We’re building a seminar for small business organizations about the basics of social media marketing and integrating that with traditional advertising.  The basis of this program grew out of a post here from several months ago.  So we’ll take a look back for those of you who may be more recent “attendees” to this site.

The idea is this: social media marketing doesn’t replace traditional marketing, it is simply the next step.

THE WAY IT’S ALWAYS BEEN

For years and years, when you opened your storefront the way to get people to come by was to stand there and shout out to anyone willing to listen about what you had to offer and why what you had was a better option than some other place.  Of course, just standing in front of your store and shouting out to the street in front was a tad inefficient.

So, you utilized various mass media outlets to “shout out” on your behalf.  You ran a display ad in the local paper and in the yellow page directory.  You put commercial messages on radio and/or TV.  You might put up a big catchy display on a billboard or send out special offers via mail.

And in the last few years you got into the “digital online age” and created a website!  But even then, you were literally standing there in front of your website and trying to shout out a message to anyone who just happened to come by.

This is Outbound Marketing.  You push messages out to whomever might be listening or reading or watching.  And you hope that something about your message catches the ear or eye of enough of those people to turn into sales.

◊     ◊     ◊     ◊     ◊

THE NEXT STEP

Now, instead of just standing in front of your store and shouting, you venture right out into the community at large.  You get to know people personally.  You become a part of conversations.  You are, in effect, attending a never-ending cocktail party.  And as you do so you learn more about these people.  And their friends.  And about the things they’re talking about.

You also begin to learn about some interests that they have and realize that you can contribute insightful thoughts toward those interests, some of which might happen to be similar to the sorts of things you actually sell!  Some of these people start to take notice of you and really begin to value your opinions.  They begin to view you as a trusty resource.

A day comes when they need or want one of these things you happen to sell and they seek you out.  Perhaps having been satisfied by what you’ve done for them they refer other friends to you.

This is Inbound Marketing.  You participate in conversations, become a friend, and even a resource on certain things.  In turn, they come in to you!  And send you referrals.  It’s not so much you selling to them as it is them buying from you.

Ok, that’s a simplified analogy, but hopefully it helps you understand how it is that Inbound marketing is the essence of this thing you hear about called “Social Media Marketing.”   It’s the old fashioned idea of networking, but using wonderful new technologies to be able to do this on a much larger, more efficient, and more effective scale.

So, through getting on board with Twitter, or setting up a Facebook Fan Page, or beginning to write blog posts, you have ways to show that you are 1) a valuable resource;  and, 2) that you are also a human being with fun hobbies or interests that help you connect to others who become friends.  And hopefully in some cases, customers.  Or at least the basis for referrals to other customers.

Traditional media still plays an important role in helping you to build a known company brand name on a mass scale level to the particular marketplace that you serve.  Social media, in being the next step, puts a face and a personal identity to that brand on an individual scale level.  It’s taking your company brand and integrating into a personal brand.  And then building real personal relationships from that.  Personal relationships that can cement your business into whatever sort of community you serve, whether it’s just the small town in which your store is located, or the niche part of the world which you can now serve via the web.

Are you still trying to just stand there and shout out?  Or are you now also venturing out to shake hands and build new and valuable friendships?

Storefront photo credit: jed_mtascp

Related posts:

1. The 6 Step Process to Starting Social
2. 13 “Twips” to Brand Extension
3. Social: The Media is Free, The Marketing is NOT

Sponsored Tweets.  Are you kidding me?

How can anyone believe that the idea of Sponsored Tweets fits in any way into the context of the social media world?  A place that’s all about connecting with people, listening to people, and relating with people – openly.  A place to be genuine and transparent.

(Of course, when I visited the Sponsored Tweets home page I was greeted by one of their number one “celebrity” Tweeters: CarrotTop.  Ah, nothing like a heaping dollop of cheese piled atop any shred of dignified validity there.  But I digress.)

Now, don’t get me wrong.  This new brain child of Izea, a company that specializes in social media advertising, has every intent that the sponsored tweets are openly transparent.

See?  A particular Tweet that just happens to tout some product or service will openly state that the Tweeter is being paid for such.

Oh.  Thanks for mentioning that.

Delete.

This is a social network of conversations.  Strikes me the same as talking to someone at a cocktail party who says, “Oh, I’ve got a killer story about what happened to us Friday night!  But first, let me disclose that some of the stuff in the story is made up.”

Excellent.  Now I can get set to be “riveted” by anything else I’ll ever hear from that person again.

Certainly, Rule #1 in marketing is this:  Have an excellent product, offer excellent service.  And people will talk.

But in the context of the social realm – and Twitter specifically – Rule #1 is this:  When people do talk openly, genuinely, and even enthusiastically about a product or service, other people truly listen and take note.

Slapping a paid disclosure on any such “conversation”, no matter how open the intent, pretty much eliminates all of that.

I’m sure there will be plenty of Tweeters ready to jump in and disclose their love of something in search of a little cash.  Not the least of which will be the B & C list “celebrities” looking for nuggets between appearances on I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here.

But the whole idea is yet one more bad spammy approach to try to circumvent the genuine Twitter-verse where excellence is replaced by quick cash schemes in hopes of moving a short term needle.  Often resulting in a much greater negative back lash.

As a small business, run the opposite direction from any approach of this nature in places like Twitter or on your blog!  The traditional mass media is your mantle of paid advertising to tout your product.  And there is a definite purpose to that.

But when it comes to the social media spectrum, a much simpler and open approach is the only path to take.   Communicate and connect genuinely with people.  Along with, of course, offering excellence in terms of your product or service.

And let the social karma pay your rewards for the long haul.

What do you think?

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photo credit: ..colb..

Related posts:

1. Transparency
2. 5 Things My Dog Teaches Me About Customer Service
3. Outsourcing Impact to Your Customers

Presenting a mundane message in a completely surprising and different way can make all the difference in having it heard.

Does anyone who flies with even a modicum of regularity ever pay attention to the safety instructions before takeoff?  This small British carrier decided to create their safety video in a way that might actually get your attention as a passenger.

Do you have a common message that can be communicated in an uncommon way?

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I’ve lived by this phrase all my life.  My partner exhaustively disagrees with me but since my relocation this mantra has taken on new intensity.

When it comes to the more southern part of our country it has become apparent that meaning what you say has a very different application.  I reluctantly shared my experiences with local business owners and surprisingly they knew EXACTLY what I was referring to.  In addition they were kind enough to enlighten me.

Saying “no” is considered by most to be ill mannered and rude.  Let’s say for example a business owner is presented with an advertising campaign.  It’s well thought out and presented with professionalism.  The business owner at the time feels for whatever reason it isn’t “doable” but they politely ask the presenter to check back again and again instead of just saying NO.  In my world that wastes time and energy, but apparently maintaining a high level of politeness is of great importance to some.

So, how does this shed any light for a local business owner, other than giving them the “ok” to kick sales people out the door with a NO?

When you are marketing your business you also are creating a Marketing Bridge.  The wonderful aspect of advertising/marketing is you have the creative freedom to build a perception!  Whatever you want that perception to be.  If done well this perception corners a unique aspect to your business…it can paint a picture of how your business can solve a problem or carve out an experience.  But be wary…are you saying what you mean?

Let’s say your business promotes that you have the quickest turnaround service for repairs but it takes someone days to call back a potential customer?  Not good.  Or you talk about how huge your selection is and crossing the threshold of your business mimics a large walk in closet?  The customer will not believe anything else you tell them.

A Marketing Bridge encompasses ALL aspects of your business…traditional media, social, cause, public relations and, most importantly, what is the experience the customer has walking through your door!  So what you’re telling them in a radio commercial, print ad or on your website has to be truthful.  Yes, use all the creative avenues available and find that “niche” that separates you from the rest but say what you mean and mean what you say.  The same as you would in providing customer service.

It’s all about communication!  When it comes to advertising think creatively to build that perception but don’t go as far as to stretch the truth beyond what is real.  People know the difference and it could cost you a client for life.  Especially women!  We are slow to trust but loyal once won.

I suppose there is a line between appearing  forward or rude and simply trying to get an honest answer.  My struggle continues to understand my new surroundings.  But when it comes to what you tell me about your business, there must be truth at the heart of it!  Trust me…I mean what I say….  Do you?

Picture provided by ellen’s attic.

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They made me take piano lessons as a kid.  Because music was important!  Or something like that.

Whatever.  I finally convinced them to let me quit by the 9th grade, after about 7 years.  Just when the lessons were really starting to work.

But how might my motivation to stick with it have been different had the message all along been that learning piano would be my ticket to joining a cool rock band in high school?

Do you think painting a vivid emotional picture would have had a lot more stickiness than some nebulous factual point about music being important?

Damn.

So, are you painting sticky emotional pictures about what people want to buy, or just giving ‘em the plain ole facts about what you sell?

If you run a restaurant, are you just selling food? Well, sure you are.  But people are more likely looking for the ambiance of a special evening out, or maybe just a break from cooking and cleaning up.

If you own a fitness center are you just selling fitness and health?  Well, yes.  And that is important (like music).  But the reality is most prospective members are really hoping to look better in a swimsuit for an upcoming beach vacation, or wanting to lose weight for an impending 20-year reunion.

Even if you sell something as mundane as a 1/4 inch drill bit at your hardware store, are you just selling a small piece that fits in a toolbox?  Technically, yes.  But actually someone is buying a hole.  A specific hole needed perhaps as part of a deck project, or for a parent to hang a precious piece of art created by her daughter.

Stop thinking as you ordinarily do about what you sell.  Focus instead on the emotion-filled need that is the ultimate motivation behind why people buy.  Wrap any messages you communicate around that motivation.  That’s shifting the focus away from you and your business right smack into her and her world.   That’s an approach likely to capture and hold her attention.

Emotional needs matter.  Product specs and details don’t.  Except when a spec or detail can directly connect to that emotional need.

Can you turn your product/service thought process upside down and think more about why people want to buy as opposed to just what it is you’re selling?  Or go even further around… As a consumer, have you ever later regretted not buying something because you didn’t realize it could have done for you what you later learned it did for your neighbor?

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When practically anything and everything is available at our fingertips, the single separator to consistently draw people right to YOUR door, away from web options, price points, and competitors, is exemplary and consistent customer service.

Easy to say.  Difficult to do.

Unless you’re a dog.

Yes, our dog Tucker can be quite a handful at times.  But I also realize that there are certain distinct and predictable traits about how he serves his “customer” that one in small business would do well to learn from and follow.

1. He’s always thrilled to see me

When I come to his “business” nothing else matters to him.  He’s thrilled I’m there.  It doesn’t matter how long since my last visit or if the last time he saw me I’d been angry at him.  He’s thrilled I’ve stopped in.

Any customer who comes to your business should feel so special.  Be thrilled to see a new stranger, an old friend, or even one who was recently upset at you.  A customer should know that on any given day he/she matters to you.

2. When I call, he drops everything and comes

No matter what might have his attention at a given moment, if I call he will immediately turn his focus to me and come to see what he can do.  And, of course, going back to point #1, he’s happy to do so.

When a customer would like to speak with you, shouldn’t that become priority #1 whenever possible?  And even if it is an interruption to something that already has your attention, at least appear to be happy to speak with that particular customer!

3. He’s a social networking machine

Tucker is incredibly aware of what is going on around him.  He’s paying attention. Whether it’s picking up a faint mention of his name or just being aware in general, he most certainly is paying acute attention.  And ready to “network” whenever he has a chance.

Social media gives you valuable tools to instantaneously be aware of what’s going on.  Whether to do with your business being mentioned, things your customers are talking about, or issues within your business category in general. Being aware of this information puts you in a position of strength in terms of serving your customers above and beyond!  Not to mention the relationships you can cement outside of just doing business.

4. He’s transparent

If I come into a room and discover something wrong he’s done, there’s no dance of denial in Tucker.  He knows it was wrong and immediately, by his actions and demeanor, admits to it and puts forth apologetic “forgive me” tones.

Transparency is critical in this new and evolving world of openness.  Are you willing to admit when you’ve made a mistake?  This is another way to really utilize the immediacy of social media.  And what a statement it makes to other customers who can see you right out in the open handling an issue and even being willing to admit when you need to improve.

5. He’s dependable

This is really the summation of it all in that points 1-4 are extremely predictable.  They don’t fall into a category of “a lot of the time he’s this” or “often he’s that”.  And that extreme predictability adds up to the ultimate point of great customer service: dependability.

When people view your service as something they can absolutely count on, that can remove so many other potential reasons that might cause them to think about taking their business elsewhere – whether it’s a minor point on price or there’s a loud new competitor in town.  People are far more comfortable with a business they KNOW they can depend on to deliver a product of value, and service that is predictably tops.

—–

OK, so maybe if you let Tucker guide you on some of his other behavioral traits you’d stumble into some pretty stout issues with social mores and grace.

But, are you at least willing to listen to what he actually can teach you about truly dedicated service to your customers?

- Steve

Related posts:

1. Transparency
2. Outsourcing Impact to Your Customers

The first time I ordered something from Amazon was back in around 1996 or ‘97 – the way early days of online shopping.  I’ve been a very regular customer ever since.

It was still a relatively small upstart back in those days of my first order.  A company that simply made it convenient and easy (and cheap) to buy books.

Today, Amazon is practically to finding and buying products what Google is to search.

You think you could learn a thing or two from that sort of growth and success?

This brief video from Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is a must see for anyone who’s an owner or a manager of a business. (It was created as a communication to Zappos employees after it was announced yesterday that Amazon was buying that company.)  By the way, if you want to take notes you won’t need anything more than a 3×5 index card. But that would be a small card you’ll want to keep in a prominent place.

Photo credit: Robert Scoble

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There’s a stark irony in today’s mark as the 40th anniversary of Americans setting foot on the surface of the moon.

Think of the technology required to safely transport men to the moon and safely return them home.  And this was technology created 40 years ago in 1969!

Now start pondering on just some of the technological advances we’ve witnessed since.  It’s almost incomprehensible for me to think of all the technological evolution I’ve observed and been a part of since that moon-landing day, when I was but 7 years old.

Here’s the stark irony that puts it in perspective.

In 1969 we could fly a man to the moon.  But it would be nearly 15 years later before the average American would have something as seemingly mundane as a video recorder available to record such an event!

The only way my dad could record it was by sitting in the living room and aiming his old 8MM home movie camera at the TV as it happened.  No sound. Just this grainy, homemade, historic footage.  Which today, of course, can be converted to a digital file and uploaded to YouTube so it can be shared with you!

- Steve

PS: A few years later, when I was about 12, I remembered this “amazing technique” for recording history from TV.  One April night I aimed that same old movie camera at the TV hoping Hank Aaron would make history by breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record on Monday Night Baseball.  Indeed he did, and I captured it.

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The passing of so many well known individuals lately has been a bit scary and strange.  With our site being about marketing it would be remiss to let the passing of Walter Cronkite go silently.  Although he was the voice of journalism, marketing can be built on the integrity and draw of persons like him.

Steve and I watched CBS Sunday Morning as they paid tribute to this great man.  I realize for most of his career I was too young to even know who he was.  But as I grew it became just a part of our lives that nightly Mr. Cronkite was a visitor in our home.  Steve mentioned that his father when asked about when they would play a board game or complete a nightly task his response was always the same: “After Cronkite”!

The monumental events he covered and conveyed to the United States is astounding.  Watching the tribute, summarizing all he reported with grace and integrity brought back the flood of “fatherly” feelings I’ve had for him.  Always there, always a rock once in a while showing signs of true human emotion.

Radio Business Report posted a quick article yesterday on his accomplishments with many quotes.  I feel so fortunate that I was able to gain the advantage of having this man as a reporter in my lifetime!

Photo from RBR article.

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The real and distinct power in telling a story is that it can far more effectively communicate a memorable idea that creates value, as opposed to mundane messages filled with the blah-blah list of all we offer, where we’re located, and, of course, how great our prices/services are.  [Yawn]

Now comes further proof of the power of stories in a remarkably unique project.

Significant Objects

The idea behind The Significant Objects Project is that participants would find simple offbeat items at thrift stores and flea markets, things that would cost a couple of dollars at most, and then sell them on eBay. 

So what?

Well, there’s a twist.  Each object would be paired with a writer who then crafts a little short story that somehow relates back to the item.  And this story is used in the eBay listing instead of the usual plain factual item description. 

The goal: see if a $1-$2 item would suddenly find much greater significance (read: value) from bidders because of the story behind it.

And by the way, included in the item listing was the name of the author that penned the story.  And that it was fictional.  There was no intent to “hoax” a buyer into thinking it was a real story.

The Project has been underway for a little more than a week now and the early results are quite clear.   

One of my favorite successes and stories so far is the JFK Bust.  This tiny ceramic JFK trinket, bought for $2.99,   sold on eBay for $26.  That may seem like a small number until you figure out the rather significant return on investment! 

There are several other examples of items & their accompanying stories that have already been sold.  Each displaying similar staggering returns, like the 50 cent Chili Cat figurine that sold for $22.72.  What’s the percent rate of return on that!

And there are many more currently active in the bidding process, like the Fred Flintstone Pez Dispenser.

(As an aside, this is all a great example of a benefit to being active on Twitter.  I came across a tweet from Valeria Maltoni that linked a blog post about this she’d read from Jeff Sexton.  And that led me to finding this to begin with!)

Now granted, the writers on this particular project aren’t average “everyday Joe’s”.  They’re some talented writers.  But the point is still clear: stories create an emotional attachment. 

Stories make a mark.

Even a simple story that illustrates something about a product you sell or the service you provide will go MUCH further in connecting meaning with people then trying to convince them with a hackneyed list of hollow bullet points.

People share stories.  People connect with stories.  People remember stories.

Even for something as goofy as a Creamer Cow.

- Steve  

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