Sales & Marketing – Page 58 – Management Library

June 4, 2010July 14, 2022

PR Tips, Inc. (Now Go Outside and Play)

The first major summer holiday, Memorial Day, has come and gone. Only two more such long weekends will be here and vanished before you know it. Long Live Summer!

In deference to the nice weather in most parts of the country today (okay, threats are out there but so are comfy highs) — and to give my dear readers a break from my incessant PR expertise, informed rantings and sidetracked observations — this media savant would like to share another voice about “How to Manage Your Own PR: Ten tips for running a successful public-relations campaign.” I found these to be ideal for start-up or small companies that cannot at this early stage shell out for professional services yet.

Direct from the recent pages of Inc. magazine, these 10 pointers you are sure to find helpful (granted I have touched on some of them already but it’s nice for you to know, based on these tips from a big deal business source, that I am not a professional PR gasbag with absolutely no grasp of the basics).

In the future, meaning before fall is in the air, It would be great to address any questions you have about public or media relations, so feel free to email me at mkeller@mediasavantcom.com, or leave a Comment at the bottom of this blog and I’ll try to answer your questions in a future posting, when the grill (or is it another weekend kids’ soccer tournament?) is not calling under a blue sky with light winds, low humidity and few mosquitoes.

Enjoy the article!

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20100501/how-to-manage-your-own-pr.html

June 4, 2010March 12, 2023

Customer Service Strategies – Live Chat

Outstanding customer service strategies is making your customers feel like you understand their needs and their issues. There is another way of letting your customers reach out to you that is faster and more structured than an email exchange and more productive than a phone call.

Online Chat is a nice way to personalize your online exchange and enhance the timeliness of your communications. Bang, bang, bang and I can have my question(s) answered and proceed with my order. That is how fast a live chat session can work.

The cost can be approximately $99 per month per concurrent user. But, the benefits may outweigh the costs for your business. Productivity is one of those benefits. For example a user can typically handle up to 3 chat sessions at a time which is much better than the 1:1 ratio of phone calls.

3 Key Criteria to consider for servicing customers with live chat:

1. Are your users or clients on your website? Your chat sessions would have to originate from your website for this solution to make sense.

2. What kind of inquiries you are receiving now? If the inquiries are quick how-to, when and where type questions you can probably benefit from an online chat service. If the inquiries are detailed how-to, trouble-shooting questions online chat will still work for you but up to 3 sessions at once may be a stretch.

3. Having an ‘operator’ available during ‘regular’ business hours is a base requirement to getting the most out of your online chat service. This option is not ideal for a one-person office with other responsibilities away from the computer.

The little secret and value behind these online chat services is that you can build a knowledge base of ‘prepared’ responses for the user to drop into the chat sessions.

3 Benefits:

1. The true speed of responsiveness

2. Diminished need to type and re-type the same answers

3. With prepared responses you can ensure consistent communication from your company to your customers.

Free online chat services with Yahoo, Gmail and AOL are wildly popular in business settings, especially technology companies. Why? Because, they enable quick and concise communications that allow the users to continue making progress with the task at hand. Yes, chat sessions really do enhance productivity.

Isn’t that what you want your customers, clients, and shoppers to do? Live chat. Is it for you?

June 4, 2010July 14, 2022

What is the Value of a Social Media Fan?

Big brands, small brands, EVERY brand that is building a community of targeted traffic on a social media platform is also building intrinsic value for their company. Hooray! Their efforts actually equate to marketing power and real dollars.

Why? Because this community is comprised of potential customers, and reaching them has an equivalent offline media price.

Social Media Marketing Traffic Equals Value

Attracting eyeballs has historically cost advertisers hard-earned dollars in the traditional media world.

Now, these same advertisers capture the attention of their target market through social media platforms. I would go so far as to argue that social media platforms, if used wisely and strategically, can be more valuable than traditional media vehicles.

Social Media Marketing Traffic is Niche-Specific

Social media traffic can be highly niche-targeted, and those potential customers are usually eager to be heard, and want to engage in meaningful discussion. When a two-way interaction is initiated, the company begins to develop a very real relationship.

The Value of a Social Media Fan

For example, Facebook Fans (now “Likes”), have committed to the relationship by associating their own profile with that of another profile, often a business. Those commitments have now been valued. According to an AdWeek article by Brian Morrissey, quoting social media specialist Vitrue, the social media value of each fan (I use the term loosely, since Facebook converted to “Likes”) is $3.60.

Starbuck’s Social Media Value on Facebook

Vitrue arrived at its $3.6 million figure by working off a $5 CPM, meaning a brand’s 1 million fans generate about $300,000 in media value each month. Using Vitrue’s calculation, Starbucks’ 6.5 million fan base — acquired in part with several big ad buys — is worth $23.4 million in media annually.

For the full AdWeek story, see Value Of a Social Media Fan

Do you think the value of a ‘Social Media Fan’ or ‘Like’ will eventually be recognized by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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ABOUT Lisa M. Chapman: With offices in Nashville Tennessee, but working virtually with international clients, Lisa M. Chapman serves her clients as a business and marketing coach, business planning consultant and social media consultant. As a Founder of iBrand Masters, a social media consulting firm, Lisa Chapman helps clients to establish and enhance their online brand, attract their target market, engage them in meaningful social media conversations, and convert online traffic into revenues. Email: Lisa @ LisaChapman.com

June 2, 2010July 14, 2022

BP’s Alleged Crisis Communications Plan? Not Real Slick

Does your company have a crisis communications plan?

Regardless of size, every organization should have one for many reasons. First, you owe it to your constituents whether they are stakeholders, or users of the service you provide or the wiki you sell. Second, the public at large — and most definitely the news media — will demand to see responsible and swift action on your part to properly inform what is happening should a crisis ensue.

It’s hard not to think about what a good crisis communications plan could do for a company like Beyond Petroleum, which for the moment is deeply mired in its own PR oil slick down in the Gulf of Mexico. Undoubtedly they have such a plan, so why did it fail? Or why is it fialing? And it’s failing every hour that its underwater video footage runs parallel to the talking heads on TV and online at pick-any-site. Or is this simply a case where no amount of crisis planning can stem the petro tide of this really bad news?

Moreover this environmental tragedy has now become a PR problem all the way to the Obama White House and will spill into the fall elections most likely (although note here how the use of “spill” is appropriately used; if BP were more forthcoming, it would never have issued such a dainty word as “spill” to describe the rupturing, spewing, unrelenting gusher of oil that is flooding the gulf like a Biblical plague, and the news media would not keep re-enforcing its use by repeating it like a bad sheep mantra —“Ba Ram Spill” time and time again).

Let’s just skim the slimy surface of this issue for a moment and count five of the subtle and not-subtle ways the alleged crisis communications platforms splintered and fell into the goo:

1) Get the facts right, right away. The number of gallons of oil spewing into the gulf changed ridiculously in the first weeks of the event, soiling BP’s oily credibility right out of the pipe. Start with a bigger number, it’s easier to peel back to a smaller one once you have figured out the accurate amount blowing out of this voilcano.

2) Don’t toss the blame around. While BP has said it will do all that it can to contain the mess and compensate its victims (at least the human ones), they should have made some attempt to assume some overall responsibility for the problem in front of the congress and out in the gulf communities rather than saying or implying the other companies working on the rig should share the blame. Of course they should. But show some leadership, it has merit and demonstrates good faith, such as it is.

3) Make sure your short-term remedy is not worse than the long-term problem. A few stories generally outside of the mainstream media have covered the dispersants used to break up the oil and how it is allegedly sickening workers who have been exposed to it. Here again is another part of the PR disaster, a second head of the hydra, which could well expand in the days ahead, causing more trouble for company execs who just want their life back.

4) Don’t get punked online. Have you heard about the fake BP Twitter Feeds that have been polluting the cybergulf? Where were the company’s viral watchdogs to prevent these from even being up more than 20 minutes or more?

5) Work the crisis plan —and if the plan isn’t working, begin anew. Immediately. I’ve heard a variety of adjectives and expressions used to describe the PR effort and the people behind it and they range from “Neandrathals” to “a PR disaster” to “end of its PR rope” to “staining BP’s reputation” and many, many more. I have also read that the company is buying full-page ads as part of its PR plan. But the public, growing more cynical by the gallon of BP gas they don’t pump into their vehicles, is wise to paid media. They know and expect these mea culpa ads to appear but they are not in the end an effective way to handle the many challenges this crisis demands.

So what would you do?

June 1, 2010July 15, 2022

RULES OF MARKETING: OLD VS. NEW

Similar cubes with RULES inscription on them

What is Marketing? What is PR?

You’ve likely heard it before – in the digital world, “The lines have blurred between Marketing and PR.”

What does that mean? How have the lines blurred? In order to answer these questions, let’s take a look at the OLD versus the NEW rules of Marketing, as proposed by David Meerman Scott in his bestselling book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, & Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs,

by David M Scott

.

The OLD Rules of Marketing

The message was delivered ONE-WAY, and CREATIVITY was the secret sauce that commanded the audience’s attention. Among the fundamental concepts of the OLD marketing paradigm:

Advertising was the core tool
The advertising message was generally crafted to appeal to the masses
Advertising INTERRUPTED the audience with a one-way message
Advertising engaged campaigns for a defined time period
Creators focused on creativity – and award-winning campaigns
Advertising and PR were different specialties, run by different people

The OLD Rules of PR

The ultimate goal: Spin a press release to capture reporters’ attention, then get a clip of the story, to show that the message was viewed by the audience.

Media comprised the toolbox, in order to get the message out
A press release was the core tool
Only significant news commanded the attention of the media
It was all in “the spin” (or HYPE!)
Quotes from third parties were an important element of a press release
Press releases were meaningless unless a reporter decided that it was worthy of a story

The NEW Rules of Marketing and PR

Since the internet is now one huge publisher, ANYONE can learn how to create compelling messages and publish them. Getting found online is the science and art. A few of the new rules include:

People don’t want “spin” – they want authenticity
People don’t want to be interrupted anymore (it’s now called SPAM)
People don’t want to be ‘told’ (push marketing), they want to be heard
People want VALUE (content), which develops relationship and trust
Marketing and PR can reach niche audiences online in a wider variety of ways
Content is KING, and stays online, with no end to the campaign

The New TOOLS of Marketing and PR

It’s no longer TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, direct mail, etc. Meaningful, valuable CONTENT is the vehicle that captures audiences’ attention. It is now found on:

Websites
Blogs
Microblogs (Tweets)
Social Media platforms (Facebook.com, Myspace.com, etc)
Article Directories
Videos
Podcasts
Etc, etc etc!

What new marketing rules and tools have worked for you?

For more information, see the full article, NEW RULES OF MARKETING & PR

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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May 28, 2010March 27, 2023

Wells Fargo Bank Jumps Ahead of the Competition Using Social Media

It’s not only quite impressive that Wells Fargo Bank & Co is adopting social media with such open arms – but it’s IMPORTANT to watch them lead the way for other banks and financial institutions.

Online Marketing for Banks

WAY, way back – in the social media world – March 2006, Wells Fargo & Co. launched its first corporate blog.

Today, with hundreds of employees using blogs to brainstorm with each other and interact with customers, they’re LISTENING to their audience. And that’s ground-breaking significant, because Wells Fargo is the No. 4 U.S. bank.

Launch of a Virtual World

They’ve even gone much further, boldly launching Stagecoach Island, an online virtual world where you can explore the island and its hidden secrets, connect with friends and make new ones, and at the same time learn smart money management.

Targeting the hard-to-capture Gen X and Gen Y audience, Wells Fargo brilliantly created this free gaming platform to grab the attention of this coveted market and gain their loyalty by offering a fun online attraction marketing tool to engage them and keep them coming back.

Learn Money Management

Stagecoach Island is creative and fun, but also a very important learning experience in managing money.

You can earn virtual money by visiting the Learning Lounge — a virtual Wells Fargo ATM — and answering questions about money management. They’ve also introduced virtual jobs, credit cards, and home loans so that you can learn, earn, build and play more in-world!.

Now that the Gen X and Gen Y audience is playing on Stagecoach Island, guess where they’ll do their banking?

Additional Social Media ‘Firsts’ by Wells Fargo Bank

Wells Fargo now claims a variety of banking-industry social media firsts – among them:

First bank with 2, 3, and 4 blogs
First bank in the world with a Second Life presence
First bank on MySpace
First bank with an avatar persona on MySpace
First bank with a VP Social Media

The bank has also branched out to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

It’s all about online strategy and goals – move forward and realize tangible, meaningful returns – profits – increased customer value that leads to loyalty & retention.

See Well’s Fargo Bank’s full social media story.

Online marketing for banks – has it touched you yet? What does your bank do in social media?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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May 25, 2010July 15, 2022

Communicating Across the Twilight Zone: Can You Hear Me Now?

young man working on his laptop talking on a phone

It’s well established in Dr. John Gray’s best-selling book, Men are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, that males and females communicate differently when trying to relate to each other on different levels. While it’s a slippery slope in the universe of communications to equate this gender-based metaphor to the public relations arena, slide with me for a moment as we slip into the Twilight Zone where what you say to the public or your target market may not be heard the way you intended it to be…..

You may have hammered out your message for your latest news release on Thor’s mighty anvil, or poured over it with your PR contact until you were both soaked in sweat (sorry it’s summer — and I am out of old Greek god references). You might have trained to handle the tough questions on TV with smart sound bytes until you broke the retainer budget for the month. But something went wrong: You were not heard right.

Maybe a nuance was missed. Maybe you used a word or expression that doesn’t play well in one part of the country but works just fine in your backyard. Maybe you simply mis-framed what your message was and now you are force to play the “I misspoke” card, or resort to “let me try and rephrase that” line. And that’s okay…. happens all the time. But it doesn’t have to.

It wasn’t what you really said that made your bucket bottom fall out, it was how you were heard. Language is tricky. Communicating is a highly dynamic and fluid situation. Always consider your word choices wisely. Make your verbs the right ones, the verbiest, you might say. Can you pen something differently so that it gets heard right the first time?

Turn the tables and consider how your message will fall across that greater distance — and it is a kind of Twilight Zone — between you and the object of your communications. Your choice of words might suit the aims and intentions of whatever it is you are trying to convey. But how people hear it and more importantly, how they relate to it, is ultimately what counts.

May 21, 2010July 15, 2022

Building Email Marketing Lists – Are Business Cards Fair Game?

You’re trying to keep up with the times and build a meaningful marketing email list. After all, email newsletters and email blasts are (almost) free. And they can be segmented to accommodate a wide variety of target marketing messages. Beautiful!

Is it fair to add contacts from business cards you collect at a business or social function?

I’ve followed a group discussion on this topic for a few weeks now, and the feedback is quite divided. If there is a tie on this subject, I’m going to break it.

The pros and cons of “business cards and email list building”

Some say “YES” – Some business people and feel that it IS fair, that the person who gave their card should expect some follow up. Business cards have been the source of the traditional list-build for hard copy newsletters for years, so it’s only natural to extend that to email lists.

Some say “NO” – The flip side of the coin is that the person who gave the card did not give it with the expectation that they would become a subscriber.

We get so many newsletters, emails and spam that it’s very time-consuming (and potentially irritating) to be forced to open emails and sort through them – to scan and delete those that don’t interest you, and to be sure to keep those that do.

How many emails are sent and received every day?

Statistics, extrapolations and counting by Radicati Group estimate the number of emails sent per day at around 247 billion – more than 2.8 million every second. Around 80% of these are spam and viruses!

Average number of corporate emails sent and received per person, per day:
2008: 156
2010: 199

Percent of work day spent managing email for the average corporate email user:
2003: 17%
2006: 26%
2009: 41%

What’s the answer – add them or not?

In my opinion, it’s a clear NO. You run a very high risk of creating ill will if you add those business card contacts to your email database without asking permission. Many business people simply drop your email into their spam and block folder – thereby banishing you forever. Horrors!

Ideally, a “double opt-in” method to build your marketing email list organically is the best and most positive way to create and nurture important relationships that last.

Do you ask permission first, and if so, how?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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May 18, 2010July 15, 2022

Tools of the Trade 3: The Call

You have sent out your news release. Now what? Get back to what you do best? Take a walk? Sit by the phone and wait? Most people who don’t have a public relations person in their company, or don’t use a PR advisor or agency often make the mistake of thinking that just because the news release went out that it will get “picked up.”

It might if the news is compelling, or it aligns with other stories like it in news cycle, and/or you have some history with the news organizations that you sent the release to. In my career I’ve met many people who have let a release fly but never once made a callback to follow up. “Media Relations” are all about following up, but there are some basic rules to follow when making “The Call.”

Rule 1

Never call and ask if the news release was received. What you are really calling about is why your story is important or plays off something making headlines that day. Or your story has a strong local angle to something occurring nationally or internationally.

Rule 2

Be succinct. If you’re lucky enough to get someone live on the phone, you have precious seconds to convince the other party that it merits their attention and coverage. Create a script if you need to that includes your key message. Rehearse. Call a colleague and practice it. But sound natural and not like you’re reading the ingredients off a can of soup.

Rule 3

Put on your Telemarketer Hat. The next time an annoying telemarketer calls you, rather than saying, “No thank you, you idiot, you are calling me during dinner yet again and there are laws to prevent these calls if only I wasn’t so lazy to call the number and be registered as part of the no-call zone, I would not have to listen to your sorry spiel, you must be really hard up for work, or lazier than I am. Goodbye!” Instead, listen to how they pitch whatever it is they’re selling, a politician, a new product, or service. Whatever it is, most likely the person has their message down and is ready to engage.

Rule 4

Set a callback limit. As a general rule I go by the three strikes and you’re out limit — meaning, I’ve tried three times and left three messages. Depending on the client or the urgency, I may not leave a message at all but just keep calling until I get a live one on the line. If I’m using email, once or twice is enough. If I haven’t made my case but feel I really need to push — and this story is really worth being told by a TV station or section of the newspaper — I’ll keep trying and maybe reposition my pitch.

Rule 5

Be discreet. There’s a fine line between being persistent and being a pest. It doesn’t take much to land on somebody’s black list if you’ve breached their tolerance level or filled up their email with the same message over and over again. To paraphrase the great Joe South song, “walk a mile in their shoes,” and make The Call confidently, expecting only good results.

May 18, 2010July 15, 2022

Social Media Use – Employee Policies and Guidelines

Blogs, comments and social network postings are very important in businesses’ marketing tactics. They attract audiences and begin to build relationships of trust and engagement. But employee posts can also inadvertently cause PR nightmares for business, if even ONE errant post goes viral and causes negative word of mouth.

Legal Risks of Employees’ Social Media Use

When using social media, companies are exposed to many serious risks from multiple angles, including:

Defamation
Copyright
Anti-trust issues
Inappropriate use by staff
Intellectual property rights
User generated content
Employment practices

It’s Time to Plan Your Policies and Guidelines

Don’t let your marketing and communications teams run ahead without due diligence and risk management controls.

EXAMPLE Social Media Policies

Let’s take a quick look at a few companies’ policies and guidelines on employee use of social networking. The policy excerpts below offer highlights of their own in-house guidelines:

Yahoo’s Blog Policies – Belief Statement

“Yahoo! believes in fostering a thriving online community and supports blogging as a valuable component of shared media.”

For more information, see excerpts fromYahoo’s Policies

Mayo Clinic’s Employee Social Media Policy

“The main thing Mayo employees need to remember about blogs and social networking sites is that the same basic policies apply in these spaces as in other areas of their lives. The purpose of these guidelines is to help employees understand how Mayo policies apply to these newer technologies for communication, so you can participate with confidence not only on this blog, but in other social media platforms.”

City of Seattle

“To address the fast-changing landscape of the Internet and the way residents communicate and obtain information online, City of Seattle departments may consider using social media tools to reach a broader audience. The City encourages the use of social media to further the goals of the City and the missions of its departments, where appropriate.”

Many companies are quite explicit, with well-defined, formal rules. Others adopt a more open, lenient culture.

Could this be inviting a future legal battle?

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For more resources, see our Library topics Marketing and Social Networking.

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