seem to be completely irrelevant to anything having to do with breast cancer; however, there’s no denying that the effects of successful campaigning for breast cancer have led to a remarkable decline in the disease. Surprisingly, the campaigns do work. Susan G. Komen for the Cure and The American Cancer Society stated they received a significant increase of Facebook fans and inquires for more information about the disease. The power of social media.

So fellow pink-branding observers—what do you think about the success of breast cancer awareness month thus far? Please share your thoughts of what you noticed most about this campaign. What did you choose to promote or share with friends on your various social networks? What didn’t you want to share (either too sad or too personal)? And for those of you who donated to the cause—what got you to reach into your wallet and donate? Do you see other causes learning from this success and building out their brands? If so we’d love to know who they are. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 10/04/10

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New Facebook Groups Designed to Change the Way You Use Facebook
Facebook announced a completely new version of its Groups functionality this week that has come with both praise and criticism. Find out more via this Mashable post that includes a video showing the basics of whats new.

Marketers Losing Amid Social Media Clutter
This post from Mathew Ingram highlights the findings of a recent Forrester study that revealed marketers will have bigger challenges breaking through to the Gen Y demographic. The solution? Create more interesting content. Read on for more.

Nine Elements of Highly Engaging Social Media Campaigns
This 1to1media.com post features some great social campaign tips from the book “The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change” by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith.

How Gap turned its logo disaster into a social media opportunity
Smart Company Australia‘s Patrick Stafford chronicles how retail clothing giant Gap managed to use social media to turn a poorly received logo change into a positive and successful social case study.

Nissan applies new social media tactics for Juke launch
RBR.com highlights Nissan‘s unique approach to promoting its new sport cross-over with a mix of social media and blogger buzz includng an engagement with the guys from IWearYourShirt.com.

 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 09/27/10

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Social Media: In-House or Outsourced
Companies often find it challenging to secure internal resources for handling the daily tasks of social customer engagement. Many turn to outsourcing those tasks as a way to get going more quickly. While a qualified and reputable agency or consultant can help out in most cases, it’s still very important to have internal champions with their finger on the pulse of the customer experience. This post from Maria Ogneva covers many of the reasons why.

3 Social Media Measurement Tips From #TechChat With Andrew Spoeth
This MPDailyFix post from Megan Leap offers up three great social measurement tips from last week’s #TechChat – a weekly Twitter chat sponsored by @MarketingProfs – for those who happened to miss it.

95% of Companies Have Tried Social Media; 40% Didn’t Inhale!
Marketing Pilgrim‘s Andy Beal highlights three of the many interesting findings from the recent Social Media and Online PR Report from Econsultancy and bigmouthmedia.

Understanding That Viral Isn’t Really Social Media
This Clickz.com post from Liana Evans suggests that “going viral is more akin to “word-of-mouth than social media” and takes a look at some key differences between viral marketing and social media marketing.

How to stay focused and not go app crazy
Shashi Bellamkonda from Network Solutions shares Jason Falls‘ insight on social media and business via this Q&A guest post on the Washington Business Journal.

Image Credit: Matt Hamm

PR Pitching PR – an Influencer Twilight Zone

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In July I gave a presentation at T3PR titled, “Driving your online footprint: PR experts as influencers.” My focus was on how a new breed of PR experts have fast become influencers in their own right through the power of social media and personal brand building: why it matters, how it’s indicative of our changing industry and how the reputation of today’s PR executive matters more than ever.

While PR executives are traditionally the man behind the curtain, the invisibles, the ones who quickly put the right person/product/client in the spotlight – in front of influencers like the media – and then get the heck out of the way, the rise of social media has allowed PR executives to become influencers themselves. Companies aren’t just hiring them to do PR, but to be their web-celeb spokespeople, red carpet correspondents, marketing analysts, brand-to-customer ambassadors or even video/TV stars.

PR executives in general – most of whom may never be on BravoTV – have both an opportunity – and a risk – to show how we really think. It has always been my belief that if you simply talk to reporters and hold your own in a conversation (that is, not just pitching when you want something but rather, an overall practice of sharing thoughts and insights on the products you promote, the industry you’re in, the articles reporters are writing, or business in general) – you will gain a greater amount of respect and ultimately, be more successful in working with them. And over the last few years, several of our industry colleagues have paved the way for “Flaks with Brains.” Some are newcomers, some are veterans – but their use of social media has raised awareness of public relations executives as strategic thinkers – sharing valuable insights beyond the confines of a client’s boardroom.

And that’s great. But what does it mean for the traditional list of influencers that a PR team might compile and pursue? These days, the lines are blurring. A lot of business people blog – especially PR and marketing executives. Every day a new list comes out of marketing influencers, top PR blogs or “Most Powerful Twitter Users.” And even if the folks on those lists are PR industry colleagues, they might be important to your client because of their social media clout.

I know because I’ve experienced this phenomenon from two sides in the last six months. On one side, we had a client who asked us to connect with, promote to and otherwise engage industry influencers on their behalf. A handful of these influencers were people who own PR or social marketing agencies that we often compete against, but whose founders are building powerful personal brands – writing books, speaking at conferences, topping every social media power list – that they are now seen by many brands to be as influential as reporters and analysts. Suffice it to say, our strategy in such cases is not to pitch these folks in the way we would pitch a reporter. It takes a different approach, one that’s just as thought out and maybe even more personable than pitching media. (In an honest side note – sometimes having a client ask you to pitch fellow PR colleagues feels a little bit like The J. Geils Band lyrics in “Love Stinks.”)

I’ve also been pitched by PR reps lately – but usually it’s a very personal approach by a fellow industry colleague that doesn’t feel like a pitch, so much as someone asking for a favor (smart). More recently, I was pitched by a well-known, global PR agency, citing my influence in the blogosphere and asking me to interview their client to help raise awareness of an upcoming show. The pitch “encouraged” me to write about the event and interview the CEO on my blog (which one, btw? #PRtip).

My first thought: “That was a long and impersonal pitch.” My second thought: “That was weird.”

But maybe it’s not so weird. Had the pitch been more specific, I could probably better understand why this firm thought I was worth pitching as a blogger for this particular client. And I might even have found interest in writing something.

All that being said, I’m sure this is happening more and more – PR pitching PR. I can see more clients wanting agencies to pitch marketing and PR influencers who actually work for other agencies but are also strong voices in the social marketing sphere. If you have a client who sells to PR and Marketing audiences, it’s bound to happen.

So how are you building your influencer lists? Do you include PR and marketing bloggers – those who are also industry colleagues – in your outreach? Do you approach them differently than you would a journalist? We’d love your thoughts – and advice to PR pros looking for the best way to break into this new foreign territory.

 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 08/30/10

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It’s Not About the Pizza and 7 Other Social Media Insights
Fast Company Expert Blogger Drew Neisser shares eight tips from Ramon DeLeon – a man who made the  transition from pizza delivery to delivering social media keynotes around the globe.

Raising Your Social Capital: The Two “O” Process
This Technorati post by Jessica Valenzuela shares several tips on maximizing your social efforts through a combination of online and offline activity.

Older Americans Flocking To Social Networks
InformationWeek‘s Antone Gonsalves highlights the recent findings from the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project’s study on age and Internet usage that found Americans ages 50 and up are becoming more active on social networks and online communities.

U.S. companies spend for social media tied to customer loyalty
Katie Deatsch from InternetRetailer.com shares the results of a recent study from Colloquy and the Direct Marketing Association that found that the U.S. companies are willing to spend more of their budgets on social media when it’s tied to customer loyalty.

Ten Corporate Social Media Mistakes
“Evolved Technologist” Dan Woods recently spoke to Christy Schoon, Director of Business Consulting at NewsGator, who shared 10 mistakes commonly made by companies jumping into Enterprise 2.0 and Social Media – via this post on Forbes.com.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 08/23/10

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Do You Want To Succeed At Social Media Or Social Media Marketing?
Do you know the difference between social media and social media marketing? This post from Forrester‘s Augie Ray separates one from the other by providing real-world examples of each.

How To Integrate Social Media, Marketing and Business Intelligence
This CIO.com post focuses on the various ways Social Media affects a businesses marketing efforts and can lead to “increasingly powerful, actionable and immediate access to consumer sentiment” when paired with business intelligence.

The Problem With Empowering The Customer
SocialMediaExplorer.com‘s Jason Falls provides this thought provoking (and entertaining) post on how encouraging customers to use social media platforms to provide feedback might not always be the ideal channel for collecting such feedback.

Are You Using Social Media as Social Proof?
Corbett Barr visits the long standing concept of “social proof” and explains how effective social media can be when used as social proof in this post on SocialMediaExplorer.com.

What’s Next: After Social Media
This MediaBullseye post from Wayne Kurtzman explains that the next evolution of “social” just might be all about gaming and influence.

Photo Credit: popculturegeek.com