Twitter and Facebook ROI

July 8, 2012

This has to be one of the biggest questions banging around marketing conferences, blogs and social media gatherings.  “How do we measure the return on my investment (ROI) for the time, money and effort we put into Twitter and Facebook?”

To truly answer that question, you need to define your own ROI. If it is a dollar for dollar equation, then you need to be able to quantify/tie a value to the time spent, calculate the dollars invested and then put the proper tracking/measurement tools in place to link your social media contacts/connections to actual sales.

Are sales the only worthy ROI?  Probably not. Like all marketing — you start by knowing what result you want.

• Are you trying to create a community that will tell the world about your new book, product or ?
• Do you want people to sign a pledge or commit to a cause?
• Do you want email addresses because your sales cycle requires a lot of education and time, so you want to create a drip campaign?
• Do you want to identify like-minded business people so you can create a safe place to generate thought leadership?

I have nothing against sales.  It’s how we all pay our mortgages.  But I just want to remind you, there are many worthy outcomes of any marketing effort.  And that’s certainly true of Twitter and Facebook. As Stephen Covey taught us, begin with the end in mind.

This infographic from InventHelp (click here to check them out) begins to dig at the question and explore potential answers.  Take a look at it and then tell me — what do you want from your social media efforts?

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Win a ticket to attend AdAge’s Invite Only event

July 7, 2012

AdAge is hosting their CMO Strategy Summit in a couple weeks (July 18th) in Chicago. (read more about it here)  The event is by invitation only and you have to be a:

• Brand Marketers
• CMOs
• VP/Marketing
• Agency Executives with Clients

They’ve got speakers (mostly CMOs) from companies like Build A Bear, Cabot Creamery and Virgin Mobile so you know the content will be pretty compelling.

Why am I telling you all this?  Because I have two complimentary tickets to give away.  

But the timing is tight — I need to give away these tickets on Wednesday the 11th, so you have time to make arrangements to get there.  So I am going to make it very simple.

Leave a comment, saying you are one of the four “types” listed above (agency folks — you do have to bring a client to get in) and that you will definitely attend.  I’ll use www.random.org to pick two winners.

Feel free to spread the word.  The more entries the better.  Also, if you end up not winning but want to track the live tweets — watch for hashtag #AACMO

Update:  Congrats to Roger and Joe – our lucky winners! I’ll be reaching out to both of you as soon as I get details from our friends at AdAge!

Thanks everyone who entered!

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The “how to” of business blogging

July 2, 2012

Blogs, once described as the vehicle for narcissistic over sharers and people who found cats amusing, have certainly come into their own.

Today, while there are still plenty of hobby bloggers out there, the tool is being embraced by businesses and thought leaders in record numbers.

The benefits a blog can bring to a business are multifold:

• Blogs, when built properly, can have a significant impact on search engine results and traffic to your site
• Blogs can establish expertise and credibility for a business
• Blogs can drive traffic to your web presence
• Blogs can shorten the sales cycle by establishing a relationship long before the first inquiry
• Blogs can encourage thought leadership within your organization
• Blogs can lead to other media interviews/opportunities
• And many more!

Sadly, most companies who launch a blog either do it badly or don’t sustain the blog for more than a couple months. If you’re thinking of launching a company blog, here are some basic best practices that will help assure you a solid start.

Build it on a platform optimized for blogging: I can’t imagine why anyone would build a blog today on anything but WordPress. It is relatively inexpensive to use, it is constantly being improved with new updates and plugins, the search engines love it and it has a very simple interface so that anyone who can work with Microsoft Word can add, modify or remove content.

There are other blogging specific platforms out there that are also good alternatives to consider. Whatever you do — don’t let anyone talk you into building your blog on proprietary software that doesn’t allow you to change hosts, servers and control your own site.

Have a strategic plan/editorial calendar: Don’t put your first finger on the keyboard until you have thought about why you’re doing this in the first place. Put some SMART goals in place, know what audiences matter to you and map out the logistics of writing/maintaining a blog. We literally invest most of a day with clients who want to map this out properly. Don’t short-change this critical step.

Write to/for your audience: A blog is not a place for you to put your press releases, talk about what’s on sale or push your products. You need to know who your audience is and you need to know what matters to them.

Unless other marketing tactics, a blog is permission based. People choose to read your content or not. If all you do is talk about yourself, they will not choose to keep reading.

Practice before you publish: For many companies – blogging sounds great in theory but when it comes to actually having both the discipline and the desire to sustain it over time – they fall short. To blog well and right – takes a significant time commitment. Not only do you need to create the content but you also need to respond to readers who ask questions or add to the conversation.

We have all of our clients actually blog for 30-45 days “behind the curtain” so we can help them find their voice, identify potential problems and they can get a taste for what blogging is all about. That way, if they decide it’s not something they can sustain – we haven’t publicly launched something new and then have to explain why it’s already going away. Or worse – is just left there, dormant.

For many businesses, a blog should be a no brainer. But, a blog is an organic, constantly evolving marketing tool that at best, you have some control over. But by it’s very nature – it’s going to grow and change in ways you can’t imagine. So it requires some forethought, careful planning and a watchful eye.

Make it work for you by doing the work to get it right.

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Happy Social Media Day

June 30, 2012

Today (June 30th) is Social Media Day — started by Mashable to celebrate “the one thing that unites us and keeps us in constant contact: social media. Whether you’re an obsessed Instagram photographer, an endless Pinterest pinner or a ten-times-an-hour tweeter, Social Media Day is a time to recognize the digital revolution that has changed how we live.”

People from all over the globe are gathering together to acknowledge that our world is very different today, thanks to social media — whether you have re-connected with a high school friend because of Facebook, found a job thanks to Twitter or built a business from your digital connections.

In Des Moines — there’s a tweet up tonight (details here) and for those of us who are traveling — we had the opportunity to create a short video to share our thoughts and talk about how social media has changed our world.

I’m in California, celebrating my daughter’s birthday (can you say Disneyland?) but used my very limited imovie talents to create a little something.  This is proof positive that you don’t have to be good at video to use video.

To all of you who have commented on this blog, subscribed, followed me on Twitter, met me at an event, attended Blogger Social or been an author in one or more of our Age of Conversation books — thank you.

You have enriched my life and I am grateful.

Here’s how I captured that in my talking PPT!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7rOGQKQ0Q8&feature=plcp[/youtube]

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Age of Conversation 4 — want to be one of our authors?

June 28, 2012

We know… it’s crazy. But Gavin and I are ready to do it again. This time, we’d like Age of Conversation to take on a much more personal tone… how is social media impacting you, your work, your family and your view on life? Your chapter might be as elaborate as a real case study or it might be as simple as your best time saving trick. But it’s about you and how you “do” social.

This time, we’re doing both one and two page chapters. (see below)

Here are the sections for the book:

ONE PAGE CHAPTERS

One page chapters are grouped into “sections” to provide a sense of cohesion to the topics covered. (One page = 400 words or so) This year’s sections are:

Secrets – what is a secret, what is your secret and what are the limits of privacy in the Age of Conversation?
Transparency – what does it mean for a business to be transparent? How do you go about making your brand or business transparent? And what happens if transparency fails?
Authenticity – what does it mean to humanize a brand? What happens when business gets personal and how does so-called “authenticity” impact you on a personal and professional level?
Unexpected Consequences – anything from a painful lesson learned to an unexpected cross the globe friendship. Share your journey in this Age of Conversation
How Do I … – share your tips and tricks on social media. What do you do well and how do you achieve the outcomes you want?

CASE STUDIES – TWO PAGE CHAPTERS

We’d love to have your case studies. (Two pages = 750 words or so) They need to be projects that you have worked on or have been responsible for. You must include measurable results of some sort. We’re not going to get into the whole ROI discussion…but you need to show how it played out. Please don’t propose case studies based on other people’s work.

Want to join in on the adventure with us? We’d love to have you with us!

To sign up —  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?fromEmail=true&formkey=dGhydDdoTmVtZXFLT3V0YzY2ampDUlE6MQ

We’ll be closing the sign ups pretty quickly so if you’re serious about writing a chapter — sign up soon!

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QR Codes – your destination should not be a dead end

June 26, 2012

According to the most recent statistics, 3 bazillion QR codes are scanned every minute. (Okay, maybe I’m off by a half bazillion but you get the idea) And truth be told… most of the destinations suck.

Come on ad agencies, big brands and web gurus — stop creating QR code campaigns that drive the user into a dead end.

What do I mean by a dead end?  A destination where I get stuck.  I watch your video, look at your desktop site (come on people!) or view your print ad (seriously?) but have no where to go from there.

How do you avoid creating a dead end? Remember that marketing is a series of “next steps” so give me one to take.  Try one of these on for size:

• Invite me to sign up for your e-newsletter
• Give me a chance to win something worthwhile
• Ask my opinion (let me vote, rate or comment)
• Give me the chance to share your destination with my social networks
• Let me request a sample
• Offer me a coupon to download or email to myself
• Make it possible for me to call your store/office
• Let me do some product research
• Entice me to buy something

If you can get me to actually scan your QR code, I must have some interest in what you have to say.  Don’t create a stunted, one-way conversation.  Give me a chance to continue the dialogue.

If we don’t start getting a whole lot smarter about the QR code campaigns we create — we’re going to train people that scanning one leads to a frustrating, unsatisfying experience.  Which means that pretty soon, they’re just going to be more noise.

Stop creating dead ends.  Instead, create a real conversation.

 

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How winning works

June 20, 2012

I know a lot of tough people but Robyn Benincasa has to be one of the toughest.

She’s a member of the only all-female firefighting crew in the country and when she’s not saving people’s lives, she is a world champion adventure racer, a Guinness world record kayaker.  Oh yeah, and she started a non-profit called Project Athena, which helps women who have survived a medical challenge like cancer by taking them on a dream adventure (like climbing a mountain) as part of their recovery.

Robyn is a remarkable human being.  She’s also an incredible leader and knows how to win – and what is worth fighting for.  So I was thrilled that she captured her expertise in a book that outlines how each of us can climb to new levels of professional and personal success.  In her book, How Winning Works, (click here to buy*) she shares the eight essential elements of teamwork that she believes is responsible for her own successful and fulfilling life.

Here are Robyn’s eight elements of winning and teamwork:

Total commitment:  There are four P’s of commitment – preparation, planning, purpose and perseverance.

Empathy and awareness:  Do you care about your teammates as much as you care about yourself?  Can you truly put yourself in someone else’s shoes so you know what they need from you?

Adversity management:  Something is going to go wrong.  That’s a given.  How do you deal with things when something goes awry?  Winning at business and in life is really recognizing that the road ahead is filled with problems to solve and is never going to be the easy straightaway you’d hoped for.  How you deal with those setbacks, frustrations, surprises and challenges will determine if you win.

Mutual respect: On any winning team, there’s a high level of mutual trust, respect and loyalty.   You have to be able to recognize what each person contributes and celebrate that at the same time you’re minimizing the elements you aren’t crazy about.

We thinking:  You have to constantly be looking for ways to utilize your collective resources for the best possible outcome.   This is the lesson glory hounds have the toughest time with.   This is about finishing strong as a team – not racing across the finish line first and then waiting for your teammates.

Ownership of the project: For a person or a team to be successful – you need to be able to absolutely immerse yourself in the mission.  You need to see the goals as your goals.  See the outcome as your responsibility and attach a significant amount of emotion to accomplishing that desired outcome.

Relinquishment of ego: Every successful person realizes they come equipped with both strengths and weaknesses.  Every team member will be both the strongest and the weakest link somewhere along the way.  You need to be able to recognize your strengths so you can offer those to the effort but you also need to know your weaknesses, so you can expose them to your team – so they can help overcome them.

Kinetic leadership: Leadership, on the best teams, revolves among the teammates.  That requires that everyone on the team can both step up to the role but even more important – step away from the role, when they’re not the one best suited to lead at that given moment.

What I loved about this book is that it goes beyond listing the eight elements.  Robyn tells amazing, impossible to forget stories, offers pragmatic exercises and what she calls synergy starters – ways to actually put the teaching into practice.

If you’ve already achieved success and want to make sure that you, your family and your co-workers experience even more or if you’re just starting out and are hungry for success – grab this book and enjoy your adventure with Robyn.

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10 Tips to Improve Your SEO results

June 15, 2012

Drew’s note:  Here’s a guest post by Brad Shorr on a topic everyone wants to know more about — how to improve SEO.

Don’t be daunted by the complexity of SEO – especially now. Google has introduced a ton of changes to their ranking formula recently, most of which penalize complicated, manipulative SEO tactics. As a result, SEO has become simpler. Today the keys are:

• • Having a clean site that communicates well with Google
• • Creating great content that naturally attracts backlinks

Here are 10 crucial items for a 2012 SEO tune-up. The first five are onsite SEO activities, and the next five are offsite activities.

1. 1. Update keyword research. Popular search terms change. Your business model may have changed as well. If you’re ranking well for keywords that have lost strategic value, all you’re doing is attracting visits from the wrong prospects.
2. 2. Update title tags and content. Once your keywords are updated, put them in meta title tags and on-page content. Don’t just cram the keywords in: if necessary, rewrite pages to make the new keywords completely relevant.
3. 3. Add new pages for additional keyword terms. Google loves fresh content. Add pages or blog posts steadily over time, using less popular (“long tail”) terms with strategic value.
4. 4. Run an SEO diagnostic. Google’s Webmaster Tools is a great, free online resource that itemizes your site’s SEO issues making cleanup easy for you or your developer.
5. 5. Set up a good internal linking system. The pages you link to most often on your site are the ones Google thinks are most important. We often recommend displaying links to your top lead-generating pages in the footer of the site, using keywords in the anchor text of the links.
6. 6. Update good backlinks. Let’s move to offsite SEO issues. If you know of links coming into your site from popular sites/blogs, check the anchor text on those links. Ideally, anchor text should include keywords. If not, ask if they can change it.
7. 7. Remove bad backlinks. If you know of links coming into your site from content farms, ad sites, and other sources with bad online reputations, remove them. These links could lower your rankings.
8. 8. Do guest posts. A great way to create valuable backlinks is to write useful content on high quality blogs. Guest posts normally include a link(s) back to the writer’s site.
9. 9. Update directory listings. Many people list their site in directories when it launches and never look back. Make sure those directory listings are up-to-date in terms of keywords and pages you’re linking to.
10. 10. Update social media profiles. Along the same lines, keep keywords and links current for your profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – and Google+ if you’re there. People tend to forget about their profiles on peripheral social sites such as Twellow and FriendFeed, so keep those on your SEO radar as well.

 

Brad Shorr is Director of Content & Social Media for Straight North, a Chicago marketing firm. They work with B2B clients in specialized niches, such as knife safety gloves and high visibility clothing. Brad writes frequently on SEO and its relationship to social media and content strategy.

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My reading secrets

June 11, 2012

Many of you write to ask how in the heck can I read as much as I do.   I am admittedly a voracious reader — consuming two or three books a week.

I’m now going to reveal my reading secrets.

I know it matters:  I’ve always believed that people who read were more successful. It didn’t matter how they ingesting the information (audio, electronic book, old fashioned book, etc.) In fact, Forbes recently asked if you read fast enough to be successful.  So from the time I was a kid, being the Type A that I am… I wanted to be successful, so I read.

I always have 2-4 books going at once:  I am not a linear reader (except for a couple fictional authors that I have to read cover to cover on the day the book is released) so I have a few books going at once.  I might have a couple books on my iPad‘s Kindle, an actual book or two laying around and an audio book in my CD player.  So, I can allow my mood to dictate what I read.

I mix up the genres:  I have a pretty wide range of reading interests.  I read lots of business/marketing books, mysteries, books about Disney/Walt Disney, baseball books, biographies and Harry Potters (Yes, I re-read them).  That way, it keeps reading fresh and fun.

I love www.ReadItForMe.com*:  This service is amazing.  They take a book and offer me the following:

• An overview of the book (a few paragraphs)
• The have a video summary (about 15 minutes) of the book
• A PDF overview (usually 25-35 pages) of the book
• A workbook that allows me to apply the book’s content (5 or so pages)

Their library is pretty robust, mostly business titles like Ann Handley and CC Chapman‘s Content Rules, but they have some biographies like Steve Jobs and a handful of other titles.  They add titles every week.

The pro account runs $29.99/month.  If you want to give the pro account a try at a discount, use the coupon code DREW to get 50% off your first month.  Right now, they’ll let you try the account for free for 7 days.  Even if you only use it for a week, you’ll be glad you tried it.

Plane time is reading time:  I fly a lot and I don’t work on planes.  I read.  It’s much more relaxing and let’s face it, air travel is stressful enough.  So why not marry it with a treat? Living in Des Moines means I have at least two legs to get just about anywhere.  So I’m flying for 2-5 hours.  In that time, because I’m a fast reader, I can knock off two books on average.

There you have it…my reading secrets.  But the real secret — I love to read.  I love the adventures, the new stuff I learn, the fresh ideas and the incredible art that some people create with words.

 

*Affiliate link

Photo courtesy of BigStockPhoto.com

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Find newsletter content in a flash

June 8, 2012

Drew’s note:  Here’s a guest post by Patrick Carver on a relevant topic — how do you create and sustain the creation of an enewsletter.

Don’t you just hate writing newsletters?  We all know the feeling. It’s Saturday afternoon and you realize the company newsletter is due to go out on Monday.  You can feel the blood start to boil when you remember how long it ACTUALLY takes to write all that content.  Don’t you just wish your newsletter would just write itself?

A great option is creating a ‘hybrid’ newsletter using a mix of original and curated content. Curation is a fancy name for finding relevant content (articles, videos, white papers, etc.), qualifying it, and then sharing it with your audience.

Using curated material is a great way to complement your own message and save a lot of time ‘thinking of what to say’.  You can use the outside content as a jumping-off point and establish yourself as a thought leader in your niche at the same time.

The first place to look for free content is through one of the these tools.  Google Reader let’s you add your favorite websites to a list and then view all their most recent posts in one place. A great way to monitor your sites without having to bounce around.  Google Alerts is another free tool that lets you add specific keywords to a list and then will email once a day with relevant links and stories.

There are a handful of social bookmarking sites out there like Delicious, Reddit, and Digg  that will help you find material but these aren’t always terribly useful.  Without a human curation element, there is way too much automated/aggregated content on there to really find what you’re looking for.

One of the best options for finding free content is using a ‘personal newspaper’ service.  The gist is that you add some topics that you’re interested in and then the software produces a personalized digest of the ‘best’ stories on that subject for you.  Some of the more popular products are paper.li , scoop.it , and Flipboard  but there are lots of these sites out there.  AllTop  is a great resource that will list all of the relevant blogs on a topic and display their latest 5 posts.

Now you just have to incorporate all that great content with your newsletter template. People often use an email marketing tool like Constant Contact, MailChimp or InfusionSoft for this. But, if you don’t like messing around with templates, you might consider trying FlashIssue  (it’s Free).

Newsletters can be a lot of work but it’s definitely worth the effort.  Don’t get deterred if your first try doesn’t come out amazing and go viral.  Stick with a core theme but experiment as much possible with different story-lines until you find something that really sticks.  If you can figure out how to speak to your customers in a way that makes them want to listen, you’re on to something big.

Patrick Carver is the Director of Marketing for FlashIssue, the newsletter solution.  You can follow him @FlashIssue or read more of his stuff on the FlashIssue Blog.

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