Source:www:emarketer.com

Just when it seemed entirely unlikely that another social platform could wrench our attention away from Facebook and Twitter, we’ve been pricked by Pinterest. This somewhat suprising turn of events reminded me of something I learned back in my school days.

Source: Retro Rebirth blog http://retrorebirth.wordpress.com/

In a discussion on current events, my teacher used shoe styles to explain the ethos of the counterculture movement of the early ’70s. When the mainstream embraced platform shoes with four-inch-plus wedged heels that thrust the wearer forward, the counterculture laid back on their heel-less Earth shoes. It wasn’t just a matter of going your own way, my teacher said, you had to go in the opposite way, or counterstream. And it didn’t just apply to shoes; the counterculture took the opposing positions on all the issues of the day.

According to an article on eMarketer, smaller sites like Pinterest and Tumblr showed significant traffic increases in the last quarter of 2011, with the trend continuing into the early weeks of 2012. Drawing on results of a survey conducted by comScore, the eMarketer article points out that while Pinterest may now be the seventh leading social site in the U.S. based on the number of unique visitors, the amount of time visitors spend on Pinterest is greater than the amount of time they spend on Twitter.

Small sites of course may grow into mega-sites, but part of their appeal might just be that they aren’t for everyone.  It takes more work–and passion about your subject–to cultivate a board on Pinterest than it takes to post a status update on Facebook. On the other hand, for some people coming up with clever things to post is about as hard as it gets. With Pinterest you don’t have to write a word. It’s show-and-tell without the tell.

It will be interesting to see the direction Pinterest takes in the coming year. Will it follow in the footsteps of Facebook and Twitter and become one more part of an integrated marketing strategy, or will it embrace its counterculture stature?

Acknowledgments: I may have mangled Dennis Sullivan’s explanation of  the counterculture in his discussion of The Greening of America, but at least I remembered it.

The book review section may have vanished from the weekend newspaper, but it’s alive and well on the Internet.

I realized that I liked every book I read this year. At first this surprised me but makes sense when I remember that each book I selected had received wide coverage on social media platforms.

Most titles fall into one of two categories: inspiring big picture insights or helpful, detailed how-to instructions. Can’t really say I prefer one over the other — I recommend both.

• Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki. see my review
• Content Rules, Ann Handley, C.C. Chapman and David Meerman Scott. I reviewed this one, too.
• Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable Word-of-Mouth Movements, Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church, Spike Jones. The Fiskars social media case study gets tossed around a lot; this is where it got started.
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink. Why is Psych is so much more interesting now than it was back in college?
• Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition. Michael A. Stelzner, Reviewed and given away here.
• Poke the Box, Seth Godin. Really, I don’t even feel qualified to comment. It’s that good.
• Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, Joshua Foer. Not strictly, or even vaguely, a business book but I loved it.
• Microstyle: The Art of Writing Little, Christoper Johnson. Highly recommended if you’d like to improve your Twitter style, and I don’t mean learning which day of the week is best for tweeting.
• Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, Peter Sims. My favorite book of the year. Not sure whether this one has the edge because it’s the one I read most recently and remember best, or whether I truly enjoyed it more than the others. Same thing happens with movies and the Oscar nominations.

It was a terrific year for business books, and you won’t go wrong with any of the above. Let me know which ones I missed, so I can add them to next year’s list.

True stories from the social media trenches

Start the relationship

My daughter and I visited a new local pet store, resulting in adorable puppy coat for Buddy. The store owner took a quick photo, created an adorable Facebook update. For our next purchase, a dog bed for Buddy’s crate, I took the photo at home and uploaded to the shop’s Facebook page.

The clasp stops here

Clasp breaks on my friend’s expensive purse when she accidentally drops it at a fancy dress ball. Emails manufacturer. “Too bad”, says customer service, “you dropped it.” Friend searches LinkedIn to locate CEO of purse manfacturer, and sends a message. Result? New purse for friend.

The whole world is watching

Customer receives delivery of an online order from gourmet company. One product was substituted. It cost less than what she ordered, but her credit card wasn’t credited the difference. Did she call customer service?  No, she posted a complaint on the company’s Facebook page and gave them 24 hours to fix the problem. To be sure she got their attention, she also posted on her own Facebook page and asked all her friends to visit the company’s Facebook page and let them know they’ve seen her post. She has a lot of friends. Solution: within 24 hours she receives a bonus shipment double the value of the substituted product.

Customer service is the new marketing

If you’ve created a social media platform for your business, you’ve created an extension of your customer service. Respond to comments within 24 hours, and use your response to build a better relationship with customers.

If monitoring your social media platforms doesn’t fit in your day, contact Content First. We’ll build relationships with your customers.

Clearly, this is a case of the cobbler’s child going shoeless. It’s been some time since I posted regularly here, and it’s time to do something about it.

I’m inspired by this guest post on Problogger. Write a year’s worth of blogposts in one month.

Just not this month. Thanksgiving is at my house.

Not December, for obvious reasons.

OK, January. I’m committing to writing 52 posts in January.  Anyone else in?

Thanks to Kelly Kingman for the inspiration.

You didn’t have steal a cookie from the cookie jar at the Chicago Ideas Week Tech and Web MEGATALK.

Crain’s Chicago Business gave them away.

What are the ingredients for a well-done QR code event strategy?  Here’s Crain’s recipe:

• Well staffed.  Crain’s had enough people passing out  cookies that their staff members could engage in conversation with attendees. They didn’t just plow through the crowd handing out cookies to every moving target. I was with someone who didn’t have a QR code reader on her phone; the guy who gave us the cookies helped her download a reader and activate it. She learned how to use it on the spot.
• Well identified. The Crain’s people wore red t-shirts with the QR code imprint.  My scanner couldn’t read the crinkly plastic cookie wrap, so I positioned my phone to read the code off the guy’s t-shirt.
• Well rewarded. The cookies were dee-lish. But that wasn’t all they gave away. The QR code linked to the true reward, one of their publishing products, Crain’s Chicago Business Who’s Who Contact Information List. The link was provided via an email, which include social buttons and a feedback link.
• Well timed. Of course, I wanted a cookie at 4 pm, just between lunch and dinner. Had it been 9 am, I would have had more self-restraint and passed up the sweet.

Next time you think about using QR codes at an event, make sure you line up all the right ingredients.

There’s seemingly no limit to the ways you can use QR codes. Scan this face tattoo, for example, and you’ll be directed to Dave’s Killer Bread, an Oregon baker of healthy breads. Now that’s brand love for you.

According to a CMI (Content Marketing Institute) blogpost, codes offer product information where and when customers need it. CMI cites the example of a QR-coded tag attached to a bottle of wine that links to online tasting notes, pairing suggestions and vineyard information.

More often than not, however, you’ll place QR codes on surfaces more permanent than skin or cupcake frosting, another example mentioned in the CMI blogpost.  I asked  Judy Elowe, Vice President at Creative Promotional Products for some examples of good uses of QR codes. The ideal surface, according to Elowe, has a white background behind the code and is flat. Elowe notes that manufacturers of promotional items are finding ways to incorporate those ideal surfaces into their items.

• travel mugs
• business cards
• buttons
• t-shirts

• keyrings
• notepads
• clocks and watches
• tote bags

For a showroom open house, Elowe printed a QR code on a luggage tag attached to goodie bags. When guests scan the code, they link to a special promo page for discounts on Creative Promotional Products’ services. Since the offers will change from time to time, so Elowe reminded guests to keep the tags and scan from time to time to check for the latest offers. This strategy extends the longevity of the promotional item, thus keeping the business logo in front of customers longer.

For more information about QR codes and promotional items, contact Creative Promotional Products.

If you needed a website designer, would you call this number?

A few questions came to mind when I saw this sign at a busy intersection:

• Is it legit?
• What are they really selling?
• Why don’t they have a business name?
• Would anyone call this number?

The one thought that didn’t come to my mind is an interest in calling this number for information about web design. The marketing persuaded me that the company is not what I’m looking for in a web designer.

If this sign listed a web address instead a phone, would I have been more willing to check it out? And if that website made a terrific impression on me, would I have been more likely to consider contacting the designer?

A lot of marketing I see isn’t all that different from this sign. A static website with a company name and contact information doesn’t have much more impact than this sign. People who introduce themselves at networking events and simply tell me their names and what they do are basically holding up a sign like the one above.

Tell a story, on your website, your Facebook business page, your blog. Give people something more compelling than your contact information. It doesn’t have to be a lot of content; it just has to be great.

If you’ve learned the hard way that “if you build it, they will come” isn’t a strategy for getting people to your website, then you’re probably ready to try something else. Many social media experts espouse the “give and you shall receive” approach to marketing, but few provide the nitty-gritty details for making it work.

In his recently published book,  Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, author Michael A. Stelzner offers a view from the top as well as from the trenches. He explains the business and psychology theories supporting his concept and digs deep into his own experience to show why it works. Then he provides step-by-step instruction and examples, so you can use these tactics to get your target audiences to notice and engage with your website.

At the end of this review, I’ll tell you how you can enter a drawing to win a free copy of Launch.

What does rocket science have to do with marketing?

As it turns out, propelling your business into success is a lot like launching a rocket. Stelzner calls his approach the elevation principle and even has come up with a clever scientific-looking formula that makes it easy to remember.

On the simplest level, his approach is based on giving away samples. Instead of handing out tiny pink spoons with a smidgeon of ice cream, however, we should publish bites and even larger servings of our expertise in the form of website content. And, most importantly, while we’re providing helpful, interesting content at no cost to our target audience, we have to be sure to avoid promoting ourselves.

The moment you stop mentioning your products and services by name is the moment you shift from being a salesperson to being an advocate.

Once you’ve become an advocate, you’ve earned your target audience’s trust, and they’ll have a more favorable response to your sales pitch. In fact, once you have their trust, you may not even have to deliver a sales pitch: your prospects already know they want to work with you or buy your products.

Compared to other marketing strategies you might try, giving away content is cheap. Still, publishing fresh, interesting and useful content on the Internet at no charge is a demanding task for small business owners. Stelzner makes this task much easier, providing detailed examples and instruction in ten different types of content, including:

• how-to articles
• expert interviews
• reviews
• case studies
• news stories
• surveys
• white papers
• contests

You’ll find Launch is well worth your time even if you end up hiring someone to create content for your site rather than doing it yourself. Gaining an understanding what kind of content attracts interest and builds trust will help you get the most out of the money you spend on developing your website.

While I heartily recommend Launch, I would have liked checklist summaries at the end of each chapter. There is so much useful information in each chapter, however, that the checklists probably would have been half as long as the chapters themselves.

Enter to win Launch!

If you’re interested in reaching a wider audience for your website, your first step is to enter my drawing for a free copy of Launch.

Leave a comment to today’s post and your name will be entered in the drawing. Be sure to leave a valid email address, as I will use that to notify you if you’ve won.  Also, shipping addresses in the continental U.S. only.

You have until July 6 to leave a comment. I’ll use a random number generator to select the winner, and announce who gets the book on July 7.

For more information about Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition, check the book website. Thanks to Mike Stelzner for providing the review copy and an extra for the giveaway.

by Felicia Hudson

Welcome to my first guest blogger, Felicia Hudson of Hudson Creative Copy. This is the second in a series of posts about using marketing strategies beyond social media to promote your small business. The first in the series covered a realtor’s use of QR codes.

There is a well-known adage that no publicity is bad publicity. Well, yes and no.

It’s possible to unknowingly alienate editors—the exact people you need to pick up your press releases—by engaging in publicity whore activity. I once worked for a marketing director who insisted we send out two to five press releases per week to keep the company name in the news. Not the best way to get the attention of editors.

As an entrepreneur or small business owner, you face the challenge of not only writing an enticing press release, but getting it picked up by reporters or editors as well. These six tips can help your press release avoid the circular file or “delete” button:

1. Share legitimate news—hence the term “press” release. Stick to the critical information that you want your audience to know about.
2. Don’t write a press release  as though it’s a marketing piece. It’s not. Editors know you want to share information about your company—that’s why you’re sending a press release. Write succinctly and concisely so the editor can find the valuable hook in your release. Don’t make them dig for it.
3. Respect the editor’s time. This goes along with tip #2. Don’t slam editors with poorly written press releases as you cross your fingers and hope for the best. Be strategic in what you are sending and how often. Before you send it, ask yourself if you are really communicating something of value; or is it just self-serving publicity?
4. Keep your press release to one page. The press release is a vehicle to drive your target audience to contact you for more information. Don’t try to cram extraneous background information into your release. Stick to the facts and drive potential customers or clients to your website, or a contact at your company, for more information.
5. Make sure your press release contains the essentials. Even the best penned press release is useless if it doesn’t contain the facts reporters and editors need. Include your marketing person’s (or yours) contact information (phone number where the press can reach you), date the news is being released and location from which the release is being made—also known as the dateline.
6. Establish relationships with editors. Get to know the editors of the publications you send press releases to. Interact with them via phone, Twitter, e-mail or whichever way you choose, but do connect with them (connect—don’t stalk!) Be gracious when they do pick up a press release. If you find that most or all of your releases are being passed up, ask the editor what you can do to change that. Don’t be aggressive—just ask nicely. Let them know you’re willing to do the work.

Do you have any tips on press release distribution to share?

Photo credit: MorgueFile.com

Felicia Hudson is a Chicago-based freelance writer and principal of Hudson Creative Copy, which specializes in helping clients reach their communication goals through copywriting, journalism, marketing communications and internal/external communications for digital and print formats.