Thought Labs Blog

At the New Marketing Summit yesterday, someone said "Social Media is a commitment, not a campaign". This has been said over and over again in books like Groundswell, at conferences, and in countless blog posts. But the majority of businesses still act as if they can dip their toe in the water and then leave if they don't get results right away.

Part of the commitment is building trust between a brand and its consumers. Consumers want to know that the brand is sincere and will be active before they will invest their time. If brands prove this to them with consistent action and dedicated resources, consumers will give back tenfold.

For example, Start Up Blog posted a recent article entitled "On Social Networks, Give and You Shall Receive". They detail the case of Train Signal, an IT training company. Iman Jalali, Train Signal's director of sales and marketing, said "I really feel like a company blog should be treated as its own living, breathing entity, rather than a chore. It should make you feel like you walked into the company's office and you now have a personal connection with that company." Because of this, they have a very active blog, with customers contributing new topics daily. Train Signal also follows the same process on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Consumers want to get involved with brands. Businesses who commit to developing relationships with those consumers will be the ones who are successful in the world of Social Media.

Social Media, Strategy Blogs, Social Media, Twitter

Gary Vaynerchuck just did a quick ustream talk in response to a comment he received via Twitter. The comment by @CreativeEmbassy said that companies are waiting for the tipping point before moving into Social Media. Gary's response was that it will be too late then. The time to get in is now, so that you can practice, make mistakes and learn from them. That way, when the tipping point does come, your brand will be ready.

Marketing, Social Media, Strategy Social Media, Tipping Point

Gary Vaynerchuck's post - You Down With ROI?…Yeah You Know Me - says that it isn't the social media companies that will be affected by the current financial environment, it is the traditional media companies like radio, newspapers and magazines. Spending large amounts on print ads or radio ads will not produce the ROI it has in the past, as people move out of those media.

One alternative would be to create a company Twitter account to follow and interact with real customers. Hubspot ran a recent webinar about using Twitter and pointed out some great examples such as Zappos, Comcast, Amazon and Whole Foods. Comcast apparently watched for 2 months before interacting with their @comcastcares account and now offers support via Twitter. Amazon offers new deals with its @amazondeals account. Zappos shows off all employee tweets at What are Zappos employees doing right now? Whole Foods lets customers interact, check inventory, and discuss experiences via @wholefoods. This whole operation could be staffed with several interns or some full time employees and could totally change customers views and appreciation for your brand.

Instead of print advertising, companies could place ads on related blogs for rock bottom prices and track the actual results. Impossible with traditional media.

The market may be down, but the shift to online media continues to accelerate. Now is the time to get going with Social Media. Ask us how to get started.

ROI, Social Media, Twitter ROI, Social Media, Twitter

Yesterday, I attended a conference put on by MassTLC called the Innovation unConference. It was probably the most interesting conference I have ever attended for a few reasons. First, the unConference format was very interesting. The day started with a brief overview of how the conference would work and then 5 mins of full attendee self-introductions. Then masses of people started announcing topics that they would present on, claiming times and rooms by placing cards on a big chart on the wall. If topic conflicts occurred, topics were moved or discarded. Soon the wall was full. There were 4 timeslots for sessions, 1 lunchtime networking session, a group exercise, and a post-event discussion.

The attendees were a mix of established entrepreneurs, new startups, Angel and VC investors, and other professionals. There were endless opportunities to learn from everyone around you about some aspect of being an entrepreneur. Access to all this knowledge in one spot is incredible uncommon.

The first session I attended was entitled - Mistakes Startups Make. They were:

1. Choosing the wrong business type. The experts said that the most common correct type would be c-corp, perhaps starting out as s-corp, because it is an easy vehicle for future VC funding. LLC's may seem to be cheaper in the start, but there are tax implications in switching to a C-corp later on. There is also some standardization of operating agreements and other documents released by Paul Graham's Y Combinator.
2. Having an Idea versus a company. There are lots of great ideas, but not all of them make a great company. Need to do the market research and think about why someone would want to put money into the company and how they would get it back. Need a business plan. Need to understand the sales channel.
3. Improper use of VC. The best time for getting investors is when you don't need them. Startups need to research VC and Angel investors before pitching them. They will sit on the board and have a direct impact on the company. Each investor offers expertise as well as cash, so it is important to find the right match. Some recommended taking the biggest amount of funding in the first round as possible, because that is when you will have to give up the biggest share of the company. Also, picking the right investor is important, as big name investors can help attract big name talent.
4. Doing a startup first. It was recommended to work for someone else first to gain that knowledge and learn what works and doesn't. Use this also as an opportunity to find people you can learn from and later on have as advisors or board members.
5. Not knowing why they are there. Understand your reasons for being in business. Know your strengths. Successful startups have at least 1 business guy, marketer, and technologist.
6. Not having advisors. Get others who have been successful to help. Often this will cost 1% equity, but will make a huge difference in the success of the company. Advisors and boards also provide accountability. Founder time is scarce, and advisors can help focus their efforts on the core business.

The next session was called "How Not to Get Free Publicity" and was put on by Scott Kirsner. Key points were basically doing the opposite of the slides. Here is what you should do:

1. If a competitor gets written up, don't whine to the reporter about it. Instead, post a relevant comment describing your company in the articles online comment section.
2. On your website, make it easy for press to contact you. Have the name of a real person, along with a phone number and email address. Don't hide behind a form.
3. Respond quickly to questions. This can make a huge difference in whether your information makes it into the article.
4. Show your location. This helps get local PR. If you have multiple locations, show them all.
5. Have full bios. Give real details, make them interesting, and show prior work. Sometimes, reporters are looking for experiences in prior companies for stories.
6. Be read in your responses. Don't give canned answers. You can be combatitive if you can get away with it, like Scott McNeely, but this doesn't work most of the time.
7. Talk off the record. If you are in a quiet period, you don't have to divulge all the details, but you can talk about the industry and other background information.
8. Have interesting headshots. Use non-traditional photos in high-res. These are much more likely to be used.
9. Contact the press directly. You don't always need your own PR firm to get to the press.
10. Blog. Have a lot of visible content to draw from and link to.
11. Give the big scoops to the big names. Don't waste it on a little place when a large outlet could do more for you.
12. Press releases should have full contact info so that people can follow up with you.

There is a great set of interviews from the event by Lois Paul & Partners and a flickr set by thopcraft.

Marketing, Social Media MassTLC, PR, Social Media, Strategy, VC

Yesterday, I attended a conference put on by both the Sales and Marketing and Social Media Clusters of MassTLC. The panelists were:

Paul Gillin, Gillin Communications
John McArthur, Walden Tech Partners
Jeremy Selwyn, Taquitos.net
David Vellante, Wikibon.org

Each Panelist gave an overview of their business, and Paul Gillin then asked them a series of questions.

The key points:

1. Getting started. You need to build a personal brand. Do this by consistently publishing content, attending or holding meetings and conferences. Link to others, and eventually you will get links back. Take a look at The Corporate Blogging Book by Debbie Weil and Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.
2. Time commitments. Many people worry about how much time this will take. One panelist said that he spent 4 hours reading for each hour of posting. Most panelists spent only a few hours a week.
3. Reuse of content. Publish content on one medium, such as a blog, and then reuse it as a newsletter or white paper. Post status updates about it on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Cross-pollinate.
4. Interactivity. Be successful by involving the community. Ask questions to invite feedback. This will both increase your pageviews and create opportunities for new content.
5. Dealing with negativity. Many are afraid of this. However, it doesn't have to be a liability. First, if you don't provide a venue for feedback, it will happen somewhere else, where you might not be able to participate as much. Second, your community will begin to police itself, helping to deal with problems. Third, you should delete spam and profanity, but leave the negative comments. Address them directly, and you can turn those people into future supporters.
6. Tagging and SEO. Make sure that all your content is tagged. Make your blog post titles and their urls contain the keywords from the article. Tag videos and photos. This will help Google and therefore your users find you. 80% of traffic comes from Google searches. You can use a site like WebsiteGrader.com to get a review of your current site's SEO readiness.
7. Critical Mass. Most blogs die after 2 weeks. Be consistent, and you can reach critical mass by 1000 posts\articles or 2000 community members.
8. Metrics. Most important metrics to the panelists were domains of visitors, unique visitors, repeat visitors, page views and exit pages. Use Google Analytics to help with this.

MassTLC put on another great event, filled with good panelists and interesting attendees. I look forward to attending their upcoming unConference.

Social Media, Strategy MassTLC, Social Media, Strategy