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Creating Kickass Infographics On A Budget (posted Tue, 07 Feb 2012 by Danika Atkins)
Not to be too cynical. After all, infographics are not dead. Just because we’re all tired of the buzzword doesn’t mean that data visualization, as a whole, is a thing of the past. Consuming information in easy to understand, visually appealing, digestible formats will never lose its popularity (if you need confirmation, just check out the Egyptian hieroglyphs). And corporations have oodles of data about their industry or products that could be interesting to a wide audience. But not everyone has the internal resources to develop a flashy infographic to dazzle their audience. If that’s you and you’re short on either dollars, time frame or even data — fear not. As we’ve seen time and time again, simple visualizations with good data can be just as popular as high budget, flashy infographics. Of course, having a solid content promotion strategy from the get-go will yield the best return on your infographic spend, but it’s not necessary to spend hundreds of dollars on a designer to create interesting data visualizations. Many of the tools you need are sitting right on your desktop waiting to be used. After all, the best way to maximize your bottom line is to remove those unnecessary costs. Don’t be afraid. Dig in. Below are some tips on how to create awesome infographics while still pinching those pennies. Finding Data SourcesSure, your internal data might tell an interesting story, but try bringing in outside sources to add another dimension and relate it back to the user. You may find interesting correlations between product sales and overall economic activity or seasonal fluctuations (Google Correlate is a good place to find interesting correlations)! It’s important to keep in mind that correlation is not causation, so avoid bending and twisting the data until it submits to your will. FedStats.gov CIA World Factbook Google Public Data Data Visualization ToolsAround the OSM office, I often refer to Microsoft Excel as being my second husband. I could write an epic poem (or at least a rambling blog post) about all the ways that Excel can make your dreams come true. But there’s a whole world of data visualization tools outside of Excel that can help you turn your drab spreadsheet into a valuable digital asset. Excel Open Source Options Design ElementsI’m a big proponent of using the skills you have and outsourcing the tasks that are not your strong suit. With so many vector graphic, mapping, and design element resources available, you don’t have to worry about spending time and money creating cute cartoon characters. Use these resources to find the design elements you need. OpenClipArt.org Vector Pack Vector4Free Once you’re ready to put it all together, you can use a simple image editing tool such as Gimp to combine the elements. A simple design scheme such as the one described by Jonathan Patterson can help you construct a visually appealing infographic, or consider hosting your data on a static page. Both formats present link building and customer experience enrichment opportunities.
Weekend Coffee Links: Flash Fans Edition (posted Sat, 04 Feb 2012 by Lisa Barone)
Welcome to SuperBowl weekend. Are you ready to watch the Patriots destroy the Giants and get a little payback? I know I am. ;) But before all that, let’s snack on some Weekend Coffee Links. They’re nutritious AND hilarious. What more could you ask for? Nothing, I say. First we’ll share what caught our eye this week, then you can share your own links in the comments.
That’s it from us. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and we’ll meet you back here next week.
Small Business SEO: Bridging the SMB/Vendor Gap (posted Fri, 03 Feb 2012 by Emily Cote)
I’ve been an SEO. Having done the intensive SEO work I know the value of good SEO and why it comes at such a premium. SEO is labor-intensive and ever-evolving, but extremely effective when executed well. I’ve been the lone marketing manager in a small business, wearing fourteen different hats and trying to figure out how I am supposed to fit SEO into the schedule… and the budget. And I’ll be totally honest: Working for a small business, even though I knew how important SEO was and even though I wanted to do it all myself… I honestly just didn’t have the time. But I didn’t want SEO to fall by the wayside. So I sought outside help. I reached out to some local SEO companies in the hopes of finding someone who could help me prioritize our SEO efforts at a price that I could actually present to my boss. Here’s what I discovered. It’s not pretty.
From a small business stand point, the truth is that many of them know that SEO is something they should be doing (because that’s what they have heard), but they don’t understand it, and they don’t have the time or manpower to be able to do it themselves… so they are coming to you. It’s your job to lay it out for them and help them see the benefits of an SEO investment. So how can we do that? How do we bridge the gap and bring SEO and SMB budgets together? 3 Ways SEO Companies Can Improve their Small Business SEO
I’ve seen both, and both offer their own challenges. However, each situation can be somewhat healed through transparency and honest communication. Tell your prospective client exactly what you would like to do for their business, why you want to do it, what it’s going to cost, and what the realistic payoff will be. Keep it short, simple, and specific to them. And of course, for small business owners who may be looking to hire an SEO. 3 Ways Small Businesses Can Make Their SEO Efforts More Effective
Are you an SEO specialist that specializes or caters to small businesses? What would you add? I’d love to hear your point of view…
Why You Want To Be the Last Blog Standing (posted Wed, 01 Feb 2012 by Lisa Barone)
You’ve probably heard the news. According to findings released by UMass Dartmouth [hat tip RWW] the number of Inc. 500 companies maintaining corporate blogs has dropped for the first time since 2007. Did you hear that? IT DROPPED! According to Dartmouth’s research, just 37 percent of companies interviewed said they had a corporate blog, down from 50 percent in 2010.
So where are these fast-moving companies moving to? Shinier pastures, of course.
Naturally, much of the blogosphere took the headline of the UMass report and ran with it all the way to the linkbait bank. Is blogging really plummeting? Probably not. And if it is declining, let it. You hear me? Let your blog be the last blog standing because while sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may be effective and sexy all in their own right, they don’t hold a candle to the sexiness and superpowers possessed by your blog. Don’t believe me? Below are just ten things your BLOG can do that your FACEBOOK (or Twitter. Or LinkedIn. Or other social networking sites) cannot. 1. Stand as your social media hubRegardless of what you do elsewhere in social media, your blog is your home base. It’s the hub of all your other social interaction because it’s the one place on the Web that you own, that you can control the context, and that you can use to get out your complete message. Yes, engage on Twitter, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, and wherever else your audience is hanging out online. But when you’re done chatting with them on these satellite networks, make sure you’re directing them back to your blog to finish their transaction (even if it’s an information transaction) with you. All of your other activity should point back to the one social media portal your own – your corporate blog. If you’re not directing your social media relationships back here, you’re wasting your time. 2. Acts as a central knowledge repositoryYour corporate blog gives you the opportunity to answer your customer’s most common questions, concerns, issues, fears, hopes, and dreams and then call on that information when someone else asks the same question three weeks later. It creates a central knowledge repository that you can direct people to – whether it’s to answer a question, show expertise, or give a client more insight into what you offer. Having this information on your site makes you a resource of knowledge and it gives prospective customers something to read and look at when they’re evaluating vendors, long before they ever call you or get in touch. 3. Gives you room to establish expertiseYou know what’s really difficult to do? Have an intelligent, in-depth conversation on Twitter. Either you end up fragmenting your messages between five different tweets or you start typing like a tween, ignoring proper spelling and punctuation like it’s a Justin Bieber song. It’s not always easy to go in-depth on social channels, but your blog opens up that opportunity. You have all the room you need to dig into an issue from all different angles, share stories, give insight, and make your case. 4. Blogging improves how you speak to customersBlogging is great practice for learning how to talk to your customers in THEIR language and in how to refer to your products/services the same way they do. It improves your communication skills with customers by re-introducing you to their language. That language you stopped using when you became such a skillful expert. It also keeps you forever exposed to their pain points, their issues, who they want to be like, what they’re looking for, etc. Once you know these things you can address them in your marketing to your customers. By being an SMB who blogs you become an SMB who understand how to communicate with the people they’re trying to reach. 5. Helps you reach a larger audienceThere isn’t a week that goes by that a new friend I haven’t met yet emails me in response to someone in our community forwarded them a post we’ve written (thanks for that, BTW). It happens all the time and you probably wouldn’t expect it. But blog content is easily shareable. We share it on Twitter, we share it to the company intranet, we share it with friends who we think may find the information helpful. And when your blog content is shared, your audience increases. It helps to cast that net wider than it would naturally be on its own. Do people share Tweets and Facebook photos? Yeah, they do. But they don’t have the staying power that a full blog post does in terms of making an impact and creating trust. 6. Is something you own, control and have a say inLet’s a play game for a second, yes? Imagine you’re kind of a big deal. Got that picture ready? I’m sure you do. Okay, now because you’re a big deal, you have not only own a house in Santa Monica, CA but you rent a crash pad apartment in New York City. Now which one are you going to spend time renovating, getting attached to, and giving out the address for? If you’re smart, you’ll focus most of your energy on the house. Because you own the house and you know that someone won’t be coming out of the woodwork in six months to take it away from you. It’s the same thing when we’re talking about your blog and Facebook. You own your blog. You do not own Facebook. So while it may be beneficial to your company to rent a Facebook presence, you absolutely need to build the infrastructure for your Forever Home. This is the place where you’ll be able to build a family, weather hard storms, and rearrange to your liking so that your guests are cozy. The other sites? Not so much. In a few months Facebook’s going to go public. Then what? You have no idea. But you do know what will happen to your blog in a few months because you’re the one steering the ship. 7. Contributes to additional search engine rankingsWhy do so many SEOs and social media companies encourage businesses to create blogs? It’s not because we enjoy watching you pull your hair out trying to come up with at daily content. It’s because having a b log allows business owners to focus on creating keyword-rich content that attracts links, sharing and search engine rankings. You’re probably not going to get your Twitter account to rank for your industry’s money terms. However, through strategic content development, you can get your blog to rank for it. And in the battle of search dominance, that’s what matters when it comes to increasing conversions. 8. Gives you centralized contentYou’re producing blog post. You’re creating photos. You’re putting together infographics. You’re make videos. You’re uploading presentations to SlideShare. Your brand is now associated with a virual menagerie of content. Wouldn’t it be nice if you had one central place where you could post about it all to make it findable to your customers? 9. Is a link magnetWhen you say something smart on your blog, people are going to link to your site and talk about you. When you say something dumb on your blog, people are also going to link to your site and talk about you. These links then help increase your site’s overall authority, earn you higher rankings, and help people to find your site when they’re looking for the types of information that you offer. When you say something smart on Facebook, people are going to Like the status update. And then move on. Not nearly the same effect. 10. Is measureableYour blog is attached to your analytics. That means if anyone does anything on your site, you’re going to know about it. You’re going to know where people are visitng your blog from, how they got there, who sent them there, how long they stayed, where they left, and a host of other information you can’t get from a social media site that you do not own. With data and metrics comes the opportunity to make improvements and work in the light instead of the pitch dark. Is it true that corporate blogs are dying? I don’t believe so. But if they were. Awesome. Let everyone else leave. It just makes your voice and footprint louder.
OSM Monthly Link Find – January 2012 (posted Tue, 31 Jan 2012 by Lisa Barone)
Hey, hey, guess what? It’s time for the first monthly link find post of 2012. Are you ready for it? It’s the one day of the month (the last day, to be exact) where the Outspoken Media staff get together to share with your the one link that they found most useful all month long. It’s a good way to see what’s been on our minds and where our individual passionate points sit. We’ll go first and then you’re invited to share your top link pick from January. Tell us the post that most racked your brain or made you think about things differently. And yes, it can be your own post. Just make sure it’s worthy or we’ll flog you in the comments. ;) Ready to hear from us?
Every time Google sneezes, cries of “SEO is dead!” resound across the blogosphere. And after reading Scott Vaughan’s definition of “marketing as a service,” I almost agree. The traditional one-off model of SEO is dying (and may already be dead). In its place, a sustained, relationship-based SEO partnership based on a strategic implementation strategy has emerged. Those seeking an SEO consultant should be prepared to take on this type of relationship to ensure the success of your search marketing investment.
It’s not uncommon in a website audit to review site speed and the reasons why a website is slow. It’s also not uncommon to propose fixes that will speed it up for the sake of a quality experience. It is, though, just as important to help clients realize the importance of speed for conversions – statistics like “A 1-second delay in page load time can cause a 7% loss in conversions, 11% fewer page views and 16% decrease in customer satisfaction.” My link pick of the week is the infographic that says it all on Mashable.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is by the great Maya Angelou: “You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead pursue the things you love doing and then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off of you.” And one of my favorite topics to read and write about is blogging. This post? Pretty much a perfect combination of the two. Except, in the end, you do make money your goal.
My find is actually a book (blasphemy!) that was recommended by Ric Dragon during a late night DM conversation. The kind of conversation where we’re supportive and inspiring, because only crazy people choose to run an agency. ;) “The Marketing Agency Blueprint” was written by Paul Roetzer and is a fantastic discussion of how most marketing agencies currently do business and why those practices are outdated. It’s a must-read for agency owners and anyone tasked with managing a marketing budget. It looks at where the industry is headed and how to be (or select) an agency/consultant that is changing with the tide. It’s thought-provoking and challenges conventional agency wisdom — I love that.
If you still think content marketing sucks, you may change your mind when you read this post about Coca Cola’s content marketing strategy, Content 2020. The company intends to “move from creative excellence to content excellence,” a goal aptly demonstrated by the two videos that lay out the entire strategy. I was intrigued by how they plan to implement liquid content, and apply the 70/20/10 investment rule to content creation. If you’re a business looking for ways to get ahead in 2012, it’s time to take a hard look at the content you’re providing to your customers. And if you provide content creation services, you need to step up your game.
I know. You were probably weren’t expecting me to drop a link building post right now but, I think this one rocks. I’ve long been encouraging the team here to use Boomerang to help them manage email but this post takes that idea and runs it all the way to the bank. Included you’ll find tips for not only reclaiming your email sanity, but a solid understanding of how a single Gmail app can turn you into a link building ninja. By far the most valuable and actionable post I stumbled upon all month. Okay, now it’s your turn. What was YOUR top link find of the month?
Weekend Coffee Links: T-Rex Edition (posted Sat, 28 Jan 2012 by Lisa Barone)
Hello, friends. Welcome back to your weekend. I do hope you’ll use it to do something totally rockin’ and weekend-worthy. You deserve it. To help get you into the spirit of things, check out our fun link finds from the week that was January 23. I hope it was a good one for you. I had a blast. Onto the links:
That’s it from me. As always, the comments are yours. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you crazy kids on Monday.
Lies Writers Tell To Cripple Your SEO Copywriting (posted Fri, 27 Jan 2012 by Lisa Barone)
You…well, you can’t write. Or at least that’s what you’ve been telling yourself for the past thirty years. Because you don’t believe you can write, you seek out advice, often from writers (or self-proclaimed ones). You ask for their tools of the trade and writing advice. The problem is sometimes these folks point you in the wrong direction. They don’t mean to feed you lies or bad best practices. It just, well, happens. For example, below are five well-intentioned pieces of writing advice that may actually do more harm than good when you’re trying to build content for an SEO campaign. Break these “words of wisdom” and the content you put out will thank you. It will also probably suck less. “Listen to music while writing!”This might be the worst piece of advice ever told. And how many times have you heard it? About a million. You’re told that if you listen to music while you write it will help you block out distractions and make you focus better. And it will. If you’re listening to jazz or classical music or anything that doesn’t have actual words happening. But most of us aren’t listening to that. We’re listening to the music we like. Music with catchy beats, sweet lyrics, and that makes us dance around in our chair without a hint of shame. Essentially, it creates an even more powerful distraction – the need to get all Kevin Bacon up in our office. Because our brain can’t help but focus on the words we’re hearing, listening to music ends up making us less focused and more ADD than we’d be on our own. It’s not music that helps you tune out the world, noise does. Want to put yourself into a trance of super-focus? Let SimplyNoise help you white-noise your way to productivity or check out RainyMood to let rain and thunder guide the words out. These two sites will help you block out disruptions WITHOUT adding more to the fire. “Just write what you know!”Not sure what to write about in your blog today or what to create a sizzling new infographic around? Just write what you know! I’m not sure what that really means, but it’s terrible, vague and misleading advice. You should not write about what you know. No one really cares about all the things you know. What they do care about is what they WANT to know. The information they’re interested in and the advice that’s going to help them do something in their lives better. It’s not about you at all. But fret not! The truly fantastic thing about having customers on the Web is that they tell you, every day, exactly what it is they want to know. They’re leaving you messages in your analytics, your site logs, through the conversations they have with you via social channels, and through the search modifiers they use. Don’t write what you know. Write what they’re asking for. And use all the information you have at your disposal to figure out what the heck that is. Then serve it back to them. “Write to impress!”Telling someone they need to “come off smart”, “impress their audience” or “sound like an expert” in the content they write is a fantastic way to paralyze them or put them on a sad journey of incredibly awkward writing where their Web site copy reads like their 10th grade essay on Shakespeare. You don’t need to sound intelligent or like a scientist when talking to your customers. You just need to sound like them.
The best way to ruin the writing you’re doing for your SEO campaign is to focus on yourself or your company. Focus on them. Sound and represent them. That’s where the magic happens. “Writing is serious business!”You’re writing content to introduce people to your brand, to communicate with them, and to drive them to take a particular action. You’re not curing cancer (unless you are) or saving puppies (again, unless you are). So take off the cape and remove all that pressure that goes along with having to save the world on a daily or weekly basis and just write. Write to your audience. Tell them exactly what you want them to know, in your own words but in their language. Talk to them like you’re talking to your closest friend. If it helps you get the words out, have a drink or two while you’re trying to find your magic and get it all out. You can write buzzed, you just have to make sure you edit sober. Do whatever you need to do to remove the pressure. It’s not going to help you speak to your audience any more effectively. “Only share when you have an original idea!”If you truly believe that you can’t put finger to keyboard until you have something truly original and remarkable to say…you’re going to spend a lot of time NOT writing content to help your search engine optimization efforts. There are no original ideas left. Everything you produce is going to be a reflection of things you’ve consumed, thought about, were inspired by from someone else. And that’s okay to admit. It’s okay to mention how reading a blog post from Copyblogger changed the way you looked at copy and how Rhea’s post on OODA loops changed the way you handle the SEO process. You don’t have to be 100 percent original. You have to be interesting and valuable. Sometimes we confuse those and don’t write content that could be great. Those are just a handful of “good writing myths” that I’ve seen suck the life out of many SEO campaigns or blog posts. What stumps your writing? Or what’s helped you break through and write content that your audience relates to?
How To Avoid Community Manager Burn Out (posted Wed, 25 Jan 2012 by Lisa Barone)
I recently gave a community manager interview where I was asked whether CMs were finally being given the respect they deserve, what goes into the position, and what their roles are within an organization. You can read my answers to those questions and more over there but what was really on my mind is something I don’t think gets talked about enough – just how easily it is to burn out from the position. As I’ve written before, being an online public face isn’t all rainbows and unicorns. There’s a dark side associated with always being on, having to manage several different social media identities (at minimum, yours + one branded account), a host of different platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Q&A sites, etc), your own blog (holla), wrangling fans, bringing out the best in people, responding to attacks, and constantly defending what you do to people in your organization and in your life. Those who spend their days working to build these communities and living such public lives can easily find themselves burning out from working on too many problems, too many sites, and trying to be too many things to too many people. If you’re a Community Manager, how do you protect yourself? Below are a few tips. Set BoundariesDon’t be a dummy; set boundaries for yourself and your community. For example:
These questions are important to answer because they’ll help guide interaction and set limits that will help your Community Manager maintain their sanity. Not long too, it was expected that just because a Community Manager COULD do their job 24/7 thanks to Web-enabled phones and a constant Internet connection that they should essentially be on-call for the brand. However, we’re starting to see people step away from that belief and set up core operating times. This is beneficial for a couple of reasons. First, it tells your community WHEN you’re there and actively listening and ready to engage. This is helpful for setting user expectations. If you tell your community you’re only there between 10am-6pm, then they won’t go looking for you at 10pm when they have a question. It also gives a Community Manager the time they need to detach. We can’t live on all the time. That’s how people die. Or go crazy and take lots of people with them. Find Your ToolsThere’s no reason to reinvent the wheel or feel like you need to do everything by hand in order to be engaging with your community the right way. To help save time and mental energy, seek out tools that can help you do your Community Manager responsibilities more efficiently and more powerfully. What types of tools should you seek out? A tool like UberVu will provide you with real-time analytics; one dashboard to track all your social metrics like fans, followers, mentions, etc; the ability to assign tasks and manage your team from a central dashboard (!), provide demographic information, and more. Community Managers working for larger brands will have something like this already waiting for them in-house, however, for small- and medium-sized companies, UberVu can help streamline what can otherwise be a very fragmented and time-consuming process. ViralHeat is another social analytics program to help you track mentions, measure sentiment, provide analytics and help give you the insight you need to essentially be in multiple places at the same time. It also integrates with SalesForce to help you do something with those leads you’re acquiring through social channels. If you hung around during our 12 Days of SEO, you’ll remember that Joe, Outspoken Media’s SEO Manager, introduced us to Mention Mapp, a tool that helps you discover groups of people that Twitter users connect with the most. Enter in a username, and it will generate a visual representation of that person’s relationships. If you’re looking to understand who influences whom or find clusters you think your community should be part of, this can help you identify those pretty easily. The tools listed above are just a tiny sample of what’s around there. As a Community Manager, depending on what you find yourself doing most often, there are tools to help with content management, tracking events, managing multiple Twitter accounts, etc. Befriend Other Community ManagersWe all need to vent and be around people who understand what we do and what we’re struggling with. It’s for that reason that attending BlogWorld Expo has become one of the absolute highlights of my year. It’s one of the few conferences I can go to and be surrounded by people who do exactly what I do, understand the pressures, and who are passionate about it. As Community Managers, it’s really important that we have that outlet. If you can’t get to a show like BlogWorld, participate in Twitter Chats related to the subject. There’s a Communication Manager Chat every Wednesday from 2pm-3pm Eastern. Get involved. Or if you’re not ready to talk yet, at least listen. Not only is it a chance for you, the CM, to hear about issues your colleagues are facing but it can also be a way to highlight your brand and the community you’re forming there. If that’s not your scene, talk to your boss or the people on your team about the stresses you’re feeling or what your day looks like. Sometimes talking through problems can help you find answers you wouldn’t have found on your own. Or someone will say something in that meeting that will put your brain on a different path and open up new doors. Keep your perspective
No, I swear, that’s all true even if it doesn’t feel like it is! We hire Community Managers to be work on the front lines of our brand. It’s a huge investment – both for the CM and for the company whose put them in that position. Make sure you’re taking care of your brand’s public face. Because why burn out is dangerous, it’s even more dangerous when the person burning out for your company has access to your company Twitter account. ;) For all the CMs out there, how have you avoid burning out? What works for you? Oh, and video meme anyone?
Walking The “Be Human” Line In Social Media (posted Mon, 23 Jan 2012 by Lisa Barone)
It started innocently enough. My buddy Matt Sullivan read an article on Fast Company about Chobani tickling the taste of Pinterest. He thought it sounded similar to the love letter I had written earlier, so he sent it to me via Twitter knowing I might want to check it out.
The “flavor Tourettes” line is in reference to a quote found in the Fast Company article. When discussing how fanatical people are about engaging with the Chobani Facebook page, Chobani’s digital communications manager Emily Schildt is quoted as saying:
No. Really. That was printed in Fast Company. I wouldn’t call myself easily offended but I was surprised to see that when speaking on behalf of Chobani, Emily told the entire audience of Fast Company that internally the company refers to their Facebook page that way. That’s probably something you want to keep in-house. Or, you know, not do at all. But it didn’t end there. @Chobani saw that Matt had sent me the link and decided to “engage” and “hop in the conversation”.
That sound you just heard? That was Chobani falling in the 6-foot hole they had already dug for themselves. This post isn’t meant to jump on Chobani. They made a mistake (and apologized for it) just like every company is prone to make mistakes when they enter new territories. But that’s the point, we’re all prone to these mistakes and some of us don’t all have the “forgiveableness” of an established brand like Chobani. If you’re entering social media, you or someone on your team is going to do something stupid. I mean colossally stupid. What can you do to help avoid the mistakes instead of bulldozing right into them? These three things. 1. Learn how to best leverage “human” for your businessWe hear all the time how social media allows us to put a human face on our business, but I’d venture to say that most brands have absolutely no idea how to use that. It’s great advice for talking points or to sound really smart when you’re talking to your higher ups, but what does human business really mean for your brand? What is it going to get you? I look at the idea of human business or social business as an opportunity to find an engaged audience by leveraging what is weird about you. To me, being human means accepting that we’re all weird and strategically letting our customers see what’s weird and authentic about us. It’s about picking what’s real, relevant, and appropriate for your audience and then serving it to them. You probably want an example. How about Buckley’s? If you’re not familiar with Buckley’s, it’s a Canadian cough syrup that I was first introduced to via another Fast Company article about authenticity vs perfection. In the article, Steve Jones writes about how Buckley’s has found an unlikely way to stand out in its market. Instead of trying to hide, sugarcoat or make excuses for what people have been saying about the product for years, Buckley decided to base its marketing around tackling it head-on and just admitting it. Buckleys – It tastes awful, but it works. That’s actually the product’s slogan. And it’s been effective. Buckley’s isn’t going after everyone who is sick, they’re going after adults who are sick and need some tough love. And, personally, I think it’s genius. They’ve found a relevant, real and appropriate way to market themselves in a crowded market. I’d venture that most cough syrups tastes pretty awful, but Buckley’s is the only one I know of that admits it, uses it, and doesn’t apologize for it. They’re not perfect and, you know what? You’re not either. Their honesty makes it easier for customers to trust the brand. 2. Create a company-wide social media policy. (And then stick to it.)With a vision for how you’ll use social media in mind, you want to make it official and create some guidelines that employees (and even yourself) will be able to use to direct their involvement. Matt already wrote about how companies shouldn’t make Tourette’s jokes on social media. And obviously he’s right, but these are exactly the kinds of things that happen when you attempt to “wing” social media or when you’re engaging with an unclear purpose or an undeveloped idea of what your company voice is. When you don’t take the time to iron down these details beforehand you open yourself up to employees going a little too far or making a quick that, in hindsight, maybe they should have saved for company IM instead of the company Twitter. By writing a corporate social media policy you get the opportunity to ask and educate your staff on those important “where is the line” questions before you need to know them and put everything down on paper. In the post linked above, we went over some important questions that every business should ask when coming up with their own corporate social media plan. For example:
The best way to avoid someone driving off the road and creating a horrible, horrible accident is to teach them how to drive the car before they get in it. Not after they’ve already crashed. Define what “being human” is NOTOkay, so let’s be real. You never want to tell an employee they have full permission to “be weird” and “human” while speaking in the voice of your brand because they’re not going to know what that means. You also can’t tell them to “use common sense” because, well, not everyone was born with it. While you’re laying out the ground rules for what is expected of your team in social media, you may also want to explain what behing human does not mean. For example, giving life to your brand does not mean:
That sounds like stuff everyone on your team should already know, right? Yeah, they don’t. And you don’t want that one bit of stupidity to bring down your entire company. Social media is helping all of us to pull back the curtain and let our customers see more of us and our brand. But that doesn’t mean letting everything hang out in the process. Have a vision, create a plan, and then put it into action. Because your customers are listening. Know what you’re telling them.
Weekend Coffee Links: Willpower Edition (posted Sat, 21 Jan 2012 by Lisa Barone)
Hi! Oh…you’re here. Fine. I guess that means I have to stop eating cake now. Did you hear we celebrated a birthday this week? If not, check out Rhea’s post from earlier this week where she talks about Outspoken Media in 2012, what we’ve been up to and what’s still to come. It’ll give you a pretty good glimpse into why we walk around so excited all the time. [It's because our team is awesome.] But it’s time for Weekend Coffee Links! Our collection of everything that caught our eye this week. Ready to jump in?
And that’s it. What cool stuff did you stumble upon this week? Give it to me, Interwebz. |
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