State of Inbound Marketing

http://www.tribalcafe.co.uk/hubspots-2013-state-of-inbound-marketing-annual-report-key-takeouts/

Take a look at the blog for more details

If I was a Restaurant...How Would I Use Social Media?

A Social Service

One of the industries that was expected to be hit the hardest by the recession was the eating out/restaurant sector. There were fears that consumers would cut out eating out altogether, however although they failed to materialise the industry has been through some tough times.

• US Restaurant industry trends


• Brits choosing pubs over restaurants

There is a change in consumer behavior that has and will continue to affect how people communicate with brands, what they spend money on, who they trust and what they value. Ogilvy produced a great report which makes for some interesting reading called Eyes Wide Open, Wallet Half Shut (pdf). One of the underlying themes that fits to eating out is how important family and community have become.

Restaurants are local and have an opportunity to facilitate peoples social experiences and by doing this develop a loayl customer following.

It is about being passionate about creating a difference, being an experience and building a community around the business

The Balancing Act

Restaurants have had to balance offering value for money without falling into the trap of over-discounting. Generally restaurants are having to work harder to capture customers spend and that means gettting smarter at marketing.

Restaurants have to create a clear and distinct experience and use innovative ways to create customer experiences: marketing, menus, branding...and of course menus to excite them. Our recent blog focused on the idea of value: value = benefit - cost and the need to tip the balance by focusing on customer benefits rather than cost.

Restaurants can now use new and exciting  technologies as well as social networks to interact with and engage customers. By building a community they can develop more sustainable and loyal customer base - a tribe.

Some Case Studies

In the US restaurants have recognized the importance of social media and are now focusing on utlising in their marketing.

• Infographic - how social are US restaurants on Facebook


• 2011 Most Influential Restaurants in the US
  

Notable case studies:

• Flimé – The Cannibal Restaurant Case Study


• AJ Bombers and Foursquare


• How Social Media Drives New Business: Six Case Studies (4 are restaurant / food related)


• Why Buffalo Wild Wings Takes Geo-Social Seriously


• Restaurant using ipads as menus (MenuPad)

If I was a Restaurant How I Would Use Social Media

Learn

• Review how successful restaurants use social media and understand what Social Media ‘Tools they use and how


• Have a look at successful chefs/restaurants actively engage with their community with advice and resources e.g. Celebrity chef Rocco DiSpirito, Rick Bayless , La Casa , UnoChicagoGrill

I would listen to my customers/community

Look and listen first: who is talking about you and what is being said?

• 9 reasons why hotels and restaurants should monitor social media and customer reviews


• The Best Free Tools For Making A Social Monitoring Dashboard


• Best Social Media Monitoring Tools to Enhance Business

Match my brand to my target audience 

• I would develop my brand and understand what experience I was offering to my customers.


• Here is an excellent review of how restaurants need to focus their websites on simplicity of design (pdf).

Get my menu into high quality digital pictures

• use high quality for show on website


• Put menu items on Flickr to share easily

Setup my social sites

• Develop a Facebook page


• I could have a Gallery of recipes and get a table booking app used directly within your Facebook  page – why because it is easy for people to connect, book a table and develop word of mouth marketing (interested in this then contact us)


• Twitter – use some tantalizing photos of your menu as background. Tweet regularly but about trends in the community, other people, new menu items, seasonal changes, get feedback…not just about the restaurant. I would also use Twitter to engage with other influencers in the community and ask them questions listen to conversations (you can use Twellow for this)


• Integrate the social network sites with my website e.g. Facebook/Twitter


• Have an email capture on your website for people to subscribe to a newsletter. Create a monthly email-Newsletter with the latest happenings, announcements, new menu items, entertainment news, recipe of the month etc.

Blog

• I would develop a blog. As a start point I would identify a series of articles I could write about e.g. ideas on menus for my target client audience - e.g. I could focus on quick healthy and convenient ideas for moms.


• I would hold an event and invite some people in for lessons on new menu items/recipes. Take photos and blog about the experience, people locally will share and join in creating great word of mouth marketing.


• I would have an RSS feed on my blog that people could subscribe to

Local Guides

• Make sure your restaurant can be searched and reviewed through local business guides such as Yelp.com, Urbanspoon.com, TripAdvisor.com and FoodSpotting.

Be Mobile

• Increasingly people are using their mobiles to find out information and contact restaurants. If they come across a difficult to navigate website then the chances are they will click away. Remember that Google takes into account locality on mobile searches. Get a mobile website.


• Pizza Express recently launched a mobile app that allows customers to pay directly from their phone


• Capture peoples mobile numbers for mobile marketing campaigns by using competitions and prize draws

Location apps

• How diners are using smartphones


• Foursquare - run a promotion based on Foursquare that offers discounts for checking in. For example, any bill over £25 receives an automatic £5 discount if the customer checks into Foursquare.


• Facebook deals - Facebook deals allows users to check-in to receive special offers/promotions

Build relationships with your audience/followers:

• Respond promptly to people


• Ask questions


• Develop conversations


• Host Tweetups for your Twitter community and Meetups for those that gather around topics via meetup.com

• Use Video…build a story
  
  
  
  • Video is the most natural and friendly way to promote the personality of your business. People like to connect with the thoughts and ideas that are part of how you create your meals – it becomes a story and a narrative that they tell to others
  
  
  • Use video to show people some freshly made dishes but don't stop their get some footage of people taking their first taste - that can tell people so much more than a static picture
  
  
  
  

Make your menu sharable or even liked

• Blend offline and online
  
  
  
  • Use tools like Facebook events to promote any specials/promotional events you have. Write a short piece on launch of a new menu people might like to come/ and try it. Twitter the event. Key is to make it sharable.
  
  
  • Invite local bloggers to your events
  
  
  
  


• Keywords and Hashtags
  
  
  
  • Identify keywords relvant to your target customer and restaurant
  
  
  • Use hashtags in Tweets
  
  
  
  

The Personality

Food is a social experience and the more you help and facilitate others experiences the more you will be remembered by your customers. There is a lot more I could cover but I hope this gives your a flavour (pun intended!) for what can be achieved. Of course it is important to tie it together and ensure that you do not attempt too much, spread yourself too thinly and miss out on building the relationships. Co-ordinating and developing your strategy first is time well spent.

 

QR Codes | The What, Why and How of Using Them

What are QR Codes

Quick Response (QR) codes have been gaining ground recently (take a look at this Google Trends Chart ) and are now becoming a commonly used part of the digital marketing landscape; being used in magazines, TV Ads, posters, websites... But what are they and why the interest in them?

QR codes are an encoded barcode image resembling a square-like maze. A 1-dimensional UPC code, is most often used on packaging and used by retailers to track stock and price products at the point of sale. A 2-dimensional barcode stores data in both directions and can be scanned vertically or horizontally to be decoded.



A normal 1D barcode can store up to 30 numbers, but a 2D barcode (QR) can store up to 7,089 numbers. The additional storage capacity enables a variety of data beyond numbers to be stored and that is where it gets interesting.

Types of Information that can be delivered using a QR Code

Some great infographics that give you more detail and understanding about QR Codes:

• QR Code Awareness Infographic


• Who’s Really Scanning All Those QR Codes?


• Cracking the Code – Upshot’s Guide to Mobile Barcodes

How the process works

How to Generate a QR Code

• QR Stuff - Data types include Google Maps location, PayPal Buy Now link, social media links, iTunes link, YouTube link, and more. Customize color. Send by email, or batch print to labels.


• QR Code and 2D Code Generator - can generate QR Code, Micro QR Code, Data Matrix and Aztec Code. Additional features include URL shortening and customizing the color and format of your codes.


• QuickQR - can produce QR codes that can easily be distributed

QR Code Generator that also provide analytics/tracking

QR codes commonly link to urls, so by using link shortening services bit.ly and goo.gl you can automatically generate a QR code for sharing your shortened links.  By using goo.gl as an example, you simply click on the “more” link after you create your shortened link, where you are taken to a page that not only gives you the QR code, but useful analytics. Here are some more QR tracking sites:

• Kaywa


• i-Nigma


• PercentMobile


• QReateBuzz


• QReateandtrack

QR Readers

• QR Reader for iPhone. QR Reader for iPhone scans quickly, with a range of usability and sharing options. Text and URLs open within the app.


• QR Droid. Scan in both landscape and portrait modes, or even scan mirrored images. Decode saved images or URL addresses of a QR code. Generate a QR code to share contacts, bookmarks, apps, geolocations, and more.


• QR App. Designed to be fast and simple. Display history of scanned QR codes. Add contacts directly to your address book.

More apps here for Android phones and iPhones.

Other types of 2d codes - QR code, DataMatrix, ScanLife EZcode, and Microsoft Tag (Tag).



There are several key differences in these code formats. ScanLife EZcode and Microsoft Tag are proprietary formats only decodable by their tools, while QR and DataMatrix formats are open standard. (Additional format differences can be addressed in another blog post.)

Why Use QR Codes

We have mentioned before (mobile website with some stats blog) that with the advancing number of smartphones how brands engage customers increasingly needs to focus on mobile marketing. QR codes are way to bridge the online and offline world enabling brands to create innovative ways for people to connect at a local level as well as easily be distributed.

Some compelling facts about the mobile market:

• The Size of the Mobile Market [infographic]


• Smartphones and the Mobile Commerce Revolution [Infographic]


• Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users [Infographic]

Some reasons why you should use QR codes:

• Easily distributed and shared


• Can be scaled or combined with designs to create interesting 2d images (posters, on buildings...)


• They can easily be tracked so great opportunities to measure your results from a marketing campaign:
  
  
  
  • timing - you can track when people used the code
  
  
  • location as well giving you detailed data on where people used the code
  
  
  
  

How you can Use QR Codes

There is a huge variety of ways to use QR codes and so I have split this into two sections: the first is a few ideas for how you can build QR codes into your marketing and the second is a look at some of the more interesting and inventive ways people have used them to date.

Some ideas

• Signage - What value can you add to a sign? Linking online and offline and making that sign more interesting. Think about how QR codes can deliver value at the spot.


• In store - Improving the In-Store Experience - Think about what you could do if you had the ability to link people to a video/promotion or other relevant marketing at point of sale. As mentioned in our previous blog about value it is about making it relevant.


• Print -this can cover  anything from leaflets (e.g. trade shows), posters, brochures...


• Business Cards - use a QR code on your business card to direct people to a landing page about your business or to a specific page on your Facebook page


• Scavenger hunts - use them inventively to create treasure or scavenger hunts


• T-Shirts - this can be very effective at events or for promotional/experiential activities


• Email subscription - Use your QR code to send people to your email signup. Just make sure you give people a compelling reason to subscribe to your list...otherwise you will have just wasted their time. Not the best way to engage your audience.


• Contact center/inbound calls - QR codes can also make a phone call. This could be used for a specific campaign or simply use it for a sales leads e.g. when printed with a promotional offer in a magazine. Likewise, QR codes can generate SMS text messages.

• Likify brings Facebook sharing into the real world. The service generates QR codes that enable customers to "like" real products on Facebook. How does it work? When you find something you want to share, simply open up your QR scanning app, scan the code, and voila, you officially "like" the product on your Facebook wall.

Diesel took this concept in store

Some interesting ways in which QR codes are being used

• QR Codes on the streets in Paris


• QR codes used in street art to promote indie music


• QR Code Tattoos


• The Edible QR Code
  

If you spot any interesting ways that QR codes are being used then let us know and add to this blog





 

Why Social media in retail?

When the retail giants invest money in social media then you know it is important to their long term strategy:  in April Wal-Mart bought social media firm Kosmix and then Tesco bought BzzAgent for $60M. You can begin to understand that social media will be a crucial element in how retailers develop their marketing capabilities.

What is happening in retail?

If you walk through most cities and towns you can't help but notice the number of empty shops; in the UK over 14% of stores are visibly closed down and empty (source BRC). Over 26,000 shops have closed since the start of the recession and despite national chains grabbing the headlines the independent sector has been hit equally as hard.

Here are some figures for the larger retail brands that focus the mind on the scale of the problem:

• Roundup of 2011 U.S. Retail Stores Closing, Downsizing, or Going Out of Business


• In the UK closures include - Focus Group (120 stores, 3000 jobs), Comet (17 stores), Habitat (in adminsistration), Laura Ashley (16 stores), Mothercare (110 stores), HMV (60 stores), Dixons (loss -£224M), JJB (up to 95 stores), Oddbins (39 stores)...

We know that much of this is down to the recession, consumers being more careful with their discretionary spend. In many cases the recession simply caught these sleeping giants asleep; they were not in tune with the change in consumer buying behaviors which ultimately led to the inevitable consequences of having to forcibly downsize to remain profitable or even go bust: e.g. HMV: - the move to digital, pirating and new models of listening to music like Spotify, has had devastating consequences on high street music/dvd retailers. Take a look at this presentation by Gerd Leonhard on music 2.0. Using that example the next retail casuality is likely to be book stores as books move to digital, already the momentum is gathering behind the adoption of ebooks by consumers e.g. Waterstones.

Why Retail is important

• Retail sales are a major indicator of consumer spending trends because they account for nearly one-half of total consumer spending and approximately one-third of total economic activity (source Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce)


• Retail accounts for 1 in every 8 job


• It is the largest private sector employer and employs around 2.9 million people or 1 in 10 UK and 14.4 million people were employed in the U.S. retail industry as of April 2010 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics), representing 12 percent of all U.S. employment of the working population (source Sector Skills Council)

The Growth of Online Sales

“Online is continuing to set the pace in retail,” said Tina Spooner, Director of Information at IMRG (Retail Gazette 15th June)

The Online Facts UK

• After taking out the travel sector... the year-on-year growth for online retail sales is an impressive 21.5 per cent (source Retail Gazette)


• IMRG forecasts £69bn will be spent online in the UK in 2011 and predicts the market’s value will double in the next four years (source Internet Retailing)

The Online Facts US

• Online Retail Spending Reaches A Record $43.4B In Q4 2010; Up 11 Percent (Source Techcrunch)


• US eCommerce is expected to reach $278.9 billion in 2015 (Forrester)

With online increasingly growing it is important to recognize that this can be a key strategic component and provide a valuable way to develop brand awareness, market to your target audience...a good example is John Lewis who is extending their reach to international sales.

Some other trends worth mentioning:

• Forrester U.S. Mobile Commerce To Reach $31 Billion By 2016 (source: TechCrunch)


• F-commerce Rising: 12 Tales of E-commerce on Facebook


• Online Sales Share on Retail Sales Reaches New High


• Infographic - The New Face of Retail

If I was in Retail...How I would use Social Media

Increasingly people are accessing the internet whilst they are out and about; for emails, social networks and of course shopping. Whether people are researching at home, checking prices whilst in store, looking for reviews or asking friends (e.g. via Facebook) they are now accessing information where, when and how they want.

Retailers need to embrace digital touch points in shopper marketing (mobile phones, scanners, PDAs, digital screens, IPTV...) and to improve the customer experience in store.

What I would do

• If I didn't have an e-commerce site then I would get one developed so that my customers could easily buy my products online. This also immediately extends the reach of my business to a broader target customer.


• As more people spend more time on social networks I would:
  
  
  
  • Create a Facebook page (see and download our guide on Facebook here), Twitter account and YouTube account
  
  
  • Ensure that I had a link to my Facebook page, Twitter and YouTube clearly visible on my website
  
  
  • Ideally seek expertise to integrate Facebook into my eCommerce store just like Levi's producing a powerful way to understand who likes what products and create word of mouth marketing
  
  
  
  

 

• As Smartphones penetration continues to increase being able to present your business effectively on mobile is a necessity:
  
  
  
  • Ensure you have a mobile website (our previous post 5 reasons to have a mobile website) not least because people out and about can quickly contact you.
  
  
  • Embrace and integrate mobile marketing - Smartphone Marketing (slideshare)
  
  
  
  


• Facebook ideas:
  
  
  
  • Use your Facebook page to promote special offers or exclusives to people on your Facebook page. Building a community allows you to establish a relationship with your customers and saves your from having to repeatedly re-acquire customers campaign by campaign (see Olivier Blanchard blog)
  
  
  • Use a QR code on your landing page that directs people to a specific part of your ecommerce site for special offers
  
  
  • Create a feature tab/page that allows you to promote new items or feature new products
  
  
  • Have a page on Facebook for customer reviews and testimonials - if you sell on Amazon or other sites then you could link directly to your reviews these.
  
  
  • Use the photo section: create your albums as product categories and show photos of products (depending on your product you could sho people using your product e.g. Fashion retailer people wearing your items
  
  
  
  


• YouTube ideas:
  
  
  
  • demonstrate or show your products on videos - see how French Connection do this brilliantly. As video grows in importance as part of people content strategy
  
  
  • If right for your product get videos of people using your products or telling stories about how and why they use it
  
  
  • Run a competition involving videos or create an event for the competition, make it fun and video it
  
  
  
  


• Blog:
  
  
  
  • write a blog about your market that you are in not just your business or products.
  
  
  • Invite in guest bloggers. run a blog competition or best story/write interesting themes relating to your product
  
  
  • If you have a large business recruit a team of people who internally are interested in social media and would like to blog for the business, you then act as editor. This can demonstrate to your people to help and show that you are developing a more open culture/approach
  
  
  • Extend the reach to influencers - if your target customer is mothers there are several case studies of brands reaching out to mummy bloggers (see infographic My Moms on Facebook)
  
  
  
  


• Twitter
  
  
  
  • Engagement - you can simply post up interesting articles about your market/industry and invite people to comment.
  
  
  • Post up specials on certain days to drive traffic
  
  
  • Twitter is a great place to use for competitions - people can send in photos via Twtpic or you could get people to come up with the best reason why they like your brand/products in 140 characters or less
  
  
  • Many retailers such as BestBuy use Twitter as a successful customer service channel
  
  
  
  


• Blending online and offline


• QR Codes
  
  
  
  • see our feature on ScoopIt for lots of useful information and examples on what QR codes are and how they are used.
  
  
  • Use them instore to link to your Facebook page
  
  
  • Have special promotions in shop window - promote using QR codes
  
  
  
  


• Facebook deals/check-ins
  
  
  
  • we wrote an article showing how Facebook deals could be used
  
  
  • there are a variety of ways to use this; Facebook deals have little traction at the moment but that is partly due to the lack of retailers/restaurants that have used it as yet
  
  
  
  

Explore the Future

There are countless ways to use digital marketing and social media to develop customers experiences, this can be used in-store and online and this is where the future competitive battleground for retailers. Now is the time to invest, learn and develop multiple touch points, embrace social as a critical tool for marketing, customer service and importantly listening to your customers. The more retailers listen and learn about their customers the better they will be able to blend the online and offline customer experience.

Time saving tips for the working mum

An Oversubscribed Life!

You will notice the late entry of my blog this week, this is primarily down to my oversubscribed life and it got me thinking about time saving. I would imagine that lack of time is a concern for every working mother who is trying to juggle the various demands of life. Now I don’t want to raise your levels of expectation here and make you think I have discovered a magic formula, I haven’t, but I have been looking into some mechanisms that can help save a few precious minutes of time and that might even allow you to put your feet up once in a while.

This has been a testing week on the parenting front for me, there have been all the usual morning rants, “brush your teeth”, “get your shoes on”, “eat your breakfast” and as any parent knows these instructions have to be given at least 15 times each to have any impact at all. There are the numerous questions that require carefully considered responses “are all the people who live in Hungary, hungry?” and “but why can’t I marry my sister, she is a girl?” In addition to this I have started to feel like I am losing my powers of negotiation, only when it comes to the children of course.  If I’m honest I’m not sure I was up there with ????? in the first place but more recently I  noticed myself giving into their every demand just to enable me to carry on working.

This can’t be right I thought to myself, there must be another way!

Getting Organised

And so I have discovered   Tweetdeck and Hootsuite,  what are they you may ask?  HootSuite and TweetDeck are both social media dashboards. They allow the user to access multiple social networks on one screen. This way the user can manage multiple accounts in one setting. Logging in and out of each social network is eliminated and users can choose to update the same information on multiple accounts if it is necessary. Although both are social media dashboards and both are tools to help manage multiple social networks at once they are different in their own individual ways. I am currently using tweetdeck and I have to say that this does meet my needs at the current time, but my colleagues all use Hootsuite and say it is far better. You will have to make up your own mind,  here are some clips that might help you get started on these dashboards.

Hootsuite

Tweetdeck

Here is a quick overview of TweetDeck:



an here is a full list of tutorials that take you through how to use Tweet Deck stage by stage.

http://support.tweetdeck.com/forums/126043-desktop-video-tutorials

Some Tips

I am still quite new to these dashboards but it has completly revolutionalised the way I plan my tweets and posts across all the social media channels. This simple tool means that I can spend an hour in the morning planning what I want to go out on my social media platforms, schedule them all in and leave it for the rest of the day. Previously I would have been tied to the laptop panicking about the lack of communication with my followers. This really is a fantastic time saving tip.

I know what your thinking, it's not just social media that eats into my time it is also the day to day aspects of my business so before I sign off  I thougth I would leave you with my top 7 time saving tips outside of the social media forum!

7 simple time saving tips

1. Plan your next day the night before.,


2. Prioritize my list and do the most important tasks


3. Always stick to the list and tick off the item as you go


4. Take a break from working and going to the gym or just out for a walk.


5. Procrastination is the biggest time consumer, just get on and do it!


6. Outsourcing things like writing content and updating your social media profiles


7. Ask your self a simple question – “Is what I do now helping to get more visitors to my site?”

Social Media: Value equals Benefit minus Cost

What is Value?

Often on blogs, in marketing spiel and in conversations we hear people talking about value. IT becomes one of those words we simply accept without question that we are all on the same page with it. In particular social media relies on producing content that is relevant and adds value to your customers. But how do we know and prioritize what is of value to our customers?

Have a look at the presentation below by Laurent Francois who tackles this brilliantly in his presentation.

 

Although it is a complex proposition let's just simplify it to illustrate some points:



The common ground is saving money and time. So why not investigate what are ways that you can create value for your customers. If you don't want to be perceived as discounting then look for the value of saving people time.

Two examples of organisations using Twitter to add 'value':

• BtoB - Caterpillar uses Twitter to connecting with current and potential customers, and addressing service issues.


• BtoC - Zappos uses Twitter to keep customers informed of relevant company and product information, events and promotional offers

Value = Benefits - Cost

To your customers ask yourself why they should invest their time (Cost) in coming to your website, Facebook page, Linkedin Group, Twitter...if you haven't identified the value proposition and content strategy then you are unlikely to succeed.

Take a look at what your are doing: What content is most popular with your target audience? Is the content you share via social media resonating with your target audience or a random audience?

Understand your Target Audience

As we often mention to our clients it all starts with understanding the customer and NOT assuming that you know their needs. Research even done simply is better than none at all and will provide you with some ways to be relevant to them.

Here is a some articles on social monitoring and management tools that can help you do this:

• 8 Methods + Lots of Tools for Getting to Know Your Audience


• 5 New Social Media Management Platforms


• 20 free, awesome social media monitoring tools

Alternatively select some clients or customers to free lunch, prepare some questions and get their views.

• Focus Group research


• DIY: Research on a shoestring budget

This is reinforced by some research into why people 'Like' brands:

A study of 1,500 Facebook users, ExactTarget concluded that 38% of online U.S. consumers “Like” (formerly “Fan”) a brand on the social networking site.

• 40% to receive discounts and promotions


• 39% to show my support for the company to others


• 36% to get a “freebie”


• 34% to stay informed about the activities of the company

Conversely we can also see that different channels will require different strategies for brands and businesses:

• Plain and simple - Social Media: Top 10 Reasons Why Your Audience Doesn’t Like You


• Top Reasons Why Consumers Unsubscribe Via E-Mail, Facebook & Twitter (Mashable)


• Reasons people ‘Unfollow’ Brands on Twitter

Key takeouts:

• It is important to attract and gain new customers (as well as reward loyal customers) develop a clear integrated strategy that includes how you can use social media to promote your products or services strategy


• 'Freebies' can create a lot of word of mouth and provide added value to potential and existing customers. This could be information that saves people time or you could provide a mobile app e.g. in BtoB a utlity app or for a consumer brand an app that people find entertaining. This develops your brand awareness as well as provide valuable interaction and data.


• Consistently producing content that focuses on your customers needs and is relevant. In your strategy vary the reasons so that you are not repetitive in how you add value or your content strategy. Social monitoring and customer research is not a one off event - it needs to be embedded into your marketing processes and used to adapt your strategy.


• Be obsessive about understanding your customers and you will create competitive advantage. If you understand your customers better than your competition and then act on this by producing content that is right for them and adds value (promotions, articles, blogs, posts...) you will gain market share.

Some interesting reports

In the spirit of this post I have read some interesting reports lately and they are listed below for you to take a look at and download:

A report by HootSuite on social media measurement

The Global Social Media and CSR Report by Wolfstar

If you come across any good reports about marketing in the digital age and/or social media then let us know

 

 

 

Social Media - The Story of the Three Little Pigs

The Story So Far

We have all grown up with the famous story of the three little pigs (although I like the alternative 3 little wolfs variation as well). The moral of the story is obvious people who work hard, work smart, save money, think ahead, and help other people, will come out on top.

In marketing you wouldn't recommend a business to build their marketing solely on social media - it is just not good advice. Social media is just one part of the marketing mix.

Likewise the idea of solely being digital is not right for every business, it is important to recognise and use offline marketing (if it fits to your target customers). Again as a stand alone focus it will deliver results but be limited. Like the 3 little pigs using the right materials are vital to a solid marketing strategy.

Jeff Bullas wrote a good piece Social Media Marketing’s Biggest Myth that quite rightly argues the need to focus on being relevant and informative:

"The reality is that “social media” is based on self-interest. People on social sites are looking for materials which are useful to them.

Content defines the value to your customer - why people will either ignore it or share it. Content strategy is then a defining part of any online strategy. Here is a great presentation that drums home the importance of content for online marketing.

Content Strategy: The Future of Marketing

Mixing the Bricks and Mortar and Working Together

So if we return to the three little pigs story - our marketing should consist of mixing our marketing to produce a solid foundation and the people we invite to help us are our customers; because if they help you (and more importantly want to) you may develop a community.

We can't cover everything so I have focused on email - some people see email as an enemy of social media i.e. email vs. social media. The truth is, done well they should compliment each other (but it also depends on market/customers...).

Email Facts

• 72% of companies rate email as 'excellent' or 'good' for return on investment (EConsultancy)


• Email adoption high but lacking in best practice - the relevance, context and targetting (download pdf - Forrester) also support by MarketingSherpa 2011 Email Marketing Benchmark Report (download here)

Email is getting Social

• 6 Smart & Effective Email Marketing Tactics (Mashable)


• 7 Steps to Improve Your Email Marketing (Practical Commerce)


• Integrating the Facebook like Button into Mailchimp campaigns (Mailchimp)

Both Constant Contact and ExactTarget acquired businesses in the social arena, namely, NutshellMail and CoTweet. Why - well they recognise the value of social data and are looking to use this to build more precise targeting methods based on social data.

Putting the Story back into Marketing

So what is the role of social media within the marketing mix? Again this is big subject but here are a few reasons why it is an important part of any business now:

• people trust people (Source Nielsen) and therefore we look for what are friends or others say about brands/products and services


• brand communities can provide an ongoing development of a relationship with brand as opposed to a start stop approach (see blog post by Olivier Blanchard)


• brands can understand (and quickly) what their customers are saying - a dynamic feedback loop providing ways to improve your product or service


• researching customers (you can understand their online/offline behaviours and refine your marketing and provide value to them (this comes back then, to your content strategy)


• using tools to linkin with Facebooks open graph you can use the data to understand your 'followers'


• it is where you customers are spending their time online and hence where you can help them e.g. customer service

This is by no means an exhaustive list, it just meant to illustrate the opportunities and relevance of being social. In todays world we want the human connection as well. We can never underestimate the power of the human story, the connection we feel with it and the emotions that they evoke. Look at some of the highest ranked video's onYouTube and you will understand what I mean. When done well, social media builds as the brands facilitate the story of others as well as solving problems, communicating relevant messages and adding value it can also tell the stories of its people.