Buzz Saw

Who Am I? What Am I Doing? Where Am I Doing It At?

Bill Balderaz — 2010-11-24T14:20:27-06:00

No, those aren’t the questions I’m forced to ask myself after another late night at Byrne’s Pub. Rather, that’s the evolution of how we are using social media as consumers. It’s also a roadmap for how we as marketers need to start connecting with our audiences.

Five years ago we got on MySpace and LinkedIn and we claimed our identity on the Internet. We told the world who we were. We talked about our education, our jobs and our favorite rock bands. Then we started talking about what we were doing. We began using Twitter and Facebook to document our days via status updates. We said that we were listening to a pitch from a new vendor, or working on a pitch for a new client, or grooming our Great Pyrenees. Now with the advent of FourSquare and Facebook Places we say tell the world where we are pitching or grooming or shopping.

Where is this taking this? A few weeks ago I had the chance to hear John Battelle (whose name is usually preceded, with good reason, by the term “Internet Visionary.”) talk about what the social, mobile, local world holds in store for us. John’s vision went something like this:

I walk into that trendy clothing retailer in the nice mall. I check in on my Blackberry. The check in service knows I am connected to my 14-year-old daughter via Facebook. And it reminds me that she has a birthday next week. It knows that she checked into this same store and bought those one jeans last week. Then it directs me to the sweater that matches those jeans. No, Dad, one more shelf over (the GPS component on my BlackBerry tells me). I find the sweater, in her size. And then I’m directed to matching boots. I scan the QRS code on the sweater and boots with my Blackberry’s camera. My Visa card is charged and I walk out the door. My daughter gets the gifts she wants. The retailer gets a sale and happy customer. The manufacturer moves product unlikely to be returned and I turn a normally dreaded experience into a painless one.

Why I Don't Worry About Facebook Privacy and Security

Bill Balderaz — 2010-11-10T14:48:29-06:00

Today I gave my credit card to a stranger when I bought a sub.

A year ago I sat in an emergency room while a dozen strangers all recited their social security numbers, addresses and medical conditions around me.

I’ve told my mother’s maiden name to a customer service rep at my mobile phone company. There is a cabinet in every office of every company in the country full of bank account numbers. My house sits empty every weekday from 8-3 pm. A thousand merchants have copies of my signature.

So no, I’m not worried about security and privacy on social media.

See, the offline world is full of more security holes than the online world could ever be. Could that waiter copy down my credit card numbers? Or could a patient at the doctor’s office memorize my social security number? Could that customer service rep fully take over my identity? You bet they could.

Sure, Facebook accounts get hacked. And Twitter accounts. And LinkedIn accounts. And it’s a terrible nightmare and headache when they do, but the fact is, the risk of personal, financial and healthcare information being compromised is much greater in the real world than it will ever be in the virtual one. Does that mean you should be careless online or downplay the risks? Absolutely not. But saying you won’t use Facebook because you’re worried about privacy and security doesn’t hold water if you have ever paid a bill with a credit card, talked in public place about your health or held a job that involved leaving for work at the same time every day.

For those online breaches that actually do happen, I’d be willing to bet it’s not an evil genius computer hacker getting into your account. Once someone has your password, he has full run of your social media accounts. No matter how many security measures Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter have internally, if your password is written on a Post It Note by your laptop, is the name of your cat or the year you were born all the security experts in the world won’t keep your account safe.

It's Not What You Tell The Bloggers, It's What They Tell The World

Bill Balderaz — 2010-08-24T09:40:31-05:00

In college I was a bit awkward. I remember one night in particular. There was a beautiful girl at an outdoor party. After many hours and draft beers I worked up the the nerve to approach her. I took the direct, honest and sincere approach.

"Hi, my name is Bill. I'm not cool or smooth, and I won't use a line on you. But I would love the chance to just talk and get to know you," I said as my mullet blew in the Bowling Green night air.

"No! I won't have sex with you!" she screamed and every head at the party turned.

I sulked away. Five minutes later, she approached me. I asked why she had yelled what she yelled. She explained that she was a psychology graduate student and was doing research on how males responded to embarrassing situations.

"What do you mean for $200??!!" I called out at the top of my lungs.

If you've ever pitched a blogger (or reporter) this story probably hits home. What you say to a blogger is important. What she says to the world is even more important. Bloggers are writing for their readers, not for your marketing department. What does this mean to you?

Don't over complicate your pitch. Even bad bloggers get flooded with pitches. They aren't going to read your brand guidelines, they aren't going to dig in deep on product specs. Think of your most important three points and stick to them. Keep your pitch brief and on target. The final pitch should make you cringe with its brevity. The branding police should be bothered by the lack of marketing language in it. The project manager should give you hell over the 12 features you don't mention. The executives should be bothered that you didn't include an "About Statement."
Offer up lots of ways to contact you if the blogger wants more information.Your phone numbers, email and Twitter handle should all be in the pitch. Close with a genuine invitation to connect: "If you'd like more information, or to speak with our president (designer, doctor, executive director) please contact me by phone, email or on Twitter." Respond to requests from bloggers immediately when they do reach out. You know when you get a media relations person's voicemail they close with, "If you are a member of the media, please call my cell phone and I'll drive to your house even it's 3 am?" That should be how you treat bloggers too.
Accept the fact that the blogger doesn't report to your marketing vice president. You get the pickup! The blogger reaches every hospital CFO on the east coast. Leads come flying in. And your boss storms over angry because the post doesn't include a link to the product page, waving a printout of the blog post for dramatic effect. Bloggers aren't on your payroll. Provide them with great, relevant and accurate content. Make yourself available. But don't expect them to follow a script.Expect an honest review of your product that may include criticism. Expect that your branding and messaging guidelines mean nothing to the blogger. Expect omissions. But get your initial messaging right, get a good pickup in front of the right audience, and expect good things to happen.

Yes, You Should Give Away Your Content

Bill Balderaz — 2010-08-19T13:07:40-05:00

Remember the old joke about the dotcom company that lost money on every transaction, but decided to make it up in volume? This post is not about them.

When we talk to organizations that have tried social media programs and have been disappointed with the results, we can usually track it down to one of a few problems. Most of the time that problem is content.

Organizations who create YouTube channels, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages, and then talk at their audiences without providing good content are bound to fail.

But many organizations refuse to produce or provide great content via social media. Here are the three reasons I hear most often and why I disagree with them.

1. It costs too much (in time or money) to make good content. I had the opportunity to present with Amanda Sage of Gong Gong Communications this week. We talked to a crowd eager to learn about social media. One of the points we stressed is that organizations are shifting budget from broadcast and print media to the online world. Think about the hundreds of dollars you spent on that print ad, or the thousands on those radio spots or the tens of thousands on the television campaign. I can promise you, for less time and money you could be writing great white papers, producing educational videos or developing awesome iPad apps. And remember consumers have voted: they use TiVo and satellite radio and they ask to be taken off mailing lists. At the same time, the use of search, online advertising and social media to find products keeps growing. If you're willing to invest a a great TV commercial and pay to have it shown to a consumer, why would you not pay to produce a great educational piece and give it away?

2. My content is valuable,giving it away cheapens the value. The best things in life are free, right? I think we would all agree that Google is a really valuable service. Does Google charge you a nickel every time you search? Would you value the service more if Google did charge you? What about Facebook? How much do you pay for membership? Online loan calculators? Weather forecasts? The Webbed-O-Meter? All these tools have real value- and all are free to consumers. Done right, nothing shows value (or generates revenue) like a free service.

3. My competitors will steal this off my website. Your competitors will fall into three categories. The first are really busy and really successful and even if they had the time to steal your information, they already have their own niche they are focusing on. The second are those that have the time to spare and will ask an entry-level marketing assistant to download all your data. This person will download all of your information and put it on a folder on their network. The information will then sit unread until that person moves to another job, at which point the IT department will delete it. The third are really good at competitive intelligence and will use crawlers and tools and data that will give them information about your company, products, service, pricing, clients and employees, and won't bother downloading your content because they get the good stuff elsewhere. I can go buy a Rolex watch, or a Honda engine or BW3 hot wings. But having access to those products doesn't enable me to make a great watch, engine or hot wings. What you do is complicated and hard, otherwise you wouldn't be in business. Someone reading about your services or demoing your products can't mimic what you do by simply reading a white paper.

Changes In Online Advertising Aren't Coming, They're Here

Bill Balderaz — 2010-08-18T10:21:24-05:00

Did you know that you can track return on ad spend for Facebook's ads? Do you have a plan for navigating the Yahoo! and Bing search platform mergers? Do you know how to target ads to iPad users? The online advertising world has been turned on its head the last few weeks. Join us today at 2 pm EST for a free webinar on the latest changes and learn how you can take advantage of these changes to run your most effecting pay-per-click campaigns yet.

What the Old Spice Guy Teaches Us About Measuring Viral Marketing

Bill Balderaz — 2010-07-21T20:43:31-05:00

Hello Ladies.

OK, me typing it is not the same as the Old Spice Guy saying it, but those two words have worked their way into our vocabulary quickly.

A lot of us in the viral marketing world are struck with Old Spice Guy envy right now. And I don't mean just over his abs.

Some are calling the campaign the most successful viral campaign ever. Why? Well in just a few short weeks the campaign can claim

Nearly 90,000 followers on Twitter, including a host of celebrities.
100 million views and 100,000 subscribers on YouTube
666,000 fans on Facebook

A great campaign? By the above measures, absolutely.

Then today, news breaks that Old Spice sales have dropped 7% since the campaign started and critics are out in force talking about how viral marketing doesn't equate to sales.

Having worked with more than 100 clients over the last 4 years, we've learned what the first question, last and middle question should be when sitting down with a client:

What is the goal of this campaign?

Initially most companies will tell you that it's all about revenue, they need to show an ROI. We love to hear that, and as an agency, we love to focus on that, but allow me to play devil's advocate:

Sometimes driving ROI may mean messaging is inconsistent with your brand. If we say you sell "cheap laptops" we can sell a lot of laptops. But that phrase may make your skin crawl. It may drive qualified visitors via search, it may convert incredibly well from your ads, it may bring in hundreds or thousands of buyers via social media. If your goal is to sell stuff, there will be some aspects of your brand you will have to let go.
Understand the value of keeping something cool out of the hands of competitors. Is some marketing manager at Dove or Dial or Lever getting screamed at right now for NOT coming up with the Old Spice Guy campaign? You bet. About a year ago we presented a status update on a viral marketing program. I went on and on about the site's activity, membership growth and media attention. At the end, the VP of Marketing looked at me and said, "That's all great, but the biggest value of this campaign is that our competitor DOESN'T have it."
ROI isn't always the sexy stuff. There have been times when a client has insisted that ROI is all that matters in a campaign. We do the research and identify where busy mom's in Chicago gather, we determine their top health concerns, we put together a program to reach them. We build the projections demonstrating an ROI of 30% when we reach the top influencers with a sampling program. The client looks at the plan and says, "We were thinking more Twitter." The fact is, the highest ROI campaigns may not use Twitter, Facebook or videos of monkeys.

Does this mean that ROI campaigns can't be true to your brand and sexy? Of course not. But my best advice is to have clear goals in order before you start a campaign. If the Old Spice folks defined upfront that they wanted a campaign to increase the online buzz around Old Spice by 100x, gain thousands of media pickups, build a network of fans and advocates and reach a new audience with its product, while being absolutely hilarious and immensely entertaining, this program was an overwhelming success. If the goal was to increase sales by 10%, the program failed. Having the goals defined upfront keeps all stakeholders on the same page and allows for a very clear call on the success of a campaign.

Now look back at me.

Why Social Media Forces You to Talk Like Your Customers

Bill Balderaz — 2010-06-24T14:43:31-05:00

A few weeks ago at a conference, someone told me he was learning to play guitar by using search. I asked what search engine he was using and he replied, "Every day I go to YouTube and search for a lesson on a new song and learn to play that song."

YouTube? A search engine? You bet. In fact, more searches are conducted every day on YouTube than are conducted on Yahoo! or MSN. So yes, YouTube is a search engine, and a really important one.

Here's another discussion we've had before:

Us: "This customer made a great YouTube video about your product. It has had 20,000 views. It sent 5,000 visitors to your website and drove $35,000 in sales."

Client: "Yes, but our logo was the wrong color blue in video."

And while we're all getting used to letting go over our brand a little when it comes to content consumers are producing, it gets really hard when the social media content you produce internally is forced to break with your own brand guidelines.

You're asking yourself, "Why would I ever break with my own brand guidelines? Here is why:

Consumers don't care about your marketing meetings. Maybe you sell integrated electronic study aids. You absolutely don't sell "cheap online text books." Guess what? No student on Twitter, Facebook or any other social network is ever going to search for "integrated electronic study aids." But I bet a lot of them are looking for "cheap online textbooks."
Not only are more of us using social media as search engines, Google is showing search results based on your social media connections. Stay with me. You and I are connected on LinkedIn. You search Google for "Ohio search engine optimization agency." If I'm doing a good job in all my social media activity, Google will say to itself "Google (that's what it goes by back home), this person is connected to Bill Balderaz. Bill uses the keyword "Ohio search engine optimization agency" frequently on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. Then Bill links to www.webbedmarketing.com. This searcher just searched on "Ohio search engine optimization agency." Therefore, I'm going to rank the website www.webbedmarketing.com very high for this person. A side note? From a branding perspective, I would never call Webbed Marketing an "Ohio search engine optimization agency." Our clients are all across the US and we execute integrated online marketing strategies. But guess what? No one searches "nationally recognized integrated online marketing strategy agency." So, I let my pride go. Let the branding go. And focus on driving business.
Your very best customers come to your site...maybe once a month? Really, is there a reason to come more often? Guess what? They spend about 14 minutes on Facebook every day. If you're in their news stream talking about the things they care about, they will find you. If you're giving your corporate blah blah over Facebook you'll never make the connections.

You may have a patent on a cutting edge nutritional supplement that promotes holistic wellness for young adults. You may cringe when I say, "Oh, you sell children's vitamins?" You have a laundry list as long as your arm as to why your product is absolutely not a children's vitamin. You refuse to put the term "children's vitamins" anywhere on your social media sites because it fundamentally goes against your brand.

And I would argue that you need to talk like your buyers talk, even if your ego says that you're so much better than what they call you.

Am I saying that Tweets should be as impersonal as title tags? No. But don't write in your Twitter bio that you offer lifestyle communities for young professionals, say that you build condos. Don't write a blog post saying you offer a unique health centered environment for female executives, say that you run a gym for busy women. Don't have your LinkedIn profile say that you're a strategic leader in go-to-market best of breed solutions because that's just stupid.

Updated Social Media Stats

Bill Balderaz — 2010-06-22T15:45:11-05:00

Twitter has how many users? Facebook is used by how many businesses? LinkedIn ranks where in terms of social media networks? Catch all new updated stats and information on social media tomorrow at 2 pm EST. Register for our free social media webinar.

What Should I Tweet About?

Bill Balderaz — 2010-06-17T12:55:28-05:00

Never start a blog post with "sorry it's been a while since I blogged" and never Tweet "what should I Tweet about?" We need to save our electrons.

When we talk with clients about Twitter they often ask us "What do I have to Tweet about? We market OSHA training." This is especially odd if the client doesn't actually offer OSHA training.

Our rule is this... if your company, products or services are of interest to anyone. And if you search Twitter and find those anyones are some of Twitter's 100 million uses, then you have something to Tweet about.

For example:

Join the conversation. Just make sure to avoid cliches like "join the conversation". Somebody is out there right now talking about OSHA training. Comment back to what is out there. Agree. Disagree. Retweet things that are meaningful. Build on active discussions.
Tweet about what every one is talking about. Discuss how oil companies do OSHA training. Talk about BP's safety and training records. Make sure to use a hashtag so your Tweets can be found. Looking for the most popular topics? Try Trending Topics or TweetStats.
Tweet about what no one is talking about it. If you can be the first to break news the retweets are all yours. Got a scoop on an industry event? Hearing a big announcement at a conference? Have a truly innovative way to do something that your followers care about? Did you do something very funny, outrageous, edgy or useful? Break news on Twitter first, chances are it's your best communication channel to spread the word fast.

The New Google Social Search Interface & Why You Can't Measure Keyword Ranking

Bill Balderaz — 2010-06-11T10:01:06-05:00

While keyword ranking isn't dead, it's not feeling well.

We've said for years that keyword ranking doesn't really matter; generating more sales, leads, voters, donors or members from search engines is what matters.

Now we've reached the point where not only do rankings not matter, they can't be tracked. If you and I do the same search right now, we'll get different results.

On different interfaces.

With different tabs.

In fact, I'm seeing so many options on Google, there is no longer a "normal" Google interface. For example, today I search Google on the term "Branding" and I got the "Wonder Wheel." In geek speak, the Wonder Wheel looks like a way Google is tying terms to related searches based on common search patterns, use of words close to each other on web pages and other patterns. It's what the SEO folks refer to as semantic association.

Then I get results for people in my social circle and see some of my pals like Jason Mlicki and Lara Kretler talking about branding.

Now look how smart Google is. It knows Jason Mlicki and I are connected via Twitter. And then, rather than linking me to Jason's Twitter profile, Google is smart enough to link me to Jason's website.

Or maybe I want sites about Chinese restaurants that are physically close to me. I click the "nearby" link.

Or a timeline about the history of Home Depot.

Or sites with images, or shopping, or pages I've never visted. All these options and features elevate the discussion around search engine optimization and should get us all focused on the real goal: "Am I generated more business from Google?" and away from "Where do I rank on Google?"