Up to this point, social media strategy has focused on one brand and/or one location. Blog posts, tweets, and Facebook updates could be conveniently managed from one place.  Not anymore.

Social networking has jumped into the mainstream and your company is probably faced with a unique problem: your customers want a relationship with their neighborhood location not HQ.  Or, they are deeply engaged with a specific brand but could care less about the sponsoring brand.  Think Corvette vs. GM.

Your organization still needs a cohesive message; but how can you allow for the local flavor and personality that will attract engaged customers?

Unique Personality Plus Cohesive Message

Like every good marketing strategy, the solution begins with the interaction between the brand and the customer.  In this case your social media strategy should address the needs of your audience, market-by-market, brand-by-brand.  Next you must have a frank conversation about who can best serve that need.

These are tough decisions, so here are a few pointers to help guide the discussion:

1. What’s the Topic? Decide what type of conversation the local unit should sponsor and encourage.  Decide what topics are best suited for local responses and which should be handled by the corporate team.
2. Agree on the Numbers: Get a firm handle on which metrics you will use to evaluate performance.  Use these metrics as the foundation for incentive plans to encourage brand managers and local directors to focus on growing their socially-connected audience.
3. Conduct a Content Audit: Understand where content for your local platform is coming from and who will repurpose it for your community.  Remember that your corporate team can moderate content but you should push for local content creation whenever possible.
4. Follow an Editorial Calendar: Use an editorial calendar to keep everyone organized and on message.  An editorial calendar makes sure that every social media extension has content that reinforces the brand and attracts new followers and fans.
5. Create a Style and Procedures Guide: It pays to create clear processes for creating, editing, and moderating content.  Even if full editorial control is centrally maintained, your brands and local locations will appreciate knowing the guidelines.
6. Spread and Deploy Best Practices: Work on a plan to that will regularly pinpoint effective tactics and quickly spread them to other platforms.  Consistent innovators should be invited to train other brands/units on what works and how to improve.

With proper planning, your team can be instrumental in setting up highly effective and engaged communities across your organization’s locations and brands.

We’re curious, how are you managing your multi-location/brand social media strategy?  What challenges are you facing?

In May, our client, Pure Michigan, saw record-breaking numbers in its online marketing efforts.

• Facebook: Pure Michigan more than doubled its fan count from January 2010, soaring to 50,000
• Twitter: Pure Michigan broke the 5,000 follower mark, less than 12 months after beginning on the platform
• Visits: Visits to their main site, michigan.org, were up 26% compared to 2009
• Clickthroughs: Clickthroughs to Michigan business tourism websites went up 15% year over year.

While the numbers are impressive, we know that it’s about more than that. We’re immensely proud of the quality of the Pure Michigan social media platforms, and of the entire marketing program.

“We could not be more pleased with the increase of Facebook fans and Twitter followers for Pure Michigan,” said George Zimmermann, Vice President of Travel Michigan, a business unit of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. “As summer travel takes wing, our fans are sharing their favorite vacation spots and experiences, which we believe helps influence interest and travel decision making in Michigan’s favor.”

May also brought the results of a recent customer satisfaction survey conducted by ForeSee Results, which showed that nearly three quarters of the Pure Michigan Facebook fans learned about places and activities in Michigan they did not know about. In addition, a third of those fans were inspired to travel to or within Michigan after reading the posts.

We have been honored to partner with Pure Michigan in developing and executing their online marketing efforts. As the tools and landscape change, and the travel market becomes more competitive, we have remained focused on building a long-term, strategically integrated plan that maximizes the impact of each channel. We remain relentlessly focused on driving results that support Pure Michigan’s overall goals.

P.S. If you haven’t seen this year’s new Pure Michigan television and radio ads, you definitely want to check them out. You can watch all of their spots anytime you like on the Pure Michigan YouTube channel.

Just in case you missed it, check out Tim Schaden’s presentation at Future Midwest.

Tim Schaden Presentation at FutureMidwest 2010 from Kevin Smith on Vimeo.

Click here to watch the rest of the presentations here.

I have the greatest friends in the world.  We listen to each other, laugh together, cry together, and help each other out any way we can.  The foundation of this friendship is simple – we are always on each other’s side.  There is no competition among us – we genuinely want the best for each other.  No one is trying to “win”.  I hurt when they hurt, I smile when they smile, I feel enormous joy and pride when they succeed, and I’ll tell anyone who will listen how fantastic they are.

I think most brands want this same kind of relationship with their consumers.  They want their market to go out and tell people how great they are.  They want their consumers to defend them against attacks.  So why doesn’t this happen?

It’s the us vs. them mentality that so many brands have developed.  The “we know what they need better than they do” thought process that’s led to a widespread mistrust of brands and advertising by consumers.  And we all know, you can’t have friendship without trust.

It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

It’s not a contest – you are on your consumer’s side (and if you’re not, you’ve got way bigger problems).  The reverse is also true – consumers want to be on your side.  They want products and services to make their lives better and easier.  So stop.  Stop thinking of them as targets, or markets, or even consumers.  Start thinking of them as people.  Even better, start thinking of them as your friends. 

Once you have that mindset, it gets simpler.  Now it’s about friendship.  That’s something you know how to do.  Now you can start looking at your product lineup and your marketing with an empathetic eye, and ask these questions:

• Are you doing the right thing for your friends? 
• Are you treating your friends the way you want to be treated? 
• Are you listening to your friends (really listening, not that fake head nodding kind)? 
• Are you giving your friends a safe place to share their fears, concerns and questions?
• Are you soothing those fears, addressing those concerns, and answering those questions in the way your friends need you to?
• Are you talking with your friends about more than just yourself?
• Are you willing to help out your friends, without needing or wanting anything in return?
• Are you working every day to maintain and strengthen your friendship?

When you adopt this mindset, the rest gets easier.  It becomes almost intuitive what kind of products and services you need to develop, and how to sell them.  The best part?  You already know how to do this.  You are already a giver and receiver of friendship.  You’ve had great friends, you’ve had crappy friends, and you know the difference. 

This does NOT mean that your friends are always right – no one ever is.  This doesn’t mean that you scrap good ideas because some of your friends don’t agree.  Like other friendships, sometimes the best thing you can do is stand your ground.  Just be sure that when you choose this path, you deliver the message in a way that your friends can understand.

I can’t think of a better example of a brand really embracing this idea than Zappos.  Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, has this philosophy when it comes to doing business: “We want to build a personal emotional connection with our customers, to create happiness so our customers tell their friends and family. Each phone call is a branding opportunity.”  It’s this point of view that has kept Zappos.com at the forefront – both in marketing circles, and in their own market. 

It’s time to end the battle.  No one wins if you keep fighting.

Image via Wikipedia

The Annual Michigan Governor’s Conference (#MIGC10) will be kicking off tomorrow at the iconic Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island (May 6-7th). Every year, the Michigan Lodging & Tourism Association, Travel Michigan, and MSU co-sponsor this terrific all-tourism event.

I’m thrilled to attend this year for a couple of reasons…

First, who wouldn’t want to spend a few days on Mackinac in spring? The beauty is breathtaking and a welcome break from the day-to-day routine.

Second, (and most importantly), I will be bringing four experts from Fluency Media to discuss the power of Social Media for travel destination marketing. For the last year, we’ve had the privilege of partnering with Travel Michigan to manage Pure Michigan’s blog and Facebook fan page. It’s been an incredible experience and we can’t wait to share what we’ve learned.

I would love the chance to speak with you too! If you will be attending the conference, stop in on the Social Media breakout session. We’ll be spending much of our time answering questions from attendees. Either you can take the microphone or DM your question via Twitter to @fluencymedia. We’ll do our best to answer as many questions as possible!

By the way, if you can’t attend, you can follow the conference on Twitter with hashtag #MIGC10.

Are you going to be there? What are you looking forward to seeing and hearing?

We’ve learned that the hardest part of getting started with Social Media is…well…getting started!  It’s time consuming to track down all of the instructions, tips, and how-to’s needed to get your program up and running.  So we’ve created this guide to give you a hand…enjoy (and come back for updates).

By the way, if you need a resource then leave a comment and we’ll see what we can do!

Facebook:

How to Set-up A Facebook Account (Howcast)

Twitter

How to Set-up a Twitter Account

Blogging

How to Set-up A Blog

Part of what we pride ourselves on here at Fluency Media is our diversity.  Each of us sees things from a different angle, based on our own experiences and roles.  This diversity of thought allows each of us to bring something unique to the table, and helps us assist our clients in the best way possible.

Some of our team recently attended the FutureMidwest conference in Royal Oak, MI, and true to form, each of us took something different away from it.  Read on to see what it is that each of learned:

Tim – Chief Executive Officer

• Jay Adelson was right.  Boundaries are dangerous and need breaking for innovation and significant changes to be achieved. It’s like my ski coach used to say, “if you never fall, you aren’t going fast enough”!  Try and fail.  Try again.  Repeat – you will learn, grow and win.
• Need is king.  Decide what the need is and then set the strategy.  Tactics will follow.  I learned a lot about this from my ride with Chris Wilshire from eggstrategy.  They say each product and service category has a few jobs; a car must make someone feel more confident, keep them and theirs safe, express their style or status…  Then the marketing has to convey the story of how the thing does the job of filling the need.
• Sam Valenti’s presentation was the exemplification of ‘an essential human truth about engagement’ – expressing your passion deeply and sincerely without reservation will engender deep, sincere and authentic engagement in return.  While it was mentioned repeatedly through the conference I finally felt it in my bones when Sam did his thing with site, sound and story.

Ivan – Chief Marketing Officer

• Detroit: We have a lot to be proud of in Detroit. There are so many of us that “get it” and the energy of so many of us in one room was fantastic. As proud as I am of the work we’ve done for Michigan, I was equally proud for Ford, GM, and the other natives who are really making the transition to marketing in the new world.
• Integration: Yes, we talked about integration but so did everyone else. Even if it wasn’t overt in other discussions, integration was present everywhere. It’s what Tim said: social forces integration and I think we see that happening. Of course, there’s a difference between doing it and doing it great. A lot of folks are trending toward the latter.
• Video: Video is on the verge of a major revolution. Both Blip TV’s discussion & Ford’s Fiesta Movement campaign are the tip of the iceberg. Could crowdsourcing mean the end of ad agencies as we know it?

Stan – Vice President of Marketing

• Social Media is a “retention” tool with long-term implications for “Awareness” interruption advertising. While Awareness is (and will remain) a critical component, the benefits of empowering existing customers is too great to ignore.  Joe Jaffe nailed it and it was great getting the chance to hear his thoughts on this (and other great topics) at his Tweetea.
• Fortune 500 companies have a real stake and advantage in this space.  It’s incredible watching Ford and GM charge into this space using their specific competitive advantages.  For decades, automakers have relied on mega-budgets to force awareness, now I sincerely believe they “get” that the landscape has changed and power lies in the hands of their customers. Ford’s “guerilla” social videos showed that a Fortune 100 can scale the benefits of social media to a gargantuan scale.  GM is staying right with them with a consistent voice that resonates on all their social platforms.
• The “conversation” is still long on theory but short on quantifiable and repeatable results.  Ken Burbary did an incredible job adding some teeth to the metrics conversation but by and large we are still in the “evangelism” stage.  With that said, I felt that the participants in Future Midwest are incredibly close to crossing the chasm with Social Media.

David – Vice President of Operations

• Joe Jaffe confirmed our beliefs – it’s time to flip that funnel. I found myself nodding to a lot of Mr. Jaffe’s presentation.  He put it into terms far more eloquent than I could ever achieve, but we’ve been operating under a lot of the same fundamentals:  Retention is the new Acquisition; acknowledgement of and dialogue with your customers can be really profitable.
• Ford and GM have embraced social in a big way. I was truly impressed with how the car companies are deploying shoestring budgets to significant effect.  Scott Monty (@ScottMonty) from Ford showed off elements of an online-only campaign for the new Ford Fiesta as well as some really hilarious viral video spots.   Chris Barger from GM reiterated the old adage:  You have two ears and one mouth – use them in proportion.  This has never been more true than in the social media space, where GM is doing a nice job of one-on-one customer service.
• Michigan in general, and Detroit in particular, are on the verge of a tech renaissance. FutureMidwest demonstrated in so many ways why I feel confident that down-and-out Michigan is due for a serious comeback. By refocusing that work ethic and scrappy attitude that once made us the Car Capital and the Arsenal of Democracy, and as long as we can maintain and nurture the creative class, we are capable of building a serious tech community on par with anywhere in the world. I’m so glad to be here.

Susy – Executive & Sales Assistant

• Common message: Listen to your audience, THEN define your goal and objectives
• EXECUTE (One action is better than no action at all – not a new concept, yet easy to forget)
• Focus on the influencers of the communities/audiences you are trying to reach as they will help you get to the goal line faster
• It is ok to dream BIG– the field has been leveled. We now have access to many free digital tools to make it happen.

Trisha – Online Marketing Coordinator

• I was right to stay.  After college, I made a choice to stay in the Detroit area, when so many of my friends left.  This conference reminded me why I chose to stay – there is a raw passion here that you can’t find anywhere else.  I’m excited to be a part of the renaissance.
• People matter again.  It seems that for a while there, the advertising/marketing world lost sight of the fact that there were real people on the other end of the sales cycle, and had them reduced to numbers. Those people have real thoughts, feelings, and circumstances that drive their actions.  It’s nice to see the focus shift to understanding and listening to people, and finding real ways to address their needs.
• Being honest and real in every communication goes a long way.  I was nervous about this conference – I had been talking with so many other attendees and presenters online for months, but wasn’t sure what to expect when meeting them in person.  I was pleasantly surprised to find each one to be just as kind and generous as they were on Twitter and Facebook.

I’ve just been thinking about my time at the FutureMidwest Conference last week and one word keeps coming to mind:

Awesome.

The venue was great and the the attendees at FutureMidwest managed to make the entire city of Royal Oak crackle with energy. I went right after Joseph Jaffe so I had to big shoes to fill! Anyway, the presentation went great but I’m more excited about the energy that the digital community is bringing to the online space. We are definitely at a turning point when all of the pieces of the puzzle are coming together.

The amazing part is that every strategy discussed at the conference  focuses on creating authentic relationships with customers. And, for the first time all of the tools in the digital toolbox from email to social media are at the spot where they can be integrated in a way that makes business sense. As digital marketers we’ve always intuitively focused on the empowered customer but it’s taken a while for mainstream marketers to come on board. Future Midwest is evidence that at least in Michigan – marketers get it.

Here are a few highlights:

Joe Jaffe continues to evangelize his fascinating point of view on how to change the DNA of your organization to focus on retaining your best customers

Scott Monty showed that even a behemoth like Ford can be agile and turn passion into digital gold

Blagica’s s story about her life and how it supplied the raw material for her blog was probably the most eye opening education on how a successful blog comes together.

All of this in the first few hours.

Great stuff, I can’t wait to see how this discussion evolves over the next year.

If you were at FutureMidwest, go ahead and leave me a comment and let me know what you thought.

I’m super proud of Michigan right now.

Even though the media has been lashing our State about the economy, employment, and the loss of manufacturing – I’m happy to say that our digital marketing community is standing strong.

For proof, look no further than the Future Midwest Conference being held in Royal Oak this week. I’m proud to join with other digital media leaders and speak about how to win in this new era of Marketing. The crew at Future Midwest has done an incredible job attracting some top-notch thinkers and I’m sure that everyone will benefit from attending.

You can get all the details at www.FutureMidwest.com

Plus, I have to point out that Future Midwest is also attracting tourism and business interest from outside the state which will make our client the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC)  happy!

I am also looking forward to speaking with business leaders about their marketing challenges. I will be giving a quick talk at the conference on Friday and will be attending most of the events – so go ahead and drop me a comment if you would like to meet-up.

After the conference, I’ll post my thoughts and what I’ve learned. If you can’t attend the Future Midwest conference but have a question then go ahead and leave a comment below and I will try my best to get an answer for you.

Talk to you soon!

Google’s Content Network is one of the largest publishing networks on the internet today, with literally millions of websites displaying Adwords ads.  I’ve been a fan of the Content Network since it launched around 2003, although many advertisers found it to be fraught with low-quality traffic.

Google has done a lot to clean up the network and make it more robust.  That said, it doesn’t work the same way as search.  There are a few techniques you need to know to be run a successful pay per click advertising campaign on the Content Network.

Set Up Separate Content Network Campaigns.

The default setting in Adwords lumps Content campaigns in with search campaigns.  While this is the best way for Google to make more money, it’s not the best way for advertisers to generate the most leads.  Everything about Content is different from search:  from keywords to ad copy to optimization techniques.  Therefore, a distinct Content campaign is a must.

Go Broad, But Keep Ad Groups Tightly Focused.

In Content, you’re not bidding on keywords.  You’re telling Google what type of websites you want your ads to display on.  It’s okay to bid on really broad terms that you’d never consider in search, such as “travel,” “running shoes,” “luxury hotel,” and the like.

What is not okay is to lump all of these broad terms into the same ad group. (It’s not okay to do this in search, either – but that’s another post.)  Ad groups in Content should contain 5-10 similar keywords, and ad copy should be relevant to those keywords.

Get Crazy With Your Ad Copy.

With search ads, it’s important to use a direct, offer-based ad.  Direct marketing techniques apply when writing search ads – make it clear that your ad fits the term the searcher typed into Google (or Yahoo or whatever).  With Content, no one is searching – instead, ads display on web pages containing content that’s related to your ad and the keywords you chose.  Visitors aren’t on the site to find something – they’re there to read the content.  Your job is to make your ad so interesting that they (a) see it and (b) click on it.

This is the time to try something crazy.  Ad headlines like “You’re Missing Out” or “Don’t Get Fooled” or “Coffee Secrets Exposed” are really effective in Content.  There’s a great tutorial on writing effective Content ads in the e-book Customers Now, written by my good friend David Szetela.

Test The Remarketing Waters.

Remarketing (or retargeting, as it’s also known) has become all the rage – I think I’ve seen 3-4 presentations on it in the last 3 months.  In a nutshell, remarketing uses cookies to tag visitors to your site who visited a certain page and/or took a certain action, and serves specialized ads to them on Content sites later on during the cookie duration (usually at least 30 days).  Most ad networks offer this feature; however, they’re usually done on a CPM (cost per thousand impressions) basis and they often have a high minimum spend commitment.

But if you just want to test this feature, Google has come to your rescue with their Remarketing program.  It’s all CPC, and there’s no minimum – you just have to create your ad (it’s image ads only, not text) and put the tracking code on your site’s pages, and you’re off and running.

If you’ve shied away from Content in the past, and you’re looking to generate more leads from your pay per click advertising campaign, now is a great time to give it a try.