We all know that in challenging economic times, consumers are less brand loyal than ever. They’ll drop their favorite brands and seek out lower priced alternatives.

But what happens when consumer trust is violated due to safety concerns? Or when expectations are not met due to a real or perceived loss of quality? We know that these issues have a direct impact on consumer spending, and worse: A powerful impact on consumer trust.

My consultancy works with many key consumer product industries and companies that have been impacted by quality and safety issues: toy, food/beverage and consumer electronics, among them. When Progressive Grocer reported on a study commissioned by Deloitte LLP quantifying the damage consumer loss of trust has on brands, in an article titled, Consumers Losing Patience with Recalls: Survey, it was of special interest to me.

I’ve written about the need for transparency, honesty and trust that brands must work at if they are to retain loyal customers, and that goes for B2B and B2C companies. In a past post, I pointed to the need for companies who source materials or labor from abroad to get actively involved in that process and to be able to trace every component of every product. The importance of doing this cannot be overemphasized.

The Deloitte report was conducted by an independent research company online in early September. 1004 adult consumers were polled nationally with a 3.1 margin of error. According to the report: 58% of respondents who heard about product safety and/or quality problems altered their buying habits.

But here’s the most significant part of their findings: these consumers didn’t purchase the products in question for over nine months, making it less likely they would purchase those products or brands ever again.

Now, here are concrete numbers to support my opinion in the toy, consumer electronics, fresh food and packaged food/beverage categories:

• 49% of Deloitte respondents surveyed were “extremely concerned” about the safety of products imported from abroad, especially older consumers.
• Highest level of concern: 53% of women and 56% among consumers aged 55 and older.
• 54% of respondents were more concerned about the safety of fresh food than they were just one year ago.
• 65% expressed “extreme concern” about the safety of products made outside the U.S.
• 73% expressed “extreme concern” about the safety of products made in China; half had the same doubts about products originating in Southeast Asia and Mexico.

What consumers in the survey want:

• 86% want more information about food product safety to appear on food packaging.
• 81% want more information about food product safety to appear on company web sites.
• 81% want more information about food product safety to be provided by the government.
• 67% want the following information on food product labels to help them in making their purchasing decisions: country of origin, product testing certification, quality certification.

Deloitte LLP’s vice chairman and consumer products practice leader, Pat Conroy: “Companies are meeting consumers’ concerns by upgrading or expanding safety procedures, including stricter safety standards, testing, and third-party audits, and government intervention is driving change.”

Questions:
• Do you feel, as a consumer, that enough has been done to ensure product safety?
• Do you feel that there is enough transparency and traceability in consumer goods to earn your trust yet?
• When there has been a recall on products you generally purchase, have you refrained from buying that product or brand again?
• Do you think there will be more incidents involving tainted food, toy or other consumer goods?

I’d love to hear from you.

Photo credit: Robert Hruzek

I recently began to wonder how many of the airlines and hotel chains have really considered “Customer Lifetime Value” in the creation of today's largely calendar-driven loyalty programs. Beyond the motivation to examine year-over-year performance, how was it decided that one year is an adequate period over which to “judge” and reward a customer’s loyalty?

How do these programs take into consideration longer-term customer behavior, patterns, and brand interaction in a market where acquisition is costly and retention is essential? Is it time for change?

Here’s what got me thinking: After almost six years of being on the road full-time, I entered into a reduced travel cocoon in order to focus on my personal life. I transitioned from almost weekly business travel to making trips every 6-10 weeks. Therefore, I wasn’t particularly surprised, two years later, to find that my hard-earned status with almost every major air carrier and hotel chain had expired.

I tried not to think about the years I spent in hotels and the months I spent in the air, as I anticipated this new reality. I emerged from my cocoon and began to travel again and naturally obtained fewer “free” perks and upgrades. Hitting the road as “every day Jill” was great on some levels, because it allowed me to shed my status and (at least in part) experience travel from a different perspective. This has prompted me to question many things: from what the baseline experience “should” be in the air and on the ground, and how the airlines and hospitality industry view customer loyalty as a whole.

Focusing on Frequent Travelers. For the airlines, frequent fliers with “premium” levels of status represent a small percent of total customer base. However, they contribute the most in revenue – hands down. In fact, according one major (anonymous) airline, frequent flyers with "premium" status are worth eight times more than flyers without status. I understand that to a large extent these dynamics apply to frequent travelers in the hospitality industry as well. As such, investing in the retention of frequent travelers is where these companies get the most bang for their buck.

Differentiation in loyalty programs. We know that over time, experiences can become commodities. This is true also for loyalty programs for the major hotels and air carriers, where there is currently little differentiation between programs. As points, miles and pre-boarding have become commodities, many major airlines, like United, have launched new "products" tied to premium seating (read: legroom at front of plane). Passengers with status are given automatic upgrades to premium seating based on availability. Other passengers may purchase upgrades to premium seating for an additional fee. It is significant to note, however, that we are beginning to see seating as a commodity, as well. Airlines like Jet Blue boast more legroom for everyone. Beyond the airlines, hotels like the Holiday Inn Express, offer "perks" like continental breakfast free to all hotel guests.

As benefits become commodities, the next question is, "How can hotel and air carriers capture the affinity of increasingly “flighty” customers?" Perhaps the next field for differentiation will focus on Customer Lifetime Value.

It is only logical that customer patterns do not always play out neatly within the constraints of an organization’s “calendar year. Beyond this, research shows that customers who travel frequently are known to take periodic “breaks” from travel. Therefore, why wouldn't it be logical for companies to build mechanisms in to the customer experience that respond to such trends and usage patterns?

For example, if at mid-year, a customer commences full-time travel, perhaps it would be logical for an airline or hotel to recognize this pattern and leverage an offer that will help “capture” as much of that customer’s travel business as possible.

Sadly, the fact remains that with most major airlines and hotels, unless a customer accumulates a ridiculous number of points beyond the calendar year, s/he runs the risk of a status downgrade at the turn of the calendar year. From a business and cost management perspective, this may be necessary at some level. However, on a psychological level, what this may communicate to an otherwise “loyal” customer is,

“Sorry. We only care about what you’ve done for us lately.”

Should you say this to a frequent traveler who has slept in one of your properties for over one year? Should you say this to a customer who has chosen your airline consistently for a decade of travel? The seasoned road warrior doesn't need a study to tell us that this type treatment may feel slightly punitive in a manner that goes far beyond the color of the membership card.

Unfortunately, most travel and hospitality loyalty programs fail to take the natural patterns of people into consideration. Beyond this, it isn't evident that these companies actually forecast customer lifetime value or take into consideration a value a customer’s accrued value in the establishment of loyalty programs. Unless of course, those customers accrue an incredibly high number of points....

Of course, there are some exceptions. I have to give props to Northwest Airlines and Starwood Hotels Last year, both offered to extend my hard-earned status for a year in exchange for a single flight or stay within a specified period of time. In doing so, these brands behaved as customer advocates – doing what was right for me – and not just what was right for the “business.” The emotional impact of the approach cannot be understated, and I did attempt to retain my status as a result. These relationship tactics made me feel appreciated and made me want to be more loyal to both companies in return.

Beyond rewarding “loyal” customers, hospitality and air travel industries will need to focus on two things in the future.

1. Offering a baseline experience that fosters repeat usage (on time delivery, guaranteed reservations, legroom, food)


2. Developing loyalty schemas that reward both short and long-term customer loyalty in a meaningful way

In the mean time, something is better than nothing. I still have some status, and I still have my points. Ultimately, the challenge remains, (especially in this tight economy) that as companies have less to give away, they must focus on rewarding “loyal customers.” Moving beyond the narrow view of a customer’s true value and taking a more comprehensive approach to follow lifecycle trends and CLV will play an important role in the evolution of the next-generation of customer loyalty programs.

Stop everything you are doing and listen to this podcast! Seriously, if you have never met or had the opportunity to listen to Avinash Kaushik, you must hear this podcast – I guarantee you will learn something!

Sometimes you meet someone so passionate about something that it’s contagious and if you listen closely you can hear me firing off emails to my team in the background about what I am hearing and learning on this podcast.

I had the opportunity to do a podcast with Avinash to discuss some areas where marketers are doing things right and wrong but all of them are simple but extremely powerful uses of web analytics to make their websites and businesses better on the web. We also took some live Twitter questions as we were doing the podcast. But stop reading this and start listening to Avinash – its 25 minutes long but positively electric!

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About Avinash

Avinash Kaushik is the author of the recently published book Web Analytics: An Hour A Day. 100% of Avinash's proceeds from his book are donated to two charities: Doctors Without Borders, The Smile Train.

Avinash is also the Analytics Evangelist for Google and a co-founder of Market Motive.

As a thought leader Avinash puts a common sense framework around the often frenetic world of web research and analytics, and combines that with this philosophy that investing in talented Analysts is the key to long term success. He is also a staunch advocate of listening to the consumer, and is committed to helping organizations unlock the value of web data.

He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences in the US and Europe, such as eMetrics, Ad-Tech, iCitizen, and SES.

You'll find Avinash's web analytics blog, Occam's Razor

Here are two links to posts about the dashboard (the first one was the one I had promised):

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2008/04/the-action-dashboard-an-alternative-to-crappy-dashboards.html

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/03/five-rules-for-high-impact-web-analytics-dashboards.html

There's been a bit of buzz in the blogosphere of late about "personal branding" (if you want to catch up on the kerfuffle, kicked off my occasional blogging provocateur Geoff Livingston, you can pick up the thread here and here and here and here and here).

I don't think anyone will argue whether the bathwater of an inauthentic persona (faux personal brand) should be tossed out. But, let's talk about the baby.

I've tended to view personal branding as a secondary issue. If you're looking to project a personal brand, the primary question to you need to answer first and foremost is: What is your value-add?

You don't have a brand worth a nickel unless you are clear in what value you have to offer. That's true of personal branding, corporate branding, political branding, and whatever other type of branding du jour we'd like to dream up.

I know mine, though it has taken many years to clearly identify and articulate it. But even if you are struggling to put your own value-add into words, you still have that value, and probably those who are closest to you can tell you what it is. Here is an exercise to help you - try to find 5-8 adjectives or nouns that summarize what you do best. Ask your friends and colleagues to help (you might even want to have some fun by making it a Twitter exercise).

Now you're much closer to figuring out your "personal brand," because you're understanding where you add value. And you should think about your value-add on at least 2 levels - the professional level (how do I help my employer and clients succeed and make money?), and the community level (how do I help my family/church/neighbors/network grow and succeed?). Usually, you'll find quite a bit of overlap, because you are you in both realms, and your strengths carry over.

And that's the point about having a personal brand. The best personal brands are those that are authentic - that is, they reflect who you truly are, in all realms. You may emphasize specific activities and outworkings in your projected identity, because we all put our capabilities and strengths to use in tangible realms of endeavor, but that projected identity - that personal brand - is coherent with who you are. If you changed jobs, locations, or responsibilities, your brand would remain quite consistent.

If you're trying to create a persona to hide behind - a faux personal brand - you're wasting time and energy. Toss the bathwater out the window, identify your true value-add, and embrace it. Then you can project yourself without fear, and we won't need to waste so much digital bandwidth beating down "personal branding"!

(Image credit)

The history of marketing has been an unending stream of "biggest sale ever," "now with extra raisins," and "easy financing available." The power of social media is that it allows consumers to peek behind the curtain of brands that have historically been stoic, pushy, and unresponsive.

Successful social media programs cannot be just a digital yellow pages ad for the company. Unfortunately, we've seen a lot of these efforts on Facebook and Twitter recently, where the company sets up shop in social media, but just continues sending one-way promotional messages like they always have in old media. This won't work, and why would it?

Caution, paradox ahead

To really make social media work for your company, your message cannot be ABOUT your company. Unless you're one of the very few companies that already has a natural community of raving fans (apple, nike etc) people don't care about your company enough per se to get involved with you online in a meaningful way.

Instead, you have to find the ONE THING in your company that is truly defining and interesting, and build your social media program around that. It could be something operational. Perhaps your customer service program. How people use your product in unique ways. Anything, as long as it isn't "we're a good company that makes a good product"

Fiskars used the fact that scrapbookers were crazy about their scissors as their ONE THING when they launched the Fiskateers program with the help of Brains on Fire, and now it's a definitive social media case study.

For most people, when they think Zappos they don't necessarily think shoes anymore, they think customer service. That's their ONE THING and they beat that drum continuously.

A campaign I worked on with Mighty Interactive for Exide Batteries focused on NASCAR fans and Exide's status as the official battery of NASCAR, not the fact that they make a great car battery.

It's probably under your nose

Finding the one thing often requires really spending time with the brand and getting a feel for its operations and culture. Agencies can uncover the one thing better than clients can, because for the clients the one thing appears to be no big deal. It's just routine.

Here's an example that pre-dates social media by about 15 years. When I was an intern at an agency in Phoenix I worked on communications for car audio maker Rockford Fosgate. We wanted to devise a campaign that was different from most car audio gear, which typically focuses on testosterone, loudness, and detailed specs.

On a factory tour, we came upon a huge guy with a long black ponytail, a white apron, and a giant rubber mallet that looked like something out of "Cooking with the Hell's Angels." Standing at the end of the assembly line, he grabbed every amplifier off of the line as it came down, and beat it as hard as he could with the rubber mallet about 9 times. After the thrashing, he hooked the amp up to a testing station and made sure it still worked.

We asked the client tour guide about it, and he said it was indeed a daily occurrence, part of Rockford Fosgate's quality assurance program.

A campaign was born.

We convinced the company to let us use the actual guy in the campaign, and we created a series of print ads and media outreaches using the "If We Can't Wail It, We Fail It" tagline, with explanatory copy.

It's too bad social media wasn't around then, because we really could have put some legs on that effort. YouTube video. Guest wailers. Twitter campaign. I'm stoked just thinking about it. (Rockford Fosgate if you still wail it, please steal this idea).

What seems boring to you inside your company might seem fascinating to your customers. It could be your ONE THING. And without it, your social media effort will never take flight.

Do you have examples of the ONE THING? Leave a comment with the brand and their one thing, won't you?

(photo by Qole Pejorian)

You understand that getting involved in social media is something you need to do. As a marketing or communications professional, you already understand the inherent value in giving your customers a clearer voice and connecting with the people who want to know your brand better. And that also means going into your boss's office and initiating The Talk.

If your one of the fortunate ones whose company culture embraces transparency and honest communication, you're a step ahead of the game. But if you're starting from scratch, just where do you start?

1) Lose the Jargon

The term "social media" is intimidating to many who haven't spent any time here. Words like blogging, Twitter, Facebook, community, and social networking can still put quizzical looks on executives' faces.

So when making your case, skip the social media buzzwords and focus on explaining social media tools in terms of what they actually do.Take blogging, for instance. How about describing it as a collection of discussions on your website that allow your readers to comment and respond? Or talk about microblogging platforms like Twitter as an online customer service mechanism.

2) Take it Out of the Marketing Silo.

A truly effective social media plan touches nearly every aspect of a business. It's not limited to communications (though these pros are often the sherpas of a social media program). And a big fear among companies adopting their first social media programs is that they're going to have to reinvent wheel, start over, or turn their current practices inside out.

In reality, social media can enhance and expand your existing business functions, making them more effective.

Point out the benefits that can be realized in improved and more efficient customer service (like Comcast on Twitter). Illustrate how you might gather product insights and improvements for your production group (like Dell did with IdeaStorm). Explain how more dynamic and visible internal communication can lift employee morale (like Best Buy's Blue Shirt Nation).

3) Listen and Benchmark.

Spend 30 days using and setting up listening posts. Set up Google Alerts and run Twitter Search queries for your company, relevant business and industry keywords, and the same for your competitors.

Map out your results, including quantitative (number of mentions) and qualitative (tone, sentiment, or "meatiness") criteria. If neither your nor your competitors' brands are being talked about online much yet, you can illustrate the opportunity to enter the conversation online and lead your industry. If you're being mentioned but your competitors own a larger share of the conversation, time to look at leveling the playing field. And if you're in the fortunate position to have great presence online, focus on how to maintain and grow that in the future.

4) Articulate your goals.

There's absolutely no way you can measure your success unless you set the goal first. Spend time to understand what you want out of social media (and never just jump into it because "everyone else is"). Do you want to increase subscribers to your company newsletter? Improve customer retention or referrals? Decrease negative customer service feedback? Think overall strategies, not tactics, and map each goal to your social media strategy.

5) Steward the culture, not just the operations.

Social media is as much a cultural shift for some companies as it is a procedural one. In addition to adding and evolving business functions, you're asking your business to look at their customer communications through a new lens.

As the champion for social media, understand the adjustments you're asking your colleagues to make in their individual roles within the company. Realize that moving from controlled messaging to transparent communication is a difficult and scary move for companies who may have been doing things the "old fashioned way" for years. Internally processes may have to change or be discussed in detail before the real social media work can begin. Be patient, reassuring, and stay focused on the ultimate goals.

6) Demonstrate that it works.

Case studies, case studies, case studies. There are some amazing resources on the web all about companies doing social media, and doing it well. For example, Peter Kim has a great big list of companies and their efforts to participate in this space. Check out Delicious.com for bookmarks that others have shared on the topic. And a good old fashioned Google search on "social media case studies" will unearth enough to keep you busy for days.

Successful social media is methodical while finding its roots in passion and genuine interest in opening new avenues for communication with your customers. By focusing on the overall value and benefit that it brings to your business, you'll be able to not only communicate social media's importance, but encourage others to join you and discover its potential.

White socks are great. They go with everything, wear forever, and are excellent value for the price. And for those who love this argument, you can't measure ROI.

On the downside, white socks are vanilla to the bosses and not always welcome in the Board Room. Furthermore, they represent discretionary spending and if ROI can't be measured, why would I want them in my dresser drawers?

And there you have it--the classic argument. You can't live with them, but you don't want to live without them. Marketing is a lot like white socks. It shouldn't be.

While marketing goes with everything a business creates and never wears out, have we convinced those who matter most--CEOs, CFOs and our clients that marketing is an excellent value for the price? In these times of economic downturn, we must do a better job of marketing marketing. But how?

Let's begin by ending the argument regarding ROI. When we say we can't measure it, we sound like whiners. Our bosses don't want to hear it and we will never convince them that marketing efforts can't be measured in terms of a return on investment as measured in dollars. Besides, we're making the wrong argument. The issue isn't about social media, social networking, direct marketing, public relations or advertising. Those are tools, and we don't measure ROI against the success of a tool.

Instead, we present ROI based on the success of quarterly and annual results, using a variety of tools measured against the objective and the goals. In other words, if we are charged with launching a product, we will use a variety of tools. The objective might be something about getting the right people to notice the new product and to get that product in the right places. But one of the goals must measure sales. And by working with sales and customer service and retail in this example, the marketing effort can take credit for creating most of the initial sales of the product. The smart marketer, working closely with the other departments, will create a formula that represents each functional area's cost as compared to revenues. Voila! ROI. Is it correct to the penny? No. But ROI almost never is and our bosses won't care as long as we speak with one voice.

Furthermore, we should develop case studies for every campaign, project and objective in which marketing plays a role. Some of it will be anecdotal; much of it needs to be fact based. And that means putting realistic metrics in place. As we produce those case studies, we get them into the hands of everyone who matters. I bet that soon marketing will not be seen as discretionary spending.

Finally, when we are called upon to share marketing success, stop talking in acronyms, jargon and generalities. When we do so, the others around the table hear blah, blah, blah. Be specific. What did we do and how did it work? The what is a few sentences about the audiences we reached, not the tools we used, and the how is ROI in sales revenue or growth as a percentage of total customers.

One more thing: Since many of us are consultants and our first job is to grow our own business, when we reach out to potential clients the board room suggestion is relevant here as well: Share why clients hire us by using specific examples focused on the what we did and the how it worked.

Obviously, this is top line stuff here and not meant to detail a plan. But as advice, it works. I've seen it and I've personally experienced it. Forget discussing tools; those in charge don't care how we do what we do. Discuss results. That's what they care about. Oh, and as for the white socks--only wear them around the house or at sporting events and accept the fact that they don't impress.

This is a sequel to my most recent post dealing with company blogs.

Today, I answer the question, "Should a company have one person as its 'voice' in the market via various social media platforms?"

The simple answer: Yes! Companies should have at least one person participating in the ongoing 24/7/365 conversation that's taking place across a broad spectrum of social media tools like blogs, social networks, Twitter, etc.

Rohit Bhargava, in the introduction of his new book Personality Not Included says, "[For] whatever reason, most companies are adept at removing any sense of individuality or human connection from how they communicate." He calls such companies faceless and says, in this era of the social web "being faceless doesn't work anymore."

Personality Marketing

As Jason Falls so aptly put it in a recent Blog Talk Radio interview, "In the social media world people associate with personal brands more than with company brands."

Jason is, in fact, an apropos example of a personality who, in building his own brand, is doing so in concert with Doe-Anderson, the advertising agency he serves as Director of Social Media.

Another very well-known example is Chris Brogan. Though most associate Chris with his own personal brand, he also serves as VP of Strategy and Technology for CrossTech Media. From what I've been able to discern, Chris and CrossTech CEO Stephen Saber are making a deliberate effort to "marry" the two brands. The 'About Chris' section on his blog gives an indication of the synergy that exists: "Chris Brogan advises businesses, organizations and individuals on how to use social media and social networks to build relationships and deliver value. I work with CrossTech Media."

Considering these and other examples I could cite (Paul Dunay/BearingPoint, David Armano/Critical Mass) I wonder if there won't be a trend toward companies finding social media "celebrities" to serve the role of spokesperson.

The trend is not novel by any means, as celebrity spokespersons have been around as long as media has existed. But what if your company can't afford such a person. What then? Well, you might be lucky enough to have someone like that already existing within your ranks.

The Accidental Spokesperson

In his post Corporate Bloggers and the Rise of the Accidental Spokesperson, Rohit Bhargava says, "One interesting situation that the rise of social media is bringing up...is the increasingly common phenomenon of the accidental spokesperson. These are the individuals that are working for an organization and blogging, but are not considered official spokespersons." The most classic example of this phenomena is, of course, Robert Scoble and Microsoft.

I would suggest that if your company is fortunate to have someone who is gaining a degree of noteriety that you take advantage of it (in a good way) to benefit of your corporate brand. While "no prophet is recognized in his own country," to neglect such a person is to risk losing them to a company with keener vision and insight into the value an "accidental" spokesperson could provide. Instead, find ways to reward them and put some effort into further increasing their celebrity status. As an old proverb says, "When the tide comes in, all the ships will rise."

What if you don't have an accidental spokesperson? Can "one person" still represent the company?

Six Apart's Ginevra Whalen

Recently, I experienced a problem with my blog, which is built on the Typepad platform. I "tweeted" the problem to my followers and it wasn't long before @SixApart responded inquiring about the matter. Turns out @SixApart is employee Ginevra Whalen, community manager with Typepad, who suggested I email her with more details than the 140 character limit Twitter would allow. I compiled and Ginevra quickly responded with an email of her own.

I noticed that Ginevra's email signature included a link to her personal blog, which I clicked. In so doing I came across one particular post that caught my attention (one having to do with dogs) and emailed Ginevra to comment on it. In response, she sent an email with a link to another site she thought would be of interest.

Think about this for a moment. Because Six Apart is smart enough to have someone, albeit not a "celebrity spokesperson," accidental or otherwise, paying attention to what customers and others are saying about its products via social media, I got my own personal "concierge" to assist with my issue. She's a real person whom I am getting to know by means of Twitter, email conversations and her blog. Compare that interaction to one with those "faceless" companies that require me to complete some impersonal form or phone their call center. With which would you prefer to do business?

"I really think bloggers, and customers of any service in general, deserve a bit more personal support than what folks have gotten lately: call centers and spam and 'RTFM' just don’t make people feel helped," said Ginevra. "Especially in a down economy, connections are important! And since blogging is really about making connections, I think those real-human interactions are both valuable and welcome."

Even though Ginevra may not be considered a celebrity in the same way we would think of a Scoble, Falls or Brogan, she is a voice, a spokesperson, speaking on behalf of SixApart. Through Ginevra, Six Apart now has become, for me at least, a company with a human face and personality. My trust in them has increased and my connection to them has been strengthened.

The question of "one"

In my post dealing with company blogs the issue was raised whether a company should have one person blogging or many voices. I opted for many. In the same respect, I don't think a company should limit themselves to one spokesperson. What if Six Apart had many Ginevra's, for example. How much greater might the impact in pr and customer relations be?

(Truth is they do. Ginevra mentioned that Anil Dash, VP of Evangelism, handles questions related to Movable Type and David Recordon, one of 6A's core engineers, manages some of the deeply technical issues.)

At the company I serve as marketing director, I'm primarily the one reaching out via the blog and social mediasphere. What if I could get other employees to follow the same practice? Depending on the number, the impact becomes multiplied, even exponential. That is, in fact, beginning to happen. Our SVP of Sales is leveraging LinkedIn to build his network and has even started a group which numbers at the time of this writing in excess of 150 members.

We've asked our management staff to join the group and actively participate. As a result, a great deal of discussion has ensued and our brand, via employee spokespeople, is squarely in the middle. (I've also managed to get our CEO to start Twittering, a feat of which I'm extremely proud! And he's enjoying it to boot.)

Well, that's it, my attempt to answer the question of whether a company should have one person serving as their "voice" in the social mediasphere. Now, I'd like to hear from you. What would your answer be?

Got questions about the "how-tos" of blogging or social media? The handyman is here to help. Either leave a comment or email me at pchaney at gmail dot com. I'll be happy to address them.

How would you like to drive sales 45% and achieve an all-time company high in product sales? And at the same time, create word of mouth about your product and make customers feel a connection with your brand? Sound too good to be true?

The video below is part of a marketing campaign called "Inspired Season" implemented by Gonzaga Universtity in Spokane, Washington. It has achieved all of the above.

The copy reads:

So below, DO enter your name and number of the phone near you - your mobile or at your desk. (If you enter a fake information, you'll ruin the effect. Trust me).

In his book Zag, Marty Neumeier says... to stand out from your competition, when they zig, you should zag. Well, the Gonzaga Bulldogs women's basketball team is GonZagging.

I found out about this project from e-mail sent directly from Matt Beckman the Director of Marketing for Gonzaga University Athletics. He even addressed it with MY name on it. It wasn't a press release boiler plate, or a generic "dear blogger." So not only is Gonzaga connecting with their fans and supporters, but also reaching out to influencers like us!

Dan Heath, co-author of the best selling book Made to Stick, recently commented on his blog that this made him want to buy season tickets even though he lives 2,600 miles away from Spokane.

Sport marketers face the additional challenge of "fair weathered customers" we retail marketers don't experience. When Shop N' Save Grocery Store isn't doing as well as Safeway, customers don't stop going to Shop N' Save. However, when a sports team has a poor season? Fans (customers) complain, they're crabby, season ticket holders seek refunds, there are fights in the parking lot, and people stop buying tickets.

In a time with so much news about things that aren't working properly, it's great to see someone experiencing record sales. And how, with imagination and creativity (and not a big budget) they got it done.

Nice work to the Spokane-based agency behind the creative, Magner Sanborn. Well done, Gonzaga!

There’s been a lot of buzz around the social media release (SMR) lately and since it’s an upheaval and departure from a 100-year old tradition, I thought I’d share my experience with utilizing an SMR (or a variation of one) sprinkled with a few opinions for good measure.

The SMR made its debut back in May 2006 and yet, almost two and half years later, there still isn’t a wide adoption of it from public relations or marketer’s alike. Some larger companies are using the SMR, but that’s about it.

If you take a look at the original design of the SMR, it really is a complete departure from what public relations & marketing professionals have had drilled into their heads for decades. And, if you aren’t involved in social media, a lot of the sections might make absolutely no sense. What’s more, if the reporters/journalists/editors you are targeting aren’t involved in social media, they might not get it either.

Here’s why:

Yep, the contact information, headline and subhead might all be the same and comfortable…but that’s where the comfort ends.

The additional sections include:

• Core News Facts (akin to the who, why, what, when, where, how, but in a bulleted format)
• Link & RSS Feed to Purpose-built del.icio.us page
• Multimedia
• More multimedia available by request (i.e. download white paper)
• Pre-approved quotes (okay, this is familiar, but the quotes are not within context of the release)
• Links to relative coverage to date
• Boilerplate Statements
• RSS Feed to Client’s News Release
• “Add to del.icio.us”
• “Technorati Tags/Diff this

If the above sounds like an alien language to you, you’re not going to embrace it, right? And breaking that 100-year old tradition is scary. Agreed. As well, with an SMR, the reporter/journalist/editor might need to piece the story together themselves. With all the cutbacks in the magazine and newspaper industries, that’s a lot to ask of someone who might already be overworked. Some times, they just like to publish the release as received. Of course, there are lots of times they don’t…but let’s stick to simplicity for now.

So, how can you make your news releases a little more social with a bit of a safety net (I mean, PR and marketing professionals are still held accountable for results last time I checked). Try utilizing PRWeb, Business Wire’s EON, or a similar service that offers a version of a “social” release. You can use your traditional release style, but optimize it for search, keywords, media (i.e. a video, podcast, website, brochure, etc.), and sharing (the social part). That’s a departure that’s not so drastic, right?

Recently, testing the waters of the “social” release pool, we tested two releases, one major news release in a traditional format over the business wire and one minor news release in an optimized “social” format over PRWeb.

The results?

The minor release provided 1,330 Google hits and 258 media downloads while the major traditional news release received 243 Google hits and no media downloads (because there wasn’t the option to use any). Again, no web analytics here for simplicity’s sake.

Are these two releases apples & oranges? Of course. But when budgets are tight and you are looking for the biggest bang for the least marketing buck, my bet goes to the “social” release because it provides:

1. Search engine optimization (you can optimize the release on the backend with keywords)
2. Hyperlinks within the release (inbound links to your site do wonders for natural search)
3. Tags (again, think searchable)
4. Media (a way to virally spread your work)
5. Sharing (a way for people to bookmark and share your news)

Is this a scientific approach? No. But, using a “social” release seems to provide more hits, traffic and shared media than a traditional, standard release.

Why is any of this important?

One, utilizing keywords might allow someone to find you that might otherwise not know you. Two, there is the potential that your news will be shared by people who do know you with people who don’t. Three, you can make the most of the money you spent on media (videos, podcasts, collateral, etc.).

What do you think? Would you try a “social” release? If you have, what experiences can you share?

I've had a few questions sent my way thus far, including these: "Should a company blog be written by one person, or several, or by a faceless 'voice?' Should a company have one person as it's 'voice' in the market via various social media platforms?"

Allow me to respond to the first in this post followed by a response to the second tomorrow.

Single voice or many voices

There is ample precedent for either approach, but I think the choice comes down to a matter of a) the availability of personnel resources and b) the company culture.

For example, I work for a small software company with 30 employees. We've made a conscious decision to incorporate blogs and social media into our marketing paradigm. In fact, we're in the process of rolling out a new multi-blog site called User Friendly Thinking (yet to go live) and have nine employees contributing to it. Well, we are supposed to have nine contributors. The last time I checked, only three posts had been written.

That's not a castigation of either our employee contributors or the company. It is a statement of the fact that these people have other things to do and the time they have to blog is limited.

The lack of activity also speaks to the fact that our company has yet to fully embrace the mantra that "markets are conversations" and "participation is marketing." We're only now coming to grips with the philosophy that marketing is no longer relegated to the marketing department.

I suspect that's a mindset shared by many companies, large and small. Take into consideration that, according to Burson Marsteller, only 15 percent of Fortune 500s are making effective use of blogs and that percentage far exceeds the number of small businesses engaged in some form of social media marketing and my point is made.

Enough complaining Paul...answer the question!

Given that a company could commit personnel resources and has adopted a transparent, participatory mindset, if I had my druthers, I'd choose to have many voices speaking to the blogosphere rather than one.

The reasons are manifold:

• For one, it gives the company much more Google juice, especially if the blogs are outside the company's own server/IP range.
• Second, it increases the amount of content available for both search engines and humans to consume. That translates into the potential for higher traffic, a greater likelihood that others will link to the content, and improved SERPs.
• Third, it gives the company many human touch points.

While it's still only a small percentage of the total employee base, it's not the number that's of greatest significance, but the philosophy that says rather than have one human touch point, why not have many.

Dell takes a similar approach. Their digital media team consists of 46 employees (yes, 46!) who contribute to a dozen blogs and who constantly monitor and engage the blogosphere and Twitterverse for mentions of Dell. (One of the team members well-known to many of you, Richard Binhammer, told me via Twitter that it's becoming "everyone's" job.)

Good for them, but I own a small business

I come back to my original premise. It's a matter of available personnel resources combined with company culture. Organizations who have adopted a mindset that social media is no longer merely the purview of the marketing or PR departments are succeeding at building a positive reputation and stronger brand online.

If a company's resources are limited to the degree they can only afford to dedicate one person, I say one is better than none. It's important to have a voice in the blogosphere, even if it's a soloist.

The question then arises, who should that person be? The marketing director? CEO? Customer service manager?

If you have someone at the helm like Michael Hyatt, President and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing, then absolutely the CEO. Michael has a transparent spirit and a unique, warm and engaging voice that's been honed over years of blogging. He has led his company to embrace blogging - including company blogs and book review blogs - to the point where it's part of their corporate DNA.

Unfortunately, not many companies are blessed with someone as well-suited to blogging as Mike Hyatt. In that case, I would suggest finding a person, up or down the line, who is already actively engaged in the social mediasphere and who understands the environment, regardless of their departmental affiliation or position. Give them a new title, Chief Blogger, or even a new job!

A great example of this is a New Orleans oilfield services company, Halo Supply. When Halo commissioned their new site they needed someone to maintain it and found an employee, Tyrus Smith, who worked, believe it or not, as a delivery truck driver. Tyrus had, on his own, learned HTML and Web design. One day he was driving a delivery truck and the next managing the company Web site. (You gotta love that!) Now, Tyrus is putting a number of social media forms into play, including YouTube videos, Picasa photo albums and, very soon, a company blog.

Finally, what about the "faceless voice?"

My answer is straightforward -- absolutely not! Both the blog and social mediaspheres are built on twin cornerstones of authenticity and transparency. Having a nameless, faceless "voice" in no way represents either of those ethics. Not only that, social media marketing is really "personality marketing." Just read Rohit Bhargava's new book Personality Not Included and you'll see what I mean.

Bottom line, if your company can devote multiple personnel to blogging and social media engagement, I encourage it. If not, commission at least one person to be your voice crying in the wilderness. And it doesn't have to be the CEO. Given Halo's example, it might be someone you'd never expect.

Tomorrow I'll answer the sequel question, "Should a company have one person as it's 'voice' in the market via various social media platforms?"

Got questions about the "how-tos" of blogging or social media? The handyman is here to help. Either leave a comment or email me at pchaney at gmail dot com. I'll be happy to address them.

(BTW - Sorry for the latency in posting of late, especially considering I just started. Not exactly a good precedent. However, New York City beckoned and my wife, Amie, and I had to heed the call.)

An interesting new concept is cropping up these days, according to the Wall Street Journal. In a nutshell: large consumer product companies are looking for the inventive ideas many small business owners and entrepreneurs have—in order to gain an edge. Let’s face it: in increasingly competitive, slowing markets where a continual pipeline of new products is called for, this is an interesting proposition. In exchange: a piece of the action.

In a recent WSJ article, “My Brain, Your Brawn,” Kraft is cited for implementing a program that seeks out innovative ideas from small business people. Steve Goers, VP for open innovation and investment at Kraft shrewdly pointed out: “The world has gotten much smaller, and innovation is happening at small businesses.”

The trade-off: entrepreneurs get exposure and distribution for their product ideas. . .”usually in return for handing over autonomy, naming rights and marketing control, and a good chunk of the profits”. Still, for most cash-strapped entrepreneurs and idea-hungry CPG companies, this could be a win-win.

According to Kraft, for example, various kinds of agreements can be struck, from partnerships to licensing agreements to joint developments. Of course the company is most interested in working with entrepreneurs whose ideas are patented or protected as proprietary.

With the marketing and testing capabilities of companies like Kraft, as well as their deep pockets, products can be slightly amended so that they have a higher percentage chance of success in the marketplace. These are assets the average entrepreneur cannot afford.

And this idea is catching on. Procter & Gamble is soliciting ideas from outside sources. General Mills launched its Worldwide Innovation Network in early 2007 to call for inventive new ideas from entrepreneurs, as well. According to General Mills Senior VP for innovation, technology and quality, Peter Erickson, 300% more ideas have come into General Mills since it launched this initiative.

According to consultant Cheryl Perkins, who helps entrepreneurs in these kinds of ventures with large CPG companies, these inventors should seek patents for their ideas, or at the very least, trademarks for their own protection. It also signals to large companies that “you have an intellectual asset that’s worth buying from you.”

Questions:
• What do you think of the idea of large companies soliciting ideas from entrepreneurs and small businesses?
• What are the advantages/disadvantages for both sides?
• Would you consider approaching a large company if you had a great idea you couldn’t finance, as long as you secured patent protection?
• If not, what would you do to realize your dream idea?

I’d love to hear from you.

2009: A year that's looming larger each day for social media. Or is it?

Times are tough. Many people may be looking forward to four years of hope and change, but the realities of a slumping global economy are upon us today. As we conclude budgeting season - or some procrastinating companies are just beginning - social media undoubtedly has received more attention for integration than ever.

On one hand, social media tools can be inexpensive and an effective way to create deep customer relationships. However, they don't scale very well and measurement is a mystery.

On the other, traditional media provide reach and create awareness better than any other tools. However, they can be extremely expensive and many consumers are conditioned to ignore these messages.

So what's next? Is 2009 going to be the year that social media makes it big? Will social be bleeding edge while traditional digital (e.g. search, email, display ads) are leading edge? Or will the current business environment knock social and its experimental nature back a few quarters from adoption, maybe more?

Frankly, I'm overwhelmed by all the options available for Internet/interactive/electronic/social media marketing. That's why it's refreshing to see something simple that works.

About a week ago I got an email from my favorite record store. Inside, there was just four lines of text. No images. No flash. No links. No HTML wizardry. No articles on topics of interest.

But those four brief lines of copy spoke to the mutant inside of me. And drove me (and other mutants) to the store.

See how and why this worked:

I have a Dell Vostro laptop. It's not a particularly impressive machine, in fact you could say it's pretty boring. But I already know that my next laptop is also going to be a Dell. And the reason why I've already made that choice has nothing to do with the product, and everything to do with the people that stand behind it.

How many times have you heard that "people want to have relationships with companies/brands"'? I say that's complete BS. I have enough trouble with the relationships I have with real people, why would I want to add companies to the mix?!?

But many branding/marketing 'experts' are trying to sell companies on the idea that people want to have a 'relationship' with the companies that sell the products that they buy.

Do I want to have a relationship with Dell? Is that why my next laptop will be a Dell? Of course not. My next laptop will be a Dell because I have met and connected with so many members of Dell's team. I have sat at a table and talked social media with John Pope and Amie Paxton. I've moderated a panel about corporate blogging that Lionel Menchaca sat on. And perhaps most importantly, Richard Binhammer has given me a ride back to my hotel after the taxi never showed up.

But spontaneous name-dropping aside, the REAL reason why my next laptop will be a Dell is because if I pull it out of the box and it doesn't work, I know that all I have to do is go to Twitter and tweet that to Richard/John/Lionel/Amie/Chris/Natalie and one of them will get back to me within minutes to help me.

If I buy a Compaq/HP/Apple/Gateway/Toshiba laptop and it's a brick out of the box, I have no idea who to contact about it. With Dell, I can think of at least 5 people that work there that I have either personally met, or talked on the phone with, or both, that would be tripping over each other to see who can help me first.

That's big. In an era where the customer is demanding more than ever before from companies when it comes to service, social media has allowed Dell to get a huge leg up over their competitors. Social media has allowed Dell's employees to connect with me, and that's why they will get my future business.

The big question is, why aren't Dell's competitors using these same tools in the same way to let their employees connect with me?

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Ok so I’m following along the Blog Mastermind Program and Yaro suggests that we add more personality to our blogs to develop a closer relationship with our reader. One way he says is to add your picture to your blog to show your personality and build your brand. Yaro says… I want you to be very open, [...]

Do you have a business blog? Bravo! Blogs are a fantastic way to connect with your target audience and existing clients alike. Our fellow Small Business Branding blogger Nick Rice mentions that in a recent post too. Yet, there is one problem I see consistently among small business blogs and that is their URL. I Cringe Every [...]