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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

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.

 

 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 04/04/11

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Chrysler TweetThe 7 Worst Twitter PR Fails
The Huffington Post‘s Catharine Smith compiles an entertaining list of the top Twitter-based PR blunders to-date. Prepare to cringe and learn!

Managing elephant-sized social media blunders
Reuters small business writer Deborah Cohen shares an informative Q&A with global brand strategist Jonathan Salem Baker that contains helpful tips on managing social media blunders like this week’s “elephant hunting” video released by GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons.

Top Companies Still Bashful About Social Media Presence
Frank Reed, managing editor for the Marketing Pilgrim, starts off a new blog series with this entry that highlights a recent Ad Age report that revealed less than half of Fortune 50 companies promote their social presence on their corporate homepage.

Report: Social Media Worth the Time
There’s no doubt that executing a well thought out social media strategy takes time. However, you need to stick with it and be consistent in order to reap the rewards. Inc.com‘s contributing editor Courtney Rubin shares some interesting stats around this topic and small business.

Getting real about social media budgeting
This post from Rich Karpinski on BtoBOnline suggests that Salesforce.com‘s recently announced acquisition of Radian6 might be a turning point for marketing teams to really focus on their social spending, and he provides highlights of last year’s Altimeter survey from Jeremiah Owyang to show what an aggressive social budget looks like.

Charlie Sheen’s Biggest Win: Social Media

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The buzz word d’jour (or public drug I should say) is Charlie Sheen. His odd behavior and ‘tiger blood’ antics have been splashed across the media industry as every channel, news story and website has jumped whole-heartily onto the Sheen train wreck. Although I could write an entire blog post about how out-of-control he and his ‘winning’ attitude are, or debate if this whole thing may just be an act, I thought it would be more refreshing to look at how social media has become Sheen’s most vocal supporter.

Highlights from Sheen’s “winning” social media campaign:

Sheens Korner
There’s no doubt Sheen’s bizarre rants combined with his celebrity status are fueling the success of his social media campaign. He provokes fascination. He is the epitome of a celebrity uncensored. And without a publicist by his side limiting his talk show appearances or discouraging runaway ranting to the public directly—Sheen has given his audience a raw look into the coveted celebrity world.

He has embraced his social media power by connecting with fans through erratic tweets and videos that have gone viral. This has allowed him to promote the “Charlie Sheen” brand and has led Sheen to paid endorsement deals for products and brands via Twitter and Facebook.  And while he sees himself as a ‘warlock’ and his PR tactics are risky to say the least— every media outlet wants an exclusive interview with him.  Sheen managed to get in front of the story (even if he was behind it), has taken control of the bad publicity and has somehow turned this mess into an advantage.

Sheen is winning.

So my fellow tiger-blood addicts, what do you think of Sheen’s off-the-wall approach to a publicity campaign? Is he winning the PR war? Are his social media successes going to be short-lived? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 02/28/11

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Social Media Cycle

Understanding the Social Media ROI Cycle
The 60 Second Marketer‘s Jamie Turner shares some excellent insight into Social Media ROI and the various phases of a social campaign via this guest post on Mashable.

Lessons From a Corporate Insider: Dream Big, but Think Small
Leading the charge to convince corporate communications of the benefits of moving into the the social space can be a tremendous challenge. This post from Mark Ivey on MPDailyFix.com provides some good tips, along with a personal experience story direct from Mark. As an added bonus, additional advice from the community continues on in the comments section.

Proof of Life: 4 Reasons Why B2B Marketing Lives On
MPDailyFix turned up this other great pick by way of this Pro-B2B post from Carlos Hidalgo who shares “our reasons why B2B marketing is still alive and kicking.“

Expand Your Social Media Mix: Twitter Alone is Not Enough
This excellent post from Jeremiah Owyang hits the nail on the head by urging readers to add a little more “steak” (more substantial content) to their social media mix. Several social tool alternatives are shared to help get you away from focusing on Twitter as your primary content sharing vehicle.

Why the digital agency will never die
In this iMediaConnection.com post. JetSet Studios CEO, Russell Scott shares his take on why digital agencies are here to stay and how the “story” is at the center of it all.


 

Persuasive Picks for the week of 02/21/11

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nofacebook2 Four Reasons Your Brand Should Avoid Facebook
Here we find some great considerations from Small Business Trends for small businesses on the marketing value of Facebook. Make sure you do your homework first and have a purpose for being there. Lisa Barone shares insight on the top questions to ask yourself before leaping into building a presence on Facebook (or any social media marketing channel for that matter).

The Less-Tangible ROI of Social Media
We all want to ensure our social marketing efforts are matching up to the boss’s expectations for the investment, so it can help to set goals and be tracking the less obvious benefits to your brand. Danny Wong shares his thoughts with the Huffington Post about the hidden ways we are making an impact that will demonstrate campaign value to the C-Suite and build a better understanding of its potential.

Brands That Have Mastered Content Marketing
Are you infusing your marketing strategy with content? What kind of content are you producing, and how does this tie into your marketing strategy? In one of this week’s iMediaConnection posts, Rob Rose shares his insight and explores best practices from content marketers including Kodak and Hubspot. He stresses the importance of thinking of content not as a tactic, but as a new way of shaping your entire strategy.

Does Social Media Transparency Matter in the Real World?
Before you decide on your social media transparency strategy, take a look at the questions Debra Ellis proposes on Social Media Today the real value of transparency. Are you guilty of over-sharing? Will sharing too much information take away from your competitive advantage? Does it help to leave some things to the imagination?

Seven Common PR Sins to Avoid At All Costs
Seems like simple PR 101, but some PR reps still break the rules of engagement with the journalists they try to pitch. For those starting out in their careers, Ragan.com offers a good checklist from Amanda Marsh to keep by your desk — and a good refresher for the rest of us.

Social Media Lessons from Bieber Fever

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Justin BieberUnless you’re living under a rock, you’ve likely heard of Justin Bieber, the latest singing sensation that has teens and preteens around the world screaming and sobbing just for a quick, but memorable, glimpse of his dashing smile and famous hair. Last Sunday afternoon, I took my seven (going on 17)-year old daughter to see the new Justin Bieber movie “Never Say Never,” which came in second place at the box office.  As I sat there watching this surprisingly inspiring movie, I noticed my little girl get a twinkle in her eye and I began to understand the intriguing phenomenon known as “Bieber Fever.”

Later that evening, I tuned into the Grammy Awards and watched this young talent share the stage with well-known singer Usher and new-comer Jaden Smith. Though he didn’t win, he did get an amazing outpouring of support on Twitter – leading to his name being a trending topic, yet again.  Some of us love him, while others are tired of his constant media attention. Two things we can all agree on is that he’s captured the mind share of teens and tweens everywhere, and he could certainly teach us all a thing or two about the power of social marketing.

For anyone outside of his core demographic, it may be tough to understand just how this young boy has gained such popularity in a relatively short period of time.  Is it simply luck?  Some say it has something to do with his celebrity backings, from influential artists like Usher.  Or, could it be the impressionable age of his audience or his constant and hectic schedule of personal appearances and performances.

I think the real answer here is that this kid is “ahead of his time” and is an absolute marketing whiz!  When Justin was discovered by talent agent Scooter Braun in 2008, he had five videos on YouTube, with the most popular one generating an impressive 70,000 views—all of this with just the direction of his mother, who video taped all of his performances, including his first appearance at a local singing competition. By sharing his YouTube videos with friends and family (who in turn shared these videos with their networks and so on) and through some honest to goodness hard work, Justin’s celebrity status sky-rocketed and his music career took off. In a matter of a year, girls everywhere were screaming his name.

Bieber Fever

So how did he do it? Justin’s favorite and most-effective social media tool has been Twitter. He was one of the earliest artists to start using Twitter to reach and build his fan base and now just roughly three years later, he’s got 7.2 million dedicated followers hanging on his every word.  He uses Twitter to promote his music, videos, personal appearances and boost ticket and album sales.  A quick glance at his Twitter page and you will notice that he responds to each fan and retweets their messages, further proving to his fan base that he truly is “listening.” In addition to promoting his own videos, movie and other tour news, Justin also wisely takes the time to engage with other celebrities (with huge followings) while promoting his appearances on shows like Ellen and Lopez Tonight.

As a result of his hard work and creative social marketing tactics, the Biebster has the world’s most viewed YouTube video, has over 21 million fans on Facebook and is holding strong on AdAge’s list of Top 10 Twitter “Trending Topics” list with other important world figures and topics such as Egypt’s revolution, the Superbowl and fellow break-through artist Lady Gaga. His Twitter statistics are pretty impressive as well, with his readers’ reach at 146,362,484 and 118% of his tweets being Re-Tweeted.

So, what is next for this marketing sensation and what can we learn from him?

Listen and Engage With Your Audience.

He continuously taps into social media to obtain feedback from his fans and gain more insight into his target audience, their wants and needs.  He “listens” and “engages” with his audience just like any master marketer.

Understand Your Target Audience.

He takes the time to understand his fans and he is always pushing the envelope, trying new ways to promote himself. Because of all of this, he gains the hearts and minds of his fans and thousands of new Twitter followers each week and continues to gain on Britney Spears.

Get Creative and Give Back.

Justin is well-known for offering free concert tickets and pulling off surprise visits to fans, such as his recent Valentine’s Day visit to Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA

After the visit, Justin tweeted: “Just finished seeing some amazing kids who couldn’t get to see #NSN3D …so we surprised them and brought the movie to them.” Bieber ended the tweet with the hashtag #makeachange.

All in all, Justin Bieber and “Bieber Fever” is a classic example of putting social media to work for you in the ultra-competitive music industry. However, the lesson here goes far beyond the entertainment world.  Justin’s use of social media throughout his rise to stardom can be translated to almost any industry or small business.  Maybe all of us can’t reap as much reward from social media as Justin has, but we can definitely try by learning from his best practices. Justin was just ahead of his time in this area — but then again, having great hair can’t hurt either.

Image Credit: Baltimore Sun and 915thebeat.com

The Almighty, The All Powerful…The Tweet

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This past week, Twitter revealed 2010’s “Twitter Trends”—a snapshot of the top overall topics that have dominated the 95 million tweets a day* sent this past year from across the world. Twitter released the top trends overall—splitting up the top tweets into categories including news events, people, movies, television, technology, world cup, sports, and hashtags.

According to a recent blog post, Twitter explains the “Twitter Trends” process as “automatically generated by an algorithm that attempts to identify topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously. The Trends list is designed to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world, in real-time. The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what’s most popular.”

Further, Jodi Olsen (@jodiolson), in charge of Twitter’s Corporate Communications, in a separate Twitter blog post added in, “These Trends indicate the things that are most meaningful in our lives. Each day on Twitter, people tweet about news, sports, entertainment and cool new technology–and everything else in between. The list of 2010 Twitter Trends reflects what’s happening in our world, demonstrates the power of turning any event or story into a shared experience, and underscores Twitter’s value as a real-time information network.”

The overall Top 10 Twitter Trends of 2010 are as follows:

  1. Gulf Oil Spill
  2. FIFA World Cup
  3. Inception
  4. Haiti Earthquake
  5. Vuvuzela
  6. Apple iPad
  7. Google Android
  8. Justin Bieber
  9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
  10. Pulpo Paul

In addition to the top overall trends, Twitter compiled a list of the “10 Most Powerful Tweets.” Examining Twitter’s list of powerful tweets proved thought-provoking. It represents the various ways people use Twitter from the political world to disaster relief.

are as follows:

  1. Ann Curry: “@usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http://bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this.” (http://twitter.com/AnnCurry)
  2. The White House: “Welcome to @twitter President Medvedev! RT @KremlinRussia_E: Hello everyone! I’m on Twitter, and this is my first tweet.” (http://twitter.com/whitehouse/)
  3. Cyclist Leigh Fazzina: “I’ve had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I’m stuck bike crash in woods.” (http://twitter.com/LeighFazzina/)
  4. BP’s Fake PR Account: “Catastrophe is a strong word, let’s all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.” (http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR)
  5. Ecuador’s President: “Gobierno declara estado de Excepción #Ecuador #30S” (http://twitter.com/Presidencia_Ec)
  6. Clarence House, the office of the Prince of Wales: “The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton – www.princeofwales.gov.uk” (http://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse)
  7. Sun’s CEO: “Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more” (http://twitter.com/OpenJonathan/)
  8. Idaho’s John Foster: “Congratulations to Raul Labrador on a hard-earned win, and best of luck as Idaho’s next Congressman.” (http://twitter.com/foster208)
  9. Spain’s defender Carles Puyol: “Gran ambiente en la rua!!orgulloso de ver a tanta gente feliz. http://twitpic.com/24qkg5″ (http://twitter.com/Carles5puyol/)
  10. Conan O’Brien: “Hey Internet: I’m headed to your town on a half-a–ed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It’s half-a–ed.” (http://twitter.com/ConanOBrien/)

While the list may appear simple: 10 tweets; the 140-character statements prove the real power of Twitter as a social medium. Twitter isn’t about easy mass-marketing or how many times you can tweet at your followers– the real power of Twitter is creating conversation, building authentic relationships, and most importantly tweeting to your followers. Not to mention, Twitter is the essence of viral marketing—no other social network can match Twitter’s effectiveness and speed in getting a message across to millions of people. In fact, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center about  8% of American adults who use the Internet are Twitter users. Twitter just may be the communication tool of the coming age.

So my fellow Tweeps— how’s your buzz level? What did you tweet about this year? Do you have a powerful tweet that’s missing from the list above to share with us? What was your breakthrough tweet this year? Please share your thoughts and top tweets of the year with us in the comments below.

*Twitter Blog, 12/8/2010

Charitable Giving Goes Social This Holiday Season

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‘Tis the season for bell ringers with red buckets asking for your donation in the name of charity – but giving-on-the-go this year is no longer limited to just the change in your pocket. At the forefront of this “social giving” movement is Keep a Child Alive (KCA), an organization dedicated to providing life-saving AIDS treatment, care and support services to children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

Singer and new mom, Alicia Keys, is heading up the effort and hopes to raise $1 million for the charity with a campaign initiative called Digital Life Sacrifice. How? By staging a “digital death” for some well-known celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, Serena Williams and Usher, to name a few. They’re quitting Twitter and Facebook cold turkey in the hopes that their sign-off (in effect until the $1M donation goal is hit) will incite action.

In addition to going dark digitally, several of the celebrities have filmed a “last tweet and testament” and will appear lying in coffins for ads. Other ads feature famous faces posing in “Buy Life” t-shirts that are printed with unique bar codes that users can scan on their cell phones (using Stickybits or WiMO) to donate money in the name of their chosen celebrity.

Pedestrians who’d like to get in on a piece of the action can purchase their own ‘Buy Life’ t-shirts with bar codes to become a walking billboard for the charity as well. Friends and family (and even strangers!) can simply scan the shirts to donate. And there’s still a text campaign (text “BUYLIFE” to 90999 to give $10) in effect for the non-smartphone crowd.

The campaign is a brilliant twist on the convergence of popularity contests, impulse buying and mob mentality that we’ve seen on such shows as American Idol – where Keys first realized her influence when a plea for donations raised $500K in four minutes. Plus, it’s refreshing to see the power of celebrity on social media being harnessed for a positive effect; the famous get that they’re a commodity, so they’re starting to realize that they can capitalize on that for the greater good – and quickly, thanks to this fresh and fun take with bar-code technology. The digitally-dead celebrities may not be talking, but the rest of us sure will!

Is this the kind of holiday giving campaign social media and mobile addicts will rally around? Love it? Hate it? We want to hear your thoughts.

The Art of Listening in Client Service

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At the risk of stereotyping myself, and my peers, it seems to me that most PR personalities are talkers, spinners and strategists, but rarely are they quiet listeners or observers. This observation is based on my own experience in PR over the last decade or so. I also speak from that rare position of listener.

Yep, I’m a listener. One of the ‘quiet ones,’ I buck the PR stereotype. I’m an introvert; shy to the point of pain in my youth; and though I have gotten over the pain part, I can still think of 100 things I would rather do than interject myself into a conversation with someone I just met.

Not surprisingly, this has caused some angst for me from a professional standpoint. In the client service business, we must prove ourselves every day – to our clients, colleagues and managers. In PR, this often takes the form of strategic counsel and creative ideas shared verbally in a meeting or via a conference call.

Fortunately, I’ve had some excellent guidance and support here at PerkettPR and have overcome most of my fears about voicing my ideas. Despite these strides, I still believe wholeheartedly that my ability to listen has benefited my teams, my clients, and me in countless ways – perhaps in more important ways than my verbal observations ever will.

Good customer service begins with listening

I’ve heard time and again, “if they don’t hear from you, they don’t know you’re engaged.” I’d argue that good client service is as much about listening as it is about presenting, counseling and verbalizing ideas. Listening is another form of engagement.

I’m surely not the only one who’s come across a verbose PR pro who doesn’t know when to be quiet. You know, the one that cuts you off, interrupts the client, pretends to listen, but then continues talking up his or her idea. Sure, they can talk about their ideas and offer advice on the fly, but it’s the listeners who actually hear and understand what the client really wants. Everyone wants to be heard, especially if they’re paying someone to listen.

We cannot provide excellent counsel without first listening and understanding what our clients have to say. Listening goes far beyond remaining silent while someone else speaks. Listening is about paying attention to the nuances of the conversation, recognizing what isn’t being said, and then applying what you’ve heard to the matter at hand.

Social Media – talking or listening?

As our business – and the world around us – evolves, listening is becoming more important than ever. With Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Whrrl and countless other social networks encouraging brief status updates, we’re overrun with one-way conversations. It seems everyone has something to say, but is anybody listening?

Christine Perkett has spoken about the importance of listening as part of the social conversation for some time. In a 2009 blog post, she commented, “One of the most effective ways to connect with any audience is to show them that you care. One of the easiest ways to show someone that you care is to listen.” This still holds true today, with even more noise entering the market daily.

More recently Gartner’s Michael Maoz shared his thoughts on the lost art of listening. He notes that many of his clients who are introducing social capabilities to their businesses are reaping big points from their customers by simply demonstrating their willingness to listen. Brands that are most successful with social media are those that understand it is a two-way dialogue, and an opportunity to listen to their customers – just on a broader scale.

Listen up

Granted, in the day-to-day life of your average PR professional, social listening is only part of the job. Our clients look to us for ideas, strategy and counsel delivered verbally or otherwise. And we’ll provide it (even those of us that are more natural listeners, than talkers ;-)) but, first, we’ll ensure we’ve taken the time to listen to their needs and concerns carefully, and offer thoughtful advice that helps them to reach their business goals – not just a knee jerk reaction or response.

What are your thoughts on the art of listening? Are we in danger of losing this crucial skill? How do you ensure you’re really listening to your customers? We’d love to HEAR from you in the comments.