Marketing & Branding Blog by Dave Dolak

Does the hard sell work on social networks?

2009-11-10T21:56:00.002-05:00

According to Brian Morrissey at Brandweek I think the answer might just surprise you.

Small Business Branding Tips

2009-10-23T22:20:00.001-04:00

Branding is a key way to set your company apart from the competition, and there are some simple ways you can achieve this. Small business owner Rachel Bitan talks about the importance and mechanisms of creating a strong and memorable company brand.

http://video.about.com/sbinformation/Small-Business-Branding-Tips.htm

A good Twitter primer

2009-10-15T08:04:00.000-04:00

Jason Davey has put together a 24 slide presentation that covers the basics of how to use Twitter for business.

My favorite tip?

Don't sell. Share.

Twitter Tips for Business - August 2009

View more presentations from Bullseye.

Twitter is spam

2009-10-13T21:02:00.003-04:00

I still have a bit more research to conduct, but I'm pretty sure that Twitter is nothing but a spam facilitator for businesses.

The only difference between tweets and regular spam is that people are slightly more likely to read your spam on Twitter because they "opted in" in the first place and they at least know that each spam message will be very brief.

Oh, and just because somebody opted-in to your list? That doesn't mean that relentlessly attacking their email box isn't spamming.

The Great Twitter Project: How To Make Money On Twitter

2009-10-10T11:41:00.005-04:00

It's time to put your money where your mouth is.

What is it?:
A project to learn how people are making money with Twitter. Participants will be sent a short survey to explore their stories on how they are using or have used Twitter successfully to make money. Some participants will then be selected for more in-depth interviews. All stories, case studies and data will then be compiled and written into a special report that will be shared with all participants. The result will be an exclusive report packed full of tips describing how to successfully integrate Twitter into your marketing activities to increase your sales.

When?:
This project started on October 10, 2009 and new participants will be accepted until June 30, 2010. At that point the final surveys and interviews will be conducted and the final report written and sent to participants. The report is anticipated to be ready in late July, 2010.

Why?:
To learn how people are using Twitter to make money and to share your success stories with others so best practices may be developed for those who wish to integrate Twitter into the marketing mix for their business. Also, the final report will list many participants by name & URL and contain ample footnotes. As such, this is a great opportunity for successful Twitter users to raise the visibility of their brands and further enhance their online Twitter success. Progress reports and other gems will be shared along the way.

Where?:
Anyone who has access to the internet and who has an email address can participate. International, broad-based participation is encouraged.

Who?:
This study is being conducted by Dave Dolak, a U.S.-based marketing professional. Dave is tired of hearing so much hype about Twitter and his aim is to cut through the hype and uncover the cases in which people are actually using Twitter to contribute to commerce in some way. Unless a potential marketing tool like Twitter causes money to change hands at some point then it is just a fad, an electronic diversion, a way to waste of great deal of time and effort and not actually a real marketing tool at all. This project aims to uncover those people who are using Twitter as a true marketing tool and to share their methods with others. Learn more about Dave at www.DaveDolak.com or Twitter.com/davedolak_va.

How?:
Become a participant in this project right now by subscribing via the “Add to cart” PayPal button below. The cost to participate is merely $2 and that buys you the final report at the end. 6 months after the report is released it will be made available to others outside of this project at a much higher price.

The great Twitter Project: How To Make Money On Twitter participation. $2.00 (USD)

Enlightened Stupid Marketer

2009-10-02T17:14:00.003-04:00

The value-centricity of this video cannot be overstated. "I'd prefer someone to be aware of my product than to not purchase it."

Somewhere, somehow Spinal Tap must have gone back to business school.

Book review: Buying In

2009-09-29T22:59:00.001-04:00

In "Buying In", Rob Walker explores how modern consumers interact with brands and why you are less in control of what your brand means than ever before.

Consumers understand marketing because marketing has been coming at them from just about every direction since the day they were born. Much "stealth" marketing, manufactured or fertilized word-of-mouth marketing and sponsorships are easily spotted and identified by consumers as exactly what they are. Nobody is fooling anybody anymore. That's OK Walker tells us because consumers will willingly become part of the process if you allow them in the right way. Welcome to the world of "murketing."

This book has lengthy case studies that sometimes seem to ramble off-point but hang in there because they all make a larger point.

The big point is this:

The art of modern commercial persuasion allows people to become part of your branding process and allows them to co-opt your brand in order to enable them to weave and express their own personal narrative through their individual expression of your brand and others'.

You might not always understand how they are defining your brand and personally identifying with it, but if you leave enough of your brand open to interpretation then you should allow high reach influencers to co-opt your brand and then watch what they do with it and where they go with it. Then strive to embrace it and build upon how they define it because ultimately consumers define your brand, not you.

Consumers reflect and project themselves through brands. You must allow them to do this by not tightly and narrowly defining your brand. Leave enough open to interpretation so that people have some flexibility for personal interpretation. This is a very important concept and Walker strongly supports it with research and case studies.

I highly recommend this book.

What are your promotions really doing for you?

2009-09-21T22:03:00.003-04:00

Definition: Sales promotion - Sales promotions are short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sale of a product or service. Sales promotion includes several communications activities that attempt to provide added value or incentives to consumers, wholesalers, retailers, or other organizational customers to stimulate immediate sales. These efforts can attempt to stimulate product interest, trial, or purchase.

An interesting article appeared recently in the Boston Globe that talked about the aftermath of the "cash for clunkers" program that saw our U.S. government offering up to $4,500 as an incentive for people to trade in their old clunker automobiles for newer, more fuel efficient vehicles. After spending nearly $3 billion on the program, what lasting effect is it having on U.S. auto sellers? Nil. Nada. None. The recession is back in full force at auto dealers across the country.

Sales promotions are by definition short-term programs. Their aim is to spur purchase of your product or service.

Before you run your next sales promotion try to answer a few questions first.

1) If the promotion works and it increases sales in the short-term, will that have any negative effect on long-term sales?

2) Will I simply be moving the purchase time frame for somebody who would have purchased from me anyway?

3) Will I be conditioning my customers to wait for an incentive or discount next time such that they will forever more be less likely to pay full price?

4) Is my brand suited to sales promotion which in one way or another is really a discount?

5) Will I be damaging my brand in the long-run?

See also:

http://www.getelastic.com/how-much-is-your-coupon-code-box-costing-you

http://mktsci.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/1/23

http://books.google.com/books?id=o_mIiLQrNnsC&pg=PA8&lpg=PA8&dq=sales+promotion+brand+value&source=bl&ots=rdH8FlIEXA&sig=tqAzicEKHpqibqKJLIbz3_ukMzE&hl=en&ei=eza4SrD9NsbllAfC9OzJDg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8#v=onepage&q=sales%20promotion%20brand%20value&f=false

Book review: Obsessive Branding Disorder

2009-09-04T22:24:00.001-04:00

In the early sections of this book I thought Conley must have been rejected by some branding agency at some point and had a score to settle. I was convinced that he didn't know the difference between brand, image, identity and advertising. I was already formulating my scathing review of this book in my mind and was ready to pounce.

But then I kept reading.

By the end of the book I was convinced that every brander must read this book.

Conley masterfully traces the history and future of branding and discusses the dangers involved when companies stop investing in product development and innovation because competition easily copies true innovations and then finds a way to manufacture and sell them cheaper than you. He talks about the inevitable results of shortsighted brand managers with short tenures who are being rewarded based on short-term performance. He covers the logical results of trying to differentiate products in a world where most product categories are loaded with products that are all pretty much the same and all pretty good options in their own right.

From emotional branding to personal branding, brand churches, experiential marketing (XM), using sound, smell and a full slate of other tricks to differentiate aside from actual product attributes or performance we are shown how we can be manipulated without any awareness or rational thought on our part whatsoever. We are shown this potentially dangerous future of branding in a world where the products are the same, the promises are the same and the tangible benefits are all the same amongst competitive choices.

This book should serve as a wake up call and a warning to branders everywhere and underscore the importance of true product innovation, making unique promises of value that are hard for competitors to copy, long-term view of the brand as a strategic asset and why the commoditization of just about every product category is such a threat, challenge and opportunity all at the same time.

If you are serious about marketing and branding then this book is a "must read." I highly recommend it.

Social Media Word-of-Mouth vs. Traditional Marketing

2009-08-28T23:02:00.008-04:00

There is a noteworthy study in the current issue of Journal of Marketing (Sept. 2009, Vol. 73, No. 5). Entitled, "Effects of Word-of-Mouth Versus Traditional Marketing: Findings from an Internet Social Networking Site," authors Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels report the results from their research that find that word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing about online social media sites is more effective than traditional marketing actions. They also report that while the effectiveness of online word-of-mouth is higher than traditional marketing efforts initially it also grows over time.

In the long-term their research finds the elasticity of WOM is ~20 times higher than the elasticity for traditional marketing events and ~30 higher than traditional media appearances.

The impact for online marketers, of course, is that this study presents evidence that online word-of-mouth is more cost effective and less expensive than traditional marketing. Let's chock one more up to the power of social media marketing.

The authors, however, also point out that organic WOM online (that word-of-mouth that occurs naturally and without intervention) is probably different from WOM stimulated by the company or organization. They claim that the latter could be called "fertilized WOM."

Personally I hope the phrase "Fertilized Word-of-Mouth" catches on and I will do everything I can to spread it (pun intended.)

The authors did not study organic vs. fertilized WOM but we should assume that if marketers pay for word-of-mouth and are discovered that not only will their efforts be less effective than if the WOM occurred naturally but they might actually be punished for engaging in the practice.

Fertilized Word-of-Mouth. Help spread it!

If you can't define it then how can you do it right?

2009-08-25T00:43:00.003-04:00

If marketers have such different views on the definition of marketing then how in the world can anyone expect them to get it right?

Systemic Marketing asked marketing professionals on Twitter how they define the term "marketing."

"Marketing is a relationship"

"Marketing needs to tell a story to consumers that makes them want what you've got"

"Marketing is the brand shepherd that ensures that every customer contact point is consistent"

"Marketing, in short, is manipulation."

"Marketing is magnetic induction that leads to seduction."

"Marketing is three parts science, two parts art, one part passion, 1/2 part participation, and a dash of magic. Adjust portions to your taste!"

"Marketing is distilling chaos into beauty."

Yikes! We might be in trouble here folks.

Social media marketing secret: Aim is to aggregate High Reach Influencers (HRI's)

2009-08-21T18:14:00.000-04:00

Social media marketing presents business marketers with a unique set of tools and marketing communications platforms to take two familiar concepts to a new level.

Customer lifetime value is an important business metric as it defines the value of your customers over their lifetime of doing business with you. Influencer marketing is the ability to identify and influence the influencers in your particular market. Influencers are those who hold influence over others and help guide and shape brand preferences and purchase decisions. If you can influence the influencers then you can help drive brand preference and purchase preference for your brand.

Think of social media marketing as a way to attract and communicate with the high reach influencers in your space.

If you view social media marketing as a way to attract and influence the influencers in your market, then you should also look for ways to measure their value to your business.

By calculating a High Reach Influencer Value (HRIV) then you can start defining a value for those top influencers who may fall outside the customer lifetime value calculation. Indeed, HRI's may include both customers and non-customers. Defining their value to you is important when creating your social media marketing strategy and budget as it will help guide you in your social media marketing (SMM) investment decisions.

Once you know the value of these HRI's then you can decide how much to invest to attract them online.

The Difference Between Traditional & Social Media Marketing

2009-08-15T21:48:00.006-04:00

I sat on the sofa this morning during Saturday morning cartoons trying to explain Twitter to my 8-year-old son when he asked a good question. "Daddy," he asked, "Isn't Twitter a lot like broadcast but only on the Internet?" (Did I mention the kid is brilliant, loves all things related to computers and electronics and has to endure a marketing guy as a father?)

That's when it hit me.

The old days of traditional media saw marketers sending marketing messages out to a great many people in the hopes that the messages would resonate with the right group and cause them to take action of some sort. Sure there was targeting and market segmentation as much as could be achieved with the available media, but sending a broadcast message out was the way to reach your target audience. Kind of like carpet bombing in the right general area.

Unfortunately, in the process a lot of uninterested people also heard those messages and that is what gave marketing and advertising bad reputations.

The difference between traditional marketing and social media marketing (SMM) is this: Traditional marketing sent messages to an audience that contained people who just did not care about what was being offered.

Social media marketing, on the other hand, attempts to attract an interested audience through dialog and engagement first and then targets them with relevant marketing messages of interest to them.

Think of SMM like permission-based marketing except instead of people opting-in to your mailing list they actively follow what you have to say through networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blogs, YouTube and other sites that allow social interaction. Instead of uninterested parties opting-out of your mailing list they simply stop listening to you or stop following what you say.

It isn't rocket science but what remains is the same challenge for marketers: Find the right people who want to hear what you have to say and engage them in a conversation. The Internet just makes it a lot easier than it used to be.

For those marketers currently trying to attract as many Twitter followers as possible or as many social networking fans as possible please keep history in mind. When you try to build quantity instead of quality you are repeating the mistakes of marketing history and trying to turn a one-to-one medium into a broadcast medium that puts your message in front of many of the wrong people.

Provide value and give some of it away first and the right people will find you, follow you and be receptive to parting with their dollars to receive more of what you have to offer.

It really is just that simple.

The new public relations (PR) reality

2009-08-09T22:55:00.005-04:00

Deirdre Breakenridge has posted an interesting article describing why she feels that public relations professionals must now embrace a mixture of traditional channels with new social media channels. I believe she is right. No longer are there just a few editors, publishers and gatekeepers to control the message. Now that it is very easy for anyone to reach just about anyone the role of public relations must be seen in a new light with the dawn of social media.

I just ask one question.

What happens when the PR function uses social media the wrong way and merely pushes out messages to an audience who may receive it but not actually hear it above the noise of all the other messages? What if marketers with good intentions become nothing more than non-targeting spammers only using social media channels?

My fear is that marketing folks will push out so many messages to try to create pull that the whole concept of business communications and marketing will have to be reexamined because it will amount to nothing more than spamming in the social space.

I cannot stress enough the importance of attracting and targeting the right audience with the right message of interest. It is not a game of numbers anymore, it is a game of quality and you cannot carpet bomb your message and hope you hit the right people with it.

Your message must be heard by the right people and it must be compelling and it must be done with surgical precision.

How to build a powerhouse brand

2009-08-08T21:56:00.002-04:00

e-Book on Branding

This e-book details the steps and principles involved in brand building, brand management, and internal branding that aligns your organization with the promises made by your brand. Building strong brands using these powerhouse branding techniques will cause your brand to resonate with your target market so people emotionally connect with your brand while you ensure you meet and exceed their expectations-- and increase your profits. If you are launching a new product or trying to increase sales of an existing product or service, then this e-book is for you.

A strong brand will allow you to:
o Influence buying decisions and shape perceptions held by your customers and prospects

o Command a premium price

o Build customer loyalty through emotional involvement

o Make purchasing decisions easier for your prospects

o Maximize your profits

In this work, Dave discusses image, identity, awareness, brand preference, brand equity and more critical-to-understand branding concepts while also describing the brand management process. He includes a thorough discussion of "The 10 Steps in Building a Powerhouse Brand", outlines the Brand Audit process, and reveals why you must educate people about your brand with both emotional and logical appeals.

"I wanted to extend my gratitude and thanks to you for your insight on Branding through this [e-book]. I have read several opinions on the subject and find your work to be the most informative and easy to understand. I look forward to reading more of your work." -- Miles B., Florida

2 Bonus Sections: Positioning and Integrated Marketing Communications

This newly revised and expanded booklet includes two special bonus sections which you are sure to find helpful. The first is a Brand Positioning Workshop that describes how to go about choosing the best position for your brand. This bonus section walks you through the 8 Steps in Defining A Strong Position that will drive your competitors crazy while the second bonus section on Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) will help you leverage your marketing budget while all your efforts remain in true alignment with your brand's core values.

Marketing secrets on Facebook

2009-08-07T22:37:00.001-04:00

Marketing secrets on Facebook

13 Tips for B2B Social Media Marketers: One marketer's thoughts on business-to-business social media marketing

2009-08-06T22:51:00.006-04:00

by Dave Dolak

First of all let me sketch out an overview of my experience with social media lest you start to think that I am some advanced expert in social media marketing. I am not. I do not claim to be an expert in social media marketing. What I am is an experienced B2B marketer who has been engaging in and experimenting with social media on my own over the past several years trying to understand how to best leverage it as part of the marketing mix.

I've been on Linkedin for approximately 2 years and have not been very active on the site because I haven't found a compelling reason to dive into it deeper. I've made some connections and had a few fruitful exchanges with new contacts but that's about it. I log in maybe once every 3 or 4 months if that.

I've been active on Facebook for approximately one year and find that this is my "go to" outlet to get in touch or stay in contact with friends, personal contacts and old schoolmates. Facebook also seems to be great for organizing local special interest groups or promoting local events that may or may not have their own, dedicated web presence.

Fellow local kayakers? I'm in your group so I know when and where the next paddling trip is taking place. My niece's college a capella group sending me an invitation to attend your next concert because I'm a member of your Facebook fan page? I'll accept the invitation and let you know I'll be there. Old schoolmates who talk about their business or invite me to their spouse's business seminars every so often? I actually enjoy hearing about those things. I've joined several groups (we used to call these things forums) and participate in some discussions but I don't expect to receive anything in return for my contributions.

I certainly don't expect businesses to find me and contact me on Facebook. It would be a breach of protocol as far as I'm concerned. I might find some businesses or brands that I'm enthusiastic about and become a fan of their page or join their group on Facebook but I go searching for these in my leisure time or friends recommend these pages to me. You can try to advertise to me as a consumer on Facebook with an obvious ad that matches my interests or you can start a group or fan page and maybe I'll find it, but please don't try to be stealthy about your marketing or try to pitch me directly. I'll see you coming from a thousand miles away and run the other direction.

I don't expect to find any deeply valuable B2B resources on Facebook. In fact, I do not accept invitations to connect, or "friend requests", from business contacts on my Facebook account at all. Facebook is personal space and I can't imagine trying to monetize it for business-to-business reasons in any way except for maybe those companies offering services to other companies to show them how to effectively market to consumers using Facebook. If most businesses discourage their employees from logging into Facebook during work hours then what does that tell you about the current B2B potential of Facebook? With 250 million worldwide users it might be a B2B force someday, but not yet.

MyFamily.com? Obviously that one is reserved just for my family. A great place to have group discussions and share family pictures. Sure, some of my more tech savvy family members are also my Facebook friends, but on MyFamily.com we can tell inside jokes and discuss in private those odd or embarrassing things that family members do that we don't want those other Facebook people to see. This space is very private to me so marketing to me here would be very intrusive. If you tried to target me here with marketing I'd fear that my privacy was compromised and I'd be very resentful.

I started becoming active on Twitter a few weeks ago. Strangely, I had 3 followers before I ever sent my first tweet. Who in the world were these people and why did they want to follow me before I even said anything?

Going back to my earliest experiences with social media, I can easily remember back to the early to mid- 1990's on Compuserve when my preferred place to go was the PRSIG (PR & Marketing Forum.) This was the place on Compuserve where PR and Marketing professionals hung out and offered advice to others who would pop in seeking answers. Some of these people were other marketing professionals and some of these people were small business owners. It was a nice environment. Everyone was there to help each other by engaging in discussions, uploading white papers and articles and talking about marketing best practices and upcoming industry events.

Though the thought leaders in that forum probably never knew it, I was influenced by many of them. Pros like Marty Winston, Denny Hatch, Shel Holz, Paulette Ensign and Marcia Yudkin were there sharing their knowledge. In fact, I now have several of their books on my bookshelves because I respected their opinions and wanted to learn more from them. These people engaged in the discussion in ways that were very helpful and never intrusive.

Not only were blatant commercial posts (now known as content spam) frowned upon in the Compuserve forums but posts were moderated and those purely commercial ones were not allowed to be posted in the first place. If they somehow made it through they were quickly scrubbed. Anonymity was minimal and there was a great deal of transparency. We knew who was there and what their motivations were.

After Compuserve forums lost their luster due to an explosion in alternate, free online resources and dwindling numbers I then went on to create my own online marketing discussion forum during the late 90s that started out as a great place for exchange of ideas but eventually had to be killed because it started taking up too much of my time fixing broken code and cleaning the boards from content spam, links to porn sites and many posts of no value.

I started blogging in 1998 during a ski trip with friends. Of course the terms blog and blogger had not been invented yet but I was updating the site daily with pictures and written descriptions of our adventures on the slopes and in the lodge for those friends who were unable to attend and for anyone else who happened to find the site.

Ultimately, I started blogging as part of my professional development and personal branding efforts in 2005. I don't even remember the first platform I used but it also quickly became overrun by content spam and dubious links to all sorts of highly questionable websites so I killed it. By this time, I had already learned that an "anything goes", completely open policy is a recipe for disaster on such an online exchange. Things in social media seem to spiral quickly downward to the least common denominator if left alone and you might not believe how low that least common denominator actually is and how quickly you can get there.

Then when Blogger came out with an easy-to-use platform that allowed me to easily moderate comments and control (yes, I said control) the discussions I then resumed blogging on the new platform. I currently try to moderate as little as possible at my blog but at times I simply have to disallow some valueless comments and spam.

Now that my street cred has either been establish in your mind or I have completely rendered my opinions on social media devoid of any value to you, read on using your own best judgement. At least now you know where I'm coming from.

I have no idea whether or not I fit the profile of the typical person engaged in social media right now. I'm certainly not an early adopter (or am I?) but I'm probably ahead of the average person online. I've read lots of hype and can't escape all the the proclamations about how social media “changes everything” but I just don't quite see it that way for business-to-business marketers. At least not yet. Social media is nothing new. From the early days of the commercialization of the Internet such social interactions have been part of the mix.

Certainly the media hype about social media has increased in the past couple years. So has the chatter from those who are newly engaged in social media who think it is an entirely new concept. It is not. I venture to bet that many current bloggers and people who engage in social media today cannot even spell HTML because they don't need to. The platforms now make publishing easy and painless using plain text and they don't require any special knowledge or computer code writing skills.

The Internet has developed to the point where there is widespread access and just about anyone can create content and upload it to a myriad of websites that are open to just about all Internet users. No longer are these discussions hidden behind the walls of proprietary, commercial service providers and gate keepers. No longer does engaging in social media communication require any special knowledge of any computer programming languages or require dedicated, in-house server maintenance or IT staff. It is for these reasons that I believe participation in social media passed critical mass a long time ago. Because the barriers are so low there are more people than ever participating in it and talking about it.

As I hope I've shown you, the tools and names have changed, but the concept of online social media has been around for a long time. Sure there are now sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace that have become very popular and are all the rage in mainstream news media but they are just the latest twists on an old concept. These modern sites are far more than the listservs, newsgroups and online forums of yesteryear. Today's modern social media sites allow a much more enriched, multi-media experience with enhanced two-way communication. These are, however, evolutionary advances rather than revolutionary ones but they are forever changing the way people interact and seek information before making decisions.

The basic concept remains the same: create a shared-interest environment online, engage with people on a personal level in a public way and allow others who are interested to watch and join in. That's all. Through these online conversations participants then become part of your brand because they give you honest feedback, offer suggestions, ask questions, tell others, engage with each other, complain and maybe even sing your praises a little bit. At the heart of it all for you as a business marketer is a deeper involvement and a more personal discussion with customers, prospects, fans and detractors that just can't be gotten through focus groups, dry market research and sanitized/compromised data resulting from bad news being spun as it travels up the silo to your top marketing executives.

There is a dearth of readily available information about B2B social media marketing and I believe this is for good reason. There aren't huge numbers of success stories out there and those companies who have figured it out and are meeting with success aren't talking because they at a competitive advantage until everyone else catches up.

Don't fear. The environment isn't really all that intimidating and the technologies and platforms that make social media exchanges possible are easier than ever to master.

(continued below...)

With this all in mind I'd like to humbly offer a few suggestions about social media to those who have an interest in using social media for B2B marketing.

1. Provide value.
The best social networking abounds with information that others find interesting, informative or otherwise useful. Social networking for entertainment's sake alone just doesn't really work for any business trying to seriously use it as a marketing tool. Ok, so you can entertain. So what? Unless you are selling entertainment services this ought not be your primary objective. Entertaining or capturing attention without being able to move somebody to some sort of action in the direction of ultimately making a purchase decision is not marketing. Don't engage in social media marketing simply to entertain or grab attention. Offer useful information and build communities that are focused on creating value for others. When there is value there is potential for meaningful exchange of value.

If successful, hope to gradually build a loyal following of people who you'll also consider resources. Yes, I'm aware I said "loyal" not large. Yes, I know that somebody wants to see numbers that support ROI, but would you rather have a huge audience with little or no measurable business impact or a small audience that moves the sales needle a little bit or provides valuable direct insights about how your customers think, feel and act?

2. All things in moderation.
If you send many tweets per day or blog constantly I will come to form one of only a few opinions of you. You are either: a) Not employed full-time and have lots of spare time on your hands b) Are not very busy in your day job and have lots of free time, c) You are a business owner and your business is very slow or not very successful and you fill your time with blogging, tweeting and/or logging into social networking sites or d) You are employed by somebody full- or part-time to engage in social media marketing on behalf of some business entity and you are part of the advertising effort. For you serial B2B tweeters, bloggers and social marketers out there, you can decide for yourselves if you like the fact that I have categorized you into one of these boxes. If I have put you into one of these boxes then I've probably also blocked your tweets and removed you from my RSS feeds already.

3a. Stop Twittering about Twitter (and stop blogging about blogging).
I get it. Twitter is new and we're all still trying to figure out how to best leverage it but how about figuring out more ways to create professional value for me and tweet more about that rather than just updating me about current Twitter usage statistics and trends? How about tweeting about your core values, your business philosophy and case studies about how you've helped other businesses? If you are a Twitterholic, Twitter-centric tweeter twit with nothing much to offer, then I'll either not follow you in the first place or end up blocking your tweets. Any gems or thoughtful insights you have about my areas of interest or your area of expertise get lost in the noise. Just because you think you've mastered the medium doesn't mean you are cool or that you are communicating your core message effectively .

3b. Maybe Twitter can create a special, confined area where self-proclaimed Twitter and social media experts can talk amongst themselves about Twitter and social media. It would make finding other useful B2B information easier for the rest of us and we'd know where to go when we need a dose of Twitterandsocialmedia commentary. (Yes, I know I wrote that as all one word.) Until that happens how about we all try to cut down on the noise?

4. Seek to extend conversations offline or outside of the social medium by being a good, genuine community member.
I truly appreciate those people and businesses who share my interests and who further our exchanges both online and in offline, private discussions. Those calls from other marketing professionals who just want to bounce around ideas will always be taken. Those emails from people asking for small bits of advice or a point in the right direction will always be responded to. Calls and emails from editors, authors and practitioners? If I have some expertise that can help you with your project I'll be happy to help if you are a good community member and have followed the online conversation. Do you offer some products or services that might benefit my followers or people in my networks? Let's talk. Even if you merely have a passing interest in what I'm doing then I'll give you 5 minutes of my time if you are genuine. In fact, I'll bet that if you start becoming a good, trusted social media community member then you'll start getting those calls and emails too.

5. Comment and participate in other peoples' related blogs and social media spaces.
I appreciate comments on blog posts, Twitter tweets and forum messages that are on-topic and further the discussion or ask for clarification. I don't care if they play to your strengths and make me aware of your products and services as long as they are helpful, on-topic and not overly commercial.

6. Give rather than expect to receive.
I have no use (or time) for those people who are lazy or do nothing but use social media to send self-serving messages and content spam. If you are sending me never-ending solicitations about your business before giving me anything at all of value then I've probably already blocked you, put you in my spam blocker, "defriended" you or otherwise banished you from my digital life. I've come to be able to spot students easily online. How? Because I've gotten so many unsolicited questions from students that are obviously from professors. The questions were obviously cut and pasted from a marketing project or assignment sheet and sent to me and I'm asked to provide my answer along with supporting case studies and examples. These students are just plain lazy. Business marketers? We can be just as lazy at times. Just because we think that we have related or remotely-related products or services to offer doesn't mean we should approach people from out of the blue and ask for an order. That is just plain obnoxious. Further the public discussion or put something of value on the table first and then you'll have your prospect's attention.

7. Create useful and unique content.
We all appreciate those who consistently create content that is useful to us. When you do we will follow your tweets, read your online posts and more closely listen to what you have to say. Create your own content and share it freely. This is especially important in a business-to-business environment where people just want you to make them look good in front of their bosses.

8. Don't be a middle man.
I used to appreciate those who did not necessarily create content but at least directed me to useful third-party content but I'm starting to appreciate these people less and less in my digital life. They are simply intermediaries who don't add anything and can easily be bypassed. Social media is all about disintermediation after all so I don't need anyone to merely regurgitate information from others.

9. Play it low key.
Heavily advertising your social media marketing efforts goes against the social media culture. I'm more likely to find you if a colleague I already know and trust suggests you, your tweets, your blog, your online video or some other useful resource that you've created online. I'll seek you out when I have a current project or pressing need but in these cases I'm also probably going to review your website and contact you directly rather than start following you on social media sites. If I have a long-term need, general interest or if I'm just starting to understand my business problem then I might start following your social media marketing activities but don't expect me to make a quick purchase or fast decision. Once I've found you I'm going to find others like you and follow you all for a while to see who strikes a chord.

10. Make it personal.
I don't want to hear from a business entity or a brand. I want to hear from a real person. Put a name and a face on your business and allow that person to speak in their own voice. I guarantee that if your content is generated by a team, approved by a committee or passed by your legal department first that it is pretty dry, boring stuff that is not compelling in any way. Yes we're in the business-to-business space but interactions are still person-to-person.

11. Define the strategy behind your social media marketing efforts before you start.
Remember, you are trying to attract, engage and provide value to the audience that is right for you in the places that they gather and socialize online. You are trying to establish yourself as a thought leader and a trusted resource in your category. You are trying to be a valuable resource even if it might not lead to a huge increase in sales right away. Make sure your strategy is correct and then choose the right measurables that are tied to that strategy. You might be tempted to become distracted by lots of other data you gather along the way but if you make it clear from the start that you are making decisions based upon those metrics directly tied to your strategy then you'll stay true to what is most important to your business. Keep in mind that the first step in your social media strategy is figuring out if your target audience engages in social media in the first place. They might not so don't go chasing B2B ghosts just because everyone else is doing it.

There you have it. 11 things that I wish B2B marketers would keep in mind as they engage in social media marketing. I hope at least one of them helps you with your social media marketing efforts.

Oh, and another thing while I'm on the subject.

12. To that girl who has found me on Twitter: I am flattered that you want to find a boyfriend who can sponsor you as a visitor from Russia and bring you to this country. I'm almost embarrassed that you think the right boyfriend might be me. Unfortunately my wife doesn't let me date anyone else and I'm not so sure we would be compatible anyway. I also think there might be some scam involved or at the very least it is just plain creepy that you want to follow my tweets so you've been blocked. I don't want just anyone following my tweets just to make it look like I have a huge following. Who I attract reflects on me almost as much as what I have to say.

What's my point you, dear reader, might ask?

You can bet I'll check out who is following your business in social media before I choose to deal with you. Who you attract is almost as important as what you have to say. Why? Because by choosing to do business with you I am identifying with all those other people attracted to your brand. I'm potentially putting my business reputation on the line if I build a case for dealing with your company and I don't won't to put my professional reputation on the line for a business with a sad or questionable online following. You can't always control who is following you but understand that you will be judged by the crowd you hang out with. Attracting the right audience is all about understanding your brand attributes and targeting your audience correctly. Properly articulate and translate your brand values in social media and you will attract followers who are also aligned with or aspire to those same values. If you appeal to and attract the wrong people then you probably have a fundamental misunderstanding of your business, you product or your market or your chosen communication strategy.

and lastly...

13. Keep your promises.
This one requires no further explanation at all.

See? This social media marketing stuff is actually a throwback to the good old days of traditional marketing, isn't it?

Don't be scared or intimidated by it.

How to use promotional items to grow your business

2009-07-31T23:38:00.001-04:00

How to Use Promotional Items to Grow Your Small Business -- powered by eHow.com

See also:
Tradeshow give aways

Is Twitter destined to be the second bird to be killed by the same stone?

2009-07-14T23:37:00.006-04:00

Remember the late 1990's when Web 1.0 was going crazy and website properties were spectacularly overvalued because they claimed to have “first mover advantage” and since they were dot-coms they could argue to investors that all they needed to do was build traffic first and then figure out how to monitize it to become profitable later? Remember those failed entrepreneurs who thought that simply building huge brand awareness was enough to ensure business success somewhere down the road?

In my initial days of getting to know Twitter I've found a tidbit on their website that made me fear that perhaps Twitter has forgotten the lessons of the past. In reading the About Twitter Q&A section I clicked on the link that asked, “How do you make money on Twitter?”, that is, how does Twitter itself make money?

The answer was startling.

It stated, in part, that “we are holding off on implementation [of generating revenue] for now because we don't want to distract ourselves from the more important work at hand...[w]hile our business model is in a research phase, we spend more money than we make.”

Uh oh. A business model that loses money and is in research phase after the product has launched sounds like an unsustainable business model to me.

As I've written previously, high brand awareness alone is nearly meaningless unless it comes along with strategic brand awareness that creates brand preference. Of course, this all assumes that a brand is profitable to begin with and that the strong brand preference leads to profitability and long term sustainability. Nobody is arguing that Twitter has not built a huge, passionate base of users who love the brand. What is arguable is whether or not that would have happened if it wasn't literally a free-for-all.

The first and foremost responsibility of business managers is to generate enough revenue to remain in operation. Organizations can aspire to wonderful, altruistic and admirable deeds and hope to develop the fanciest whiz bang technology but if they cannot find a way to remain in operation first then all of their efforts are for naught. Aspiration and hope are not business models.

Twitter is not alone on this one.

Other social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are also building massive audiences with no sustaining revenue streams. What happens when users must pay some fee to use these services, pay for some of the content or if users must not only tolerate but embrace advertisements on these sites? If advertisers do not see profits from their ads, how will users feel if these Web 2.0 services compile and package information about users' preferences and behaviors and simply sell that information to companies who would like to target these people with their products and services? Creating a huge base of followers for a free service is relatively easy in the scheme of things. Getting somebody to pay for it all later after they've been accustomed to getting it for free usually upsets the apple cart.

Sure, Twitter and other social networking sites are great but who is going to pay for them? Sooner or later dollars are going to have to change hands to keep the servers plugged in and the lights turned on.

Can you envision a revenue stream that will be successful for Twitter? Would you pay to send your tweets? To read tweets? Would you willingly and purposefully transact business with advertisers on Twitter in order to keep the service running? Would you tolerate information about you being sold to third parties in order to generate revenue? Who owns your Twitter content? (Remember, Facebook recently had to do an abrupt about-face when they changed their terms of use to say they owned all content and reserved the right to do with it what they wished. Users revolted and the new policy was quickly changed.)

I'm eager to hear my followers' thoughts on this one. How does Twitter avoid a repeat of a Web 1.0 bubble burst?

Book review: Perspectives on Branding

2009-07-14T00:09:00.001-04:00

Jason Miletsky and Genevieve Smith each separately answer 90 questions about branding in this work, Smith from the corporate side and Miletsky from the agency side. While the two have very different writing styles and experiences, the narrative weaves itself into a compelling book that comprehensively covers business branding as a topic.

Miletsky's style is less formal and a few times in the book he uses words and phrases that I don't ordinarily find in business books (or in polite company) while Smith is clearly more formal in her answers. Her responses are drawn almost, if not, entirely from her experience at Washington Mutual (annoyingly referred to as "WaMu" throughout the book) and his answers come from his experiences at his agency, PFS Marketwyse.

As I read each question I first thought about how I would answer the question and then compared that to how the authors responded. In all but a few cases I was satisfied with the responses that each author gave and was fascinated at times by the different perspectives. What perhaps was most refreshing was the interplay and how it affects the reader. You will find yourself thinking about the questions and the branding process and then you'll look for the nuggets of information to be gained from each author. There are plenty of nuggets to be had. The fact that you are thinking about the process means the book accomplishes what a good book is supposed to do.

This is a very good book that is easily digestible and is not pretentious in its approach toward the topic. It brings business branding to a level that is approachable by most any business manager and that in and of itself is quite a feat. I recommend this work.

Cast your net wide or narrow?

2009-07-02T22:51:00.002-04:00

I could launch into a discussion about the pros and cons of marketing to niche or targeted markets vs. broad-based marketing but I won't. I'm just glad Woodie cares enough about us to offer sugar free fudge.

Happy Independence Day to my U.S. followers.

Brand debate: Are people brands?

2009-06-19T02:07:00.000-04:00

Check out the debate at www.BrandStrategyInsider.com.

The Secret of Marketing in a Recession (guest post)

2009-06-17T22:50:00.002-04:00

The Secret of Marketing in a Recession
by Boyd Blackwood

Though it seems to make sense to cut expenditures in lean economic times, 80 years of data proves that cutting marketing to save money is a losing proposition.

Way back in 1927, the Harvard Business Review published a report tracking 200 companies from the 1923 recession on. The results were clear. The companies that didn't cut back on marketing - those that advertised the most during that period - enjoyed the biggest sales increases.

Another later study measuring the effects of business-to-business advertising looked closely at the recessions of 1949, 1954, 1958 and 1961. In these tough times, sales and profits dropped for companies that reduced their advertising. In addition, when the recovery came about (as it always will) those same companies lagged behind those that did NOT cut back.

That was proven again by McGraw-Hill Research when examining the financial performance of 600 companies in 16 industries during the recession of 1981-1982. The report, published in Laboratory of Advertising Report 5262, showed that sales for companies which aggressively marketed during the recession rose 256% over those that cut back - and stayed growing for up to three years AFTER the economic downturn.

A Cahners Publishing Company study in 1980 and a Center for Research and Development study in 1990 both concluded that those companies which maintain or increase their advertising during recessionary times stand to gain the most market share during that period (an average of 1.5 points.)

Coopers & Lybrand and Business Science International put it this way in their joint report published by Penton Media in 1993: "Businesses that maintain aggressive marketing programs during a recession, outperform companies that rely more on cost cutting measures. A strong marketing program enables a firm to solidify its customer base, take business away from less aggressive competitors, and position itself for future growth during the recovery."

There is a book of such research findings entitled Advertising in a Recession by Bernard Ryan, Jr., published in 1999. But these examples will probably suffice to tell the story.

The word "recession" has its origins in the Latin for "move backward." In an economic recession, when those around them "move backward," smart marketers do just the opposite. They STEP FORWARD.

Boyd Blackwood, Longtime creative director and marketer

Free resources for marketers on a limited budget at my blog: Smart Marketing on Any Budget http://www.smartmarketing4.me

Tweet me @bb_smart

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Boyd_Blackwood http://EzineArticles.com/?The-Secret-of-Marketing-in-a-Recession&id=2472619

Get off the Google AdWords Crack

2009-06-16T22:15:00.002-04:00

Hubspot is offering a free webinar, Marketing Detox: How to Get Off Google AdWords PPC Crack - Free Webinar that promises to discuss ways to bring traffic to your site beyond just PPC using Google AdWords. The webinar on June 26 promises to discuss:

Why SEO is a better long-term strategy than Google Adwords PPC (pay-per-click)and how to balance the two

SEO basics to optimize your website on your own

Inbound marketing strategies to generate leads efficiently

How to combine SEO, blogging, and social media for exponential results

Best of all, the webinar is free but registration in advance is required.

Book review: Escaping the Black Hole: Minimizing the damage from the marketing-sales disconnect

2009-06-10T23:24:00.002-04:00

Fellow Virginian Schmonsees effectively describes the disconnect between the marketing and sales functions and why this disconnect exists in the first place. He then prescribes the cure.

The cure is contained in his conceptual framework of managing core intellectual assets much like Work In Process in a manufacturing environment. Imagine if you will defining every benefit, every value statement and every bit of information about your products and services in bite-sized chunks and keeping these in an inventory silo. Then imagine being able to pull, combine and deliver these assets to prospects and customers at the very moment these assets are best able to demonstrate the value you can deliver to your customers -- and doing it all in the most compelling way based on how each specific customer prefers to make purchasing decisions. Marketing creates the customer value and creates all the supporting materials and arguments in an a la carte, standardized and sanctioned fashion and then combines, compiles and delivers these materials to Sales exactly when and how they need them to make the most compelling case of how your firm will deliver value to your customers. Part marketing, part branding, part sales, part information technology, part inventory management but 100% focused on delivering value to your customers in a systematic way.

That is the essence of this book.

This is an invaluable resource for managers and executives in all mid- to large-sized companies. I highly recommend it.