How Do You Choose To Operate Your Social Media?

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Stephanie Fischbach

Brand vs Individual

Superman

Do you separate your personal social media accounts from your brand’s? Do you think that acting as a brand versus a human is more beneficial to your customers or your business as a whole? Below I will outline some of the pros and cons of each to assist you in deciding which may be more appropriate for the needs of you or your organization.

Pro-Individual

Think about it like this. Social Media platforms are centered around the idea of relationship and conversation based content. Building a P2P ( People to People ) relationship is one of the most valuable things an organization can do. But one important trait of relationships, which I know I had to learn the hard way, is that relationships that are one sided just don’t work.

Personally, I know that I prefer interacting with a person who has humanistic qualities. I think that this brings a lot of things to light, which may be discarded when you only interact with an organization as a brand.  Just like people, organizations make mistakes. When an organization is seen as a grouping of real people versus a cold, “matter of fact” brand, a customer may be more inclined to understand a mishap and be more willing to forgive you for it.

Having worked in Customer Service for several years, I have found that when you create that humanistic relationship with your customer, you are no longer “Client Services Rep 12345” you are Becky, who has several similar interests, lives in Boston and loves to vacation where you live because of the weather. Not only does this humanize the employee or the brand, but I have also found that customers are less likely to let out all of their frustrations on the representative, who is simply doing their job, just as you do, if they can relate to you on a personal level.

Pro-Brand

However, I also believe that brands have a specific role that they play in social media platforms as well. People feel a connection, security and familiarity to a brand, based on the experiences they have had. Customers also tend to reach out to Brands on sites such as Twitter or Facebook for coupons, sales or even initial contact for a comment, compliment or complaint. It sometimes can make situations more legit for the consumer.

One of the obvious reasons why utilizing a brand account may be more effective is that you don’t necessarily have to worry about your individual accounts being as “politically correct” or official as a brand account may be. Some individuals who utilize their social media accounts for both business and personal will state “tweets or posts are my own,” which allows them to more freely speak their mind and not be held accountable. As a brand account, you have either set guidelines or trust in employees to uphold your reputation in being a role model in your industry, so the lines are less blurred and there is a better guarantee that all things relating to your organization are handled in the most professional and hospitable manner.

As with anything, a healthy combination of both brand and individual presences will probably have the best outcome, since there’s no right or wrong way to represent your brand. What may work for some organizations might now work for others.

 

Do you agree? How do your social platforms operate? Have you found success with how your managing yours?

I’d love to hear from you!

 

Stephanie Fischbach

Pay Per Visit Email

 

 

Posted in B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing, Multichannel Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Simple Design Done Simply

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Stephanie Fischbach

 

Movado Museum Watch

 

  • Movado Watches
  • Any Apple Product
  • Thomas Moser Cabinet Makers
  • Chanel #5
  • Ikea

 

These are brands that have figured out how to create classic, timeless products, but they do it simply. A tremendous amount of effort goes into creating products that create a sense of relevance through simplicity.  The foundation for the appeal of these products lies in their very simplicity.  Everyone gets it.  It is not just a matter of appealing to the lowest common denominator, either, since they do not do that.  It is a matter of appealing to a higher sense of style, an almost Zen-like quality, that makes the user or viewer identify viscerally with the product.  That is the effect of simple design done simply.

Content is King

You hear that expression over and over in the social media world.  To many people that means a constant stream of “fresh content” needs to be written an posted daily, weekly, whatever.  Because it is so easy for anyone with a computer and an internet connection to do, everyone thinks that they can and should.  There is a torrent of “stuff” out there, 99.99999% of it is either not relevant or, even if it does have meaning, is not being read because it can’t surface due to volume of other posts swamping it entirely.

Take a step back and think about what you are putting out in the social media ether.  Does it really have relevance?  Are you saying what you have to say in 1000 words what you can more simply say in 300 words?  Would you be interested in reading what you had to say?  Do you have to beg others to tweet, re-tweet or somehow promote what you have to sell/say or do those recommendations come naturally?

If the answer to the last question is “yes, I am always looking for popular bloggers, etc. to promote my blog/product/service”, then you will probably not achieve the success for which you are striving.  It is like one of the lesser MP3 players going up against an iPod.  Those companies promoted the heck out of their MP3 players, but the simple design and intuitive functionality of the iPod completely dominated the industry and captured the vast majority of the mindshare in that space.

Social Media Done Simply

If you are working in social media, which includes blogging, web design and even email marketing, think “Simple”.  Most people lead complicated lives. They do not need complication in their social media. They need, and want, simplicity.  Make your point quickly and efficiently.  Hue to your own schedule when it comes to delivering content. Don’t scrounge around for recognition from the more popular bloggers.  If the content is simple and clean and talks to people like they are human beings and not just a pair of eyeballs, chances are it will be picked up.  Start that process and now you have the beginnings of a lasting success.

 

Stewart Friedman

Pay Per Visit Email

Posted in Social Media, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Marketing Attribution

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Stephanie Fischbach
Marketing Silos

Marketing Silos

There are many methods for marketing products and services to prospects and customers.  Marketers have had a difficult time attributing a particular event to a particular marketing channel, so they typically defaulted to something like a “First Click” or a “Last Click” contribution to the event.  Econsultancy, in cooperation with Google Analytics, created a White Paper for its members in April, 2012 entitled “Marketing Attribution: Valuing the Customer Journey”.  This blog post will borrow from that paper to describe the ascendancy of marketing attribution.

Reasons for Marketing Attribution

Just as there are many marketing channels, there are also multiple stages in the sales cycle.  If you put the combination of the two together, the marketer is faced with a lot of combinations of influence on the buying decision.  Marketers are looking for the “right” combination of channel and stage that leads to more desired outcomes.  According to Econsultancy, 90% consider it a high/medium priority to use attribution for justifying digital spending, 93% use it to create an effective media mix, 89% to understand the funnel and sales cycle and 75% to correctly determine affiliate payments.

As the article says, “Marketers want to do more than simply justify their digital spend; they want to optimize it.  They’re looking to attribution to understand how different media perform so they can adjust the media mix and improve performance.”

The Benefits of Attribution

The study by Econsultancy also polled respondents as to what they considered the benefits of attribution.   Budget allocation, at 72%, represents the primary result of their allocation program.  63% say that attribution allows them to better understand how digital channels work together.  There is still a gap between understanding the interactions between digital and offline media.

Effects of Attribution on Channel Investment

Over 50% of the respondents said that they would increase spending on some digital marketing channels.  SEO, Mobile and email are the winning marketing channels when it comes to the results of marketing attribution.  Each had over 95% of the respondents say that they would increase, or at least hold steady, their investment in these three channels.

How do you measure the success of your marketing efforts?

Stewart Friedman

Pay Per Visit Email

Posted in Multichannel Marketing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Integrate the Social Conversation with Email

Posted on April 10, 2012 by Stephanie Fischbach

 

Social Media vs Email

Integrate Social Media & Email

All you hear about these days is “Social Media” and how the conversation is moving entirely to social media platforms.  Social media is an up and coming medium for engaging customers, both businesses and consumers.  There are many vehicles for social media like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and many, many more.  Each platform has its own features, strengths, weaknesses and typical users.  Email can, and should, be integrated with these platforms as a method of amplifying the message and broadening the base.  Email should be considered a valued tool in continuing and expanding the conversation with customers.

Relevant Emails

Email, like social media content, needs to be relevant to the recipient.  Recipients will be more receptive to the message if what you are trying to convey has meaning in their lives.  For consumers, it may be information about a sale or a discount for a popular product.  For businesses, that may mean providing more informative content with less of an emphasis on selling something.  In both cases, the email message should be tightly integrated with the message that the business is trying to convey in its social media posts.

How to Make Email More Relevant

Marketers are increasing the relevance of email through a number of methods:

  • Personalization
  • Segmentation
  • Mining and matching behavioral data with content
  • Automate responses to inquiries, purchases, abandoned carts, etc.
  • Including social media icons in emails
  • Unique content only in email
  • Incentives in social media to sign up for email programs
  • Incentives for email subscribers to join social media
  • Multiple platform delivery

Email in the Mix

According to a report produced by the Email Experience Council of the DMA and Econsultancy, “2012: Email in Action”, the use of email is essentially viewed as “positive”, with “60% (of agencies) reporting that their clients are increasing their use of email to some extent.”  However, they go on to say that “looking at the historical trend, there is some modest decline in the rate of growth, and an increase in the organizations reducing their use of the medium.”  Social media is one factor in this decline in rate of increase in the use of email.  Smart marketers know the ROI for email is higher than it is for most other methods of communication and are already beginning to tap into the potential for synergies between the new methods, like social media, and existing, matured methods, like email, to engage consumers and stay relevant in their lives.

How are you integrating email with other methods of marketing and communication?

Stewart Friedman

Pay Per Visit Email

Posted in Email Content, Metrics & Analytics, Multichannel Marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment