Get To The Grapes

If content is king, then conversion is queen”.
~John Munsell, CEO of Bizzuka

It is rare to come across a business of any size that lacks a website today because it’s a requirement for doing business and making your business available to others. The same has become true of social media.  Using Facebook, Twitter and other social networking tools to reach customers and engage with the audience are now all in a day’s work. Social Media is not going away, but will continue to expand and shift. People are in search of better information with which to make better decisions, creating social collaboration. This behavior is the underlying foundation of social media and social media marketing.

“Social is now a fabric of everyday technology and digital engagement. It’s is only gaining in momentum and permeance. Those businesses that miss this opportunity will find a slipping point that may eventually give way to Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than you.” ~Brian Solis

As more businesses jump on board with social media, they are beginning to focus on goals such as increasing brand loyalty and sales. One of social media‘s strengths is the potential to communicate with a mass audience instantly. Social media, if done properly, is the closest thing to a one-on-one conversation between a business and its consumers. An effective social media strategy involves knowing how to reach people where they live,work, and play, instead of expecting them to come to you. Although social media should be part of a broader marketing and business strategy based on your company’s goals and objectives, it is important to remember to keep the “SOCIAL” in social media.

All too often businesses are so focused on being heard and getting their message out, they forget to focus on content that draws their audience in and gives them a reason to engage in conversation. You may provide great products and services, but if that is all you talk about, your audience will tune you out. They do not want to be sold, they want to be educated and entertained, and they want to connect. Don’t be afraid to step outside the box and really get to know your audience.

I am clearly not the only person who has noticed changes in our world. With the ever changing social networks like Facebook and now Google+ you sometimes forget the rules of use change along with it. You may already be aware of the topic on social media transparency which usually focuses on being forthright, authentic and honest when participating in social networking. However, what you may not realize, since the FTC issued its revised guidelines for online communicators, the issue of transparency is of even greater importance to businesses.  No longer is it simply unethical to withhold information about what product or company you represent, it may also be considered unlawful. It is important you identify yourself as a representative (employee, manager, or owner) when posting any content or comment in relation to your company or product. This transparency requirement is universally applicable, whether an employee posts content on his or her own personal social network channel or when he or she simply comments on others’ posts. Companies should require their employees issue a disclaimer that clearly states that personal views do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.

Now is definitely the time to re-evaluate how your business is handling its social media practices and consider implementing a social media policy.  Remember, there is no delete button for the Internet. Even if your company does not participate in social media, an innocent Tweet, Facebook post, or LinkedIn update by an employee on their personal accounts can have real economic and legal consequences for businesses.  The FTC guidelines state an employer should not be held liable in these circumstances if: (1) the employer had a social media policy pertaining to the “social media participation” of its employees; and (2) the policy adequately covered the employee’s conduct.  Unless you offer guidance for your employees you are putting your business and your reputation at risk.

If you’re like me, you’ve probably been on Facebook and seen a company entice you to “like” its page by giving away something like an iPad 2 or a vacation to Italy.  But did you know that depending on how this type of promotion is executed, that company could be in violation of Facebook’s updated Terms of Services agreement?

Recently there has been a lot of conversation on the Internet about Facebook’s “new” contest and promotions rules. For clarification purposes, Facebook considers promotions to be any contest, competition, sweepstakes or other similar offering.  Very few people realize this, but Facebook changes its Terms of Services very regularly.  By having a personal Facebook account, you agree to abide by that agreement, and same goes for any company pages or groups.

On November 6, 2009, Facebook launched its first attempt to establish control over what had become a free marketing platform.  It established guidelines for promotions to cut down on spam and misuse of private information.

These original guidelines required;

1.     Written approval from Facebook at least seven days prior to running your campaign

2.     Promotions administrator (Business) had to have an account rep at Facebook and meet the minimum ad spend of $10,000 per month

3.     Use of a third-party app on the Facebook platform.

About a year later, on November 29, 2010 Facebook changed the rules and lightened up the policy to allow individuals and smaller businesses the opportunity to run promotions without a lot of red tape. Many companies, brands and individuals are still not up to speed with Facebook’s Terms of Services or simply do not understand them. Facebook recently simplified the language to make it easier to understand and comply.

The current Promotion Guidelines include the following rules:

1.            Promotions must use of a third-party application administered on a Page Tab

2.            You must include disclosures/disclaimers within the contest verbiage that removes ALL association with Facebook. (i.e. “This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.”)

3.            Promotions may not use any of Facebook’s features or functions as the entry or registration mechanism; i.e. Like button, event RSVP, uploading a picture or video.

4.            Promotions cannot require participant to “Like” Page, like or comment on post, picture or video use the check in mechanism unless using a third-party app.

5.            Promotions cannot use Facebook features or functions as a voting mechanism; (i.e. Picture, Status Update or Video to receive the most “likes”)

6.            Winners may not be notified through Facebook posts, notes, messages, chats or status updates. (more…)

Campaigns should be organized, engaging, meaningful and fun

Thinking about launching a social media program?

Start with a plan.

We’ve all heard the saying, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Yet that is exactly what most companies do when it comes to social media: They fail to plan.

You wouldn’t launch an advertising campaign without planning. And you certainly wouldn’t launch a public relations program without planning. Yet somehow many businesses, especially small businesses, launch social media programs without a plan. So, before you ask your intern or simply the person on your staff with the most free time, to start posting, blogging and tweeting on your behalf, follow these guidelines to get your program off to a successful start. (more…)

If Twitter is to survive it needs to pick up more mainstream users, so it’s looking at ways to provide more relevance to the average user.  We see numerous areas of opportunities for businesses and marketers, but for moms (those without blogs, of course), dads (in non-marketing jobs) and tweens (who prefer texting), it will be interesting to see where Twitter goes next. For now, I’m off to send another tweet!

See full article via the Wall Street Journal:  Twitter Tries to Widen Appeal to More Users

Friday, March 25, 2011

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

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn are all great options for small companies

Many companies view social media as a way to create connections with customers. But social networks also can help you reach a broader audience.

If you’re not using social media to enhance your public relations efforts, you’re missing out. Every major — and not so major — news outlet now uses social media to uncover leads and reach readers, viewers and listeners.

CNN, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Fox News all have Facebook and Twitter accounts. Locally, The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento Magazine, Sacramento Business Journal and Comstock’s magazine (which just launched an iPad app) all engage in social media for business use.

Here are few tips to help get your public relations program more “social.”

• Follow: Start following editors and reporters who cover news important to your business. You never know, they just might start “following” you, too. Get to know what they cover and share appropriate information with them.

• Friend: A lot of media are surprisingly open with their Facebook accounts. This is a great place to learn more about them, both personally and professionally. If you’re not actually “friends,” this is not the place to try and become one. It’s a place to connect and learn, but leave the pitching to the appropriate venues and business hours.

• Connect: LinkedIn is a great tool for creating business connections, and the media is no different. Media outlets use it too for their own professional career connections as well as company information and news. LinkedIn is a powerful tool for doing preliminary research on media outlets and journalists. If you don’t have an account, sign up! And if you’re not currently using it to connect with the media, you should start. (more…)

Recent data provided by Skillpath shows:

• 350 Million: Number of Facebook users
• 60 Million: Number of LinkedIn users
• 50 Million: Number of Tweets created each day (scary that Charlie Sheen is now tweeting… And no, I’m not following.)
• 2.5 Billion: Number of visits Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn together received in one month
• 133 Million: Number of active blogs
• 5 Million: Number of users on the online bookmarking service Delicious (the one I use…)

Friday, December 3, 2010

Great video content can drive sales, awareness for your small business

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

I am not the typical mom type. Not that it is a bad thing, it’s just that I’ve never really been that into kids, moms groups and the like. In fact, when at parties or events, you would always find me anywhere the kids were not. So, of course, that goes for mom- and parenting-type commercials, videos, magazines and more.

My, how one’s world changes once you actually have kids. As a mom to a 2½-year-old daughter and 9-month-old son, I’ve grown quite fond of children (even other people’s) and have a true appreciation for the jokes, jabs and simply humorous life we parents live.

Now, let’s talk about minivans. There is simply nothing humorous about minivans. In fact, after having our second child, my husband started talking to me about the practicality and convenience of a minivan. I responded without any hesitation that it would be “over my dead body” that we EVER buy a minivan.

Then came the “Swagger Wagon” , a hilarious video on YouTube brought to you by Toyota. Granted, Toyota spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on advertising, but this video went viral due to its organic roots, not advertising. Why?

Because it is hilarious and touched an emotional chord with its audience. It touched an emotional chord with me, and remember, I’m not the mom type and minivans would be “over my dead body.” But somehow Toyota made a minivan kind of cool. The video seemed to say, you can be a parent, own a minivan and still be cool! Sounds childish and rudimentary, I know, but they’re on to something. But the question is, what?

The answer: content.

Want your video to go viral?  You don’t need a  sexy product (or person for that matter – although it has been known to help. “Hello, Old Spice’s Mustafa”) for great success.  Don’t believe me? Just ask the people at Blendtec.   Blendtec is a small blender manufactuer who’s “Will it Blend” video series is the most viewed viral ad campaign of all time (according to AdvertisingAge and Visible Measures).

Who else has had great success? Here are the top 10 viral ads ranked by unique views:

1. Blendtec – Will It Blend – In-house: 134.2 million views

2. Evian – Live Young – BETC Euro RSCG: 103.9 million views

3. Old Spice – Responses – Wieden & Kennedy: 57.1 million views

4. Pepsi – Gladiator – AMV BBDO: 46.7 million views

5. Microsoft – Xbox Project Natal – World Famous: 42.7 million views

6. Dove – Evolution – Ogilvy & Mather: 41.1 million views

7. T-Mobile – T-Mobile Dance – Saatchi & Saatchi: 35.5 million views

8. Doritos – Crash the Super Bowl 2010 – Goodby Silverstein & Partners: 34.2 million views

9. Old Spice – Odor Blocker – Wieden & Kennedy: 34 million views

10. DC Shoes – Gymkhana Two – In-house: 32.9 million views

Let me tell you, as someone who drinks more than 128 ounces of water a day, I know a thing or two about the importance of clean water.

As a company, we at Merlot Marketing have taken small, yet significant, steps to become more socially responsible, by offering our employees, clients and guests filtered tap water instead of bottled water. We feel it is our responsibility to provide the highest quality of service, right down to the H2O we provide our clients.

We must say, we are a bit biased when it comes to the water filtration we use.  Our client, Everpure, has led the water filtration industry as the number one provider of commercial grade water filtration throughout the world for more than 75 years.  So, naturally, we serve Everpure filtered water to all of our guests from national, regional and local media representatives to industry influencers and beyond.

On a much more serious note, we shouldn’t take having access to the best-tasting water possible for granted.  Did you know that wars have broken out for years around the world due to a lack of access to clean water? According to a report dating back to 1999 and sponsored by the UN Development Program, fighting over the scarcity of water, over the next 25 years, will possibly be the leading reason for major conflicts in Africa, not oil.  This is why we are getting involved in today’s Blog Action Day 2010.

During today’s celebration of Blog Action Day 2010, we ask you to take a moment and consider the amount of water you and your family consume each day.  While we of course don’t recommend cutting down on (Everpure filtered) drinking water (yes, that’s a not-so-subtle hint), we do ask that you think about how much water you’re consuming other than drinking water.  To get your juices flowing on how you can help reduce water waste, I’ve included a list below, provided by Treehugger.com, on the many products we each buy and how much water it takes to produce them.  I realize that water is a necessity for the things we eat, drink and use everyday, so I’m by no means saying we shouldn’t manufacturer or consume these products, but the statistics below should at least get you thinking about just how water is consumed and how we might be able to help conserve it.
Car
It takes an estimated 39,090 gallons of water to make a car. It’s unclear if that includes the more 2,000 gallons used to make its tires–each tire takes 518 gallons.

Pair of Jeans
It takes around 1,800 gallons of water to grow enough cotton to produce just one pair of regular ol’ blue jeans.

Cotton T-Shirt
Not as bad as jeans, it still takes a whopping 400 gallons of water to grow the cotton required for an ordinary cotton shirt.

Single Board of Lumber
5.4 gallons of water are used to grow enough wood for one lumber board.

Barrel of Beer
In order to process a single barrel of beer (32 gallons of booze), 1,500 gallons of water are sucked down.

To-Go Latte
It takes 53 gallons to make every latte.

So, what do you think? Can we make changes in our lifestyle so that there is enough water for others in the world?  I’m not saying to reduce your lattes, after all, your latte-drinking provides jobs; however, I am saying to think about your overall consumption and where we all might cut back, i.e. watering the lawn, letting your water run while doing the dishes and brushing your teeth. If we all make small changes, we all can make a big impact.