Get To The Grapes

Friday, December 04, 2009

Strategy often overlooked in social media

Set your goals from the start to avoid having to clean up a mess

Sacramento Business Journal – by Debi Hammond, Contributing writer, Marketing

Social media, the marketing buzz phrase of 2009, finally is being embraced by small and large companies alike. But for some companies, their late entry into the social media space has left them trying to clean up messes created by their “wait and see” mentality.

What they didn’t realize is that while they were “waiting to see” what this social media “thing” was all about, their brands were being altered, and in some cases, stolen, online.

We have spent the past few months flying all across the country taking clients through an in-depth social media training that is focused, not on the tools, but rather on the strategy behind the utilization of those tools. The difference between strategy and usage is extremely important.

Companies spend a fortune in both time and money hiring advertising and public relations professionals to manage their brands, yet when it comes to social media, they tend to pass those responsibilities on to the first intern or GenY employee who has a MySpace or Facebook account — thinking that the ability to use social media tools is the same as the ability to use them strategically.

Stay in control

So, what can really go wrong in the social media space by having just anyone manage it for you? A lot. Here are just two examples.

First, and probably most important, someone else will own your profile names. This means, for example, that your official business name on Face­book or Twitter could be tied to an intern’s e-mail address and when that intern is gone, so is your ability to manage (or own) that account, or the name on it. A huge loss for your business and your brand.

Second, you can lose control of your brand message. Every tweet, post and comment counts when it comes to your brand. What is really being said about, and by, your brand online? Something as important as your brand should be managed by those who truly understand it.

How can you avoid having to clean up a social media mess? Review these guidelines before ever starting a social media campaign.

Create a strategic plan

When you launch a new advertising campaign, you have a well thought-out strategic plan. When you launch a PR program, you develop a strategic plan. Yet, somehow, when companies launch a social media program, they do it without a plan. You know the old saying: “Fail to plan and you plan to fail.”

Develop guidelines

A lot of large companies are grappling with the fact that their own employees are talking about, representing and in some cases “owning” the company’s brand online. They’ve created fan pages and blogs dedicated to the company. They tweet on behalf of themselves and the company, using logos, branding elements and messaging that is often out of context and off message.

It’s not that they are doing anything wrong intentionally. In fact, if anything, you want to encourage their enthusiasm.

So how is it that the company can lose control online, even to its best brand fanatics? It’s because the company did not provide the guidelines needed to harness the enthusiasm from the beginning.

A simple set of social media guidelines can go a long way in unifying your brand online and/or saving you the time and heartache of trying to reel in and rebrand what 10 or 10,000 employees already have created online.

Hire or assign a strategist

Once again, almost anyone can use social media tools or teach you how to create a Twitter account. However, what’s important is that they understand how to use a Twitter account (or any other social media tool) strategically for the benefit of your brand and business. It’s imperative that the person who manages your social media program understands the traditional principles of marketing while fully embracing the untraditional principles of the Web.

Hire a social media strategist and watch your brand grow online.

Provide human capital, resources

Most people think social media is free, when, in fact, it’s quite expensive when done right. Yes, the tools are free, but what you need to implement a successful social media campaign is a team with time, resources and a strategic approach. It takes time, dedication and resources to create rich content, engage in meaningful conversation and monitor your brand online.

Without a social media team, you’re without the resources necessary to do it right.

Put social media in its place

Many elements fall under the marketing umbrella including advertising, public relations and creative development. Yet, somehow, social media is often considered an add-on — a free marketing element that doesn’t deserve the same time, planning and strategy as the other disciplines. Well, social media is an integrated discipline and needs to be elevated and positioned equally to all other disciplines under the marketing umbrella in order to use it successfully.

So, whether you’ve already implemented a social media program or plan to in the near future, be sure to follow the guidelines outlined above so that the buzz you create online supports your brand and your business.

Debi Hammond is president and chief executive officer of Sacramento-based Merlot Marketing Inc. Reach her at debi@merlotmarketing.com . Click here for original article.

All contents of this site © American City Business Journals Inc. All rights reserved.

Don’t miss the National Latina Business Women’s Association’s 4th Annual Helping Build the Latina Woman Business Conference today at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel.  The conference starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m.  The afternoon session (starting at 2:00 p.m.) includes a panel of three marketing professionals who will share insight and information on “How to get Explosive Results from the Use of Social Media.” The panel includes:

Lindsay Myers, Senior SEO Consultant/METRO SEO
Tammy Burleson, President & CEO/Why Not Web
Debi Hammond, President & CEO/Merlot Marketing

Want more information or interested in attending?

Click on Agenda or Registration for more information.

With winter right around the corner, the Today Show featured a segment on ‘How to update your fire place,’ and of course, we had the perfect product for the segment! Our client, Eldorado Stone was the featured highlight with a hearth as the backdrop for Meredith and George.  The segment shared some great ideas for updating that old fire place.  Our favorite? The architectural stone veneer, of course!

Watch the segment: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/33653115#33653115

Need more inspiration? Check out the images below or visit Eldorado Stone’s Walkthrough.

This story is taken from Sacbee / Business / Bob Shallit: Published Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Sacramento’s Merlot Marketing continues to rake in contracts to promote upscale home products. The latest deal: an agreement to represent PR-111, a Brazilian manufacturer of exotic and sustainable hardwood flooring.

Merlot execs recently flew to Miami to pitch their ideas for the account and apparently wowed BR-111′s president with proposals to stage product showcases in crowded venues such as Times Square – and to build “floating” glass ceilings above the displays that visitors could walk on and then gaze down at the flooring.

As company president Debi Hammond recalls it, BR-111′s Ricardo Moraes at first found the ideas a little, uh, wild.

In a heavy accent, he inquired: “So exactly what do you guys ‘grow’ in Sacramento?” Implying that the Merlot team might be smoking what it was growing.

Hammond replied that wine sometimes stimulates ideas at the company. Never anything stronger.

The team left on a high note, so to speak, with what Hammond calls a “very big account.”

For the Original Story: http://www.sacbee.com/shallit/story/2300988.html or back columns: www.sacbee.com/shallit

Don't be a Jesse James

It seems as though, if given the opportunity, marketers will try to blur the line between fact and fiction and this holds true no where better than the ‘wild wild Web.’ Since the first blog was posted, marketers have been seeking ways to capitalize on those blogs with significant audiences, and at times (shocking!), they have forgone transparency for the sake of the sale. 

A perfect example is Wal-mart’s Walmarting Across America blog (no longer active).  Basically the premise was about a  couple who just “happened” to drive their RV around the United States, parking in Wal-Mart parking lots as they went and blogging about their great Wal-mart experiences. The problem was it was billed as authentic when, in fact, it was a carefully scripted (and paid) campaign by Edelman (a well-regarded worldwide PR agency) for Wal-mart. 

There are many examples of the misuse of blogs and bloggers by companies marketing their products and services as well as a blatant disregard for disclosure and as such, the FTC has stepped in with guidelines to help keep unethical marketers (and companies) at bay. 

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued final changes to its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. While advisory in nature, the new guidelines will reset standards of behavior that public relations, marketing and advertising professionals should adopt to avoid violating underlying laws against unfair competition and false advertising.

As outlined in a notice provided by The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the FTC Guidelines  make three key departures from previous guidelines that could impact marketing professional’s practices:

• The FTC advises that “endorsers” as well as advertisers can be held liable for false or unsubstantiated claims or for failing to disclose material connections between the parties.
• The Guides no longer offer the “safe harbor” whereby testimonials can be qualified by a “results may vary” disclaimer.
• Regarding endorsements, the Guides specify that celebrities should disclose relationships with advertisers.

While the FTC will approach each potential violation on a case-by-case basis, the new guidelines will impact how professionals should approach some common practice scenarios. Here are some applications of the guidelines:

• Bloggers who receive cash or in-kind payment (including free products or services for review) are deemed endorsers and so must disclose material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.
• Any firm that engages bloggers by paying them outright to create or influence editorial content or by supplying goods or services to them at no cost may be liable if the blogger does not disclose the relationship.
• Advertisements or promotions that feature a consumer who conveys his or her experience with a product or service as “typical” should clearly disclose what results consumers can generally expect or specify how the results were unique to the individual circumstances.
• If research is cited in an advertisement or promotion, any sponsorship of the research by the client or the marketer should be clearly disclosed.
• Celebrities who make endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media, should disclose any relationship with the advertiser or marketer.

A note to marketers, we owe it to ourselves and our profession to do what’s right by, not only our clients, but by the general public as well.  Consumers are already wary of advertising, so let’s not ruin it in the online community too.  Just because it’s the ‘wild wild Web’ doesn’t mean we need to act like Jesse James.

Okay, so even I’m shocked by this one.  Gourmet magazine will publish its last issue November 2009.  The magazine has been in publications since December 1940.  Yes, 1940!

The New York Times reported that Conde Nast was up in the air between which food title they were going to shut down – Gourmet or Bon Appetit – and given that Gourmet was considered the more upscale of the two, they decided to keep the book for the ‘masses.’  Given the economy, it seems consumers are looking for more value than ‘gourmet.’

The magazine has won numerous awards over the years for photography and editorial, so it’s a sad day in the publishing world – as well as for the close to one million people who either subscribe to or purchase the magazine on the newsstand. 

I just finished the book “Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” by Neil Postman, and let me tell you, it’s not a light read.  A quick read yes, a light read no. It’s thought provoking and profound.  Although I don’t agree fully with all of the author’s philosophies, he does make you think about our culture from a different perspective.  In the age of social media (Twitter and Facebook) and a culture based around imagery, sound bites and ‘drama,’ this book will get you thinking about epistemology; more importantly, media as epistemology.  It’s a great read and one I’d recommend to everyone – especially marketers.  As we are early adopters of technology and new media, we owe it to ourselves and others to utilize them in a smart, thoughtful and intelligent way.

So between blog posts and tweets, pick up a book – preferably this one.  Still not sure if you want to dive in?  If nothing else, read the ‘foreward’ that follows. It’s powerful and succinct, and it alone will make you think.

FOREWARD: Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman

–We were keeping our eye on 1984. When the year came and the prophecy didn’t, thoughtful Americans sang softly in praise of themselves. The roots of liberal democracy had held. Wherever else the terror had happened, we, at least, had not been visited by Orwellian nightmares.

But we had forgotten that alongside Orwell’s dark vision, there was another — slightly older, slightly less well known, equally chilling: Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.  Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley’s vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their autonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism.  Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy.  As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Huxley added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

This book is about the possibility that Huxley, not Orwell, was right.–

As a consumer of “infotainment” and a professional in the communications field, I have a great appreciation of our media, yet I do continue to question how a nation who gets its news and knowledge in sound bites will affect our culture.

The PRSA presentation on August 20th was packed with timely information about not only what is changing within the marketing landscape, but why it’s changing and what we as marketers can do (and must do) to capitalize on it. 

Five key take aways from the presentation are: 

1. Engage in social media: Of all the great shifts in communication, social media is one of the biggest and most significant. Marketers need to learn it, create a strategy and engage to compete in today’s marketplace.

2. Market  your brand (not your product or service): Even in today’s challenging economy, we remain a brand-driven society. Companies need to understand the essence of their brand and market it accordingly.

3. Know your audience: It amazes me how many companies wonder why their marketing isn’t working when they have no real idea of who it is they are actually ‘marketing’ to. Know your audience and you’ll have a much better chance at reaching them.

4. Challenge your comfort zone (as well as your clients’, boss, boards, etc.): Now is not the time to be complacent. With so much changing within the marketing landscape, marketers have got to change with it. More than likely, this means that it will push you out of your comfort zone. And my philosophy is if you’re uncomfortable, it means you’re moving outside the ubiquitous box. Trust me, that’s a good thing!

5. Write your own rules: Gone are the days of following all the rules.  The fact of the matter is that given social media and other changes within the marketing landscape, there aren’t necessarily rules for you to follow.  And that’s a great thing for marketers. Finally, we can be more daring and more creative than ever before!

Still thirsty? Check out Merlot Marketing’s delicious page for articles and case studies you can learn from…For information specific to the PRSA presentation, click on the following link: http://delicious.com/merlotmarketing/PRSA 

Capturing the essence of the presentation was this quote:

 “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”

Alan Cohen

Author: chicken soup for the soul

Don’t miss this month’s PRSA luncheon.  I’ll be talking about how the marketing landscape is changing and what marketers can do to capitlize on it.

According to Mediabistro, Time Inc. today announced that the September/October issue of Southern Accents will be its last.   The magazine has been in publication for more than 30 years.  Our clients have graced many Southern Accent pages over the years, so it’s sad to see it go. However, in this economy it’s survival of the fittest.  There were too many shelter titles and the best ones are rising to the top.  Other shelter magazines already buried include: Country Home, Cottage Living, O at Home, Home Companion, Home Magazine, Blueprint, House & Garden andHouse Beautiful SIPs… Who’s next?  If you need to get your Southern Accents fix, the website will supposedly stay in operation: http://www.southernaccents.com/