Reputation Management

Buzz Monitoring Tools in the Wrong Hands

Written November 30th, 2011 by

Dangerous in the Wrong HandsI was both appalled an intrigued this week about the story that took off like wildfire in the press where a high school senior dared to tweet her negative opinion about a government official, in this case, the governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback.  The article on CNN, “The girl who dared to tweet about Gov. Brownback” actually caused me to pause and consider how buzz monitoring tools in the wrong hands can cause disastrous situations.

In this case, the wrong hands is a spin happy PR team trying to save a political figure’s reputation.  When a PR team uses a buzz monitoring tool to seek out negative comments and fires all cannons on the commentor without regard to free speech and understanding the power of social communities, it’s definitely in the wrong hands.  It’s also why you cannot just take this tools an apply them without a strategy, you should have a clear cut policy to respond to negative comments spelled out and not allow anyone, not even your PR team, to go rogue.
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Apply The USP Mindset Sitewide

Written August 24th, 2011 by

Most business owners have been asked at one time or another to describe their USP (Unique Selling Proposition), so it’s not uncommon to learn that they’ve already created and memorized their USPs and are able to recite their 30-second elevator pitches without any thought. If that sounds like you, great, and if not, you should probably start working on that. But I’m not really here to prompt you to define your company’s USP or develop an elevator pitch for your business. Instead, I want to encourage you to take that same mindset, scale it down, and apply it to every important page of your website.

elevatorpitch

USP – Real or Perceived Benefit

Let’s start by recalling the definition of a USP. BusinessDictionary.com defines a USP as:

“Real or perceived benefit of a good or service that differentiates it from the competing brands and gives its buyer a logical reason to prefer it over other brands. USP is often a critical component of a promotional theme around which an advertising campaign is built.“

Start With The Obvious

Obviously, since the definition specifically mentions goods and services, it’s easy to imagine how one might apply a USP to a product page on a website. Of course, just because it’s easy to imagine it, doesn’t mean everyone actually applies it! So, the first step is to recognize that you should be determining what the USP of each of your products or services might be. If you have a huge catalog of products, this task will be a daunting one, so begin with the most important ones first, and work your way through as time allows. And of course, once you determine the USP of each product, make sure the product’s web page prominently focuses on that USP. Don’t make visitors guess. Tell them right up front what makes this product or service better than anything else in its class.

Consider All Important Pages

Don’t stop with products and services, however. Analyze each of the other important pages on your site as well. Even your “about” page and “testimonials” page can be put through the USP challenge. The key is to think about each main page of your site as though it needs to outperform similar pages on your top competitors’ sites. What makes your page more interesting, more informative, or better in some way than a similar page on a competitor’s site? If the answer isn’t obvious, then it’s time to examine what needs to be done to make it better.

no bling

Don't throw bling on a page, just for bling's sake.

In some cases, the unique “draw” for the page might be as simple as including a video to bring life to a page full of text. In others, perhaps bringing some interactive elements onto the page that engages the user will differentiate your page from the competitions’. Don’t throw bling on a page, just for bling’s sake, of course. It’s not about “bling”; it’s about differentiation; it’s about engagement; it’s about standing out and drawing in. That “about” page I mentioned? Maybe the touch it needs is simply to help visitors truly “know” you by being insanely transparent. Only you can determine what the USP of each page should be. I challenge you to find it.

The next time someone asks for your USP, ask them which one they’d like to know more about! Let them know that you’ve considered every aspect of your company, your service, your products, and your website, noting what is truly unique and worthy of capturing and holding your customers’ attention for each.

My momma always said, “If you’re going to do something, you may as well do it right“. She was right much more often than she was wrong, so I try to follow her advice. I think she’d say something like, “Don’t take the easy route by just creating one overall business USP and elevator pitch, and then call it a day. Dig down deep and apply the USP mindset to each important aspect of your business.” I think you’ll be surprised at the amazing ROI you’ll receive from implementing that process. (Don’t forget to set specific goals, and track conversions when you implement this!)

Need help getting that message across to visitors on each of your website’s pages? Da Li Social is happy to help make it happen. Just ask.

Audience Research: Don’t Fall for the Counting Trap

Written August 3rd, 2011 by

Traveling and speaking at many conferences, I’m often asked, “How do you come up with a successful strategy for a client? Do you use Twitter, Facebook or YouTube?” I reply that it all depends on my client. Now that may sound like I’m side stepping the answer, but to be perfectly honest, that is exactly the right answer.

There’s No Cookie Cutter Solutions

Photo credit Flickr user coljay72 I know everyone would love to have a “rip open the box and install” solution to creating the perfect online marketing strategy, especially when it comes to social media. However, while a few tactics can be considered to be standard, i.e. securing profiles in social media communities like Facebook & Twitter, how you engage in them can be a totally different story. That’s why research is so vitally important to an integrated marketing strategy in today’s world of marketing to consumers.

There are a variety of different tools you can use to help you with your research. From free to paid, you will get what you pay for. The more expensive the tool, the more information you are going to receive, in both the amount of records and the type of data. From sheer ‘counting’ to actual sentiment analysis, some tools can be very overwhelming in what they bring back – let alone being able to pull actionable insights from that data in order to build a sound strategy for a marketing plan.

Don’t Fall for the Counting Game

When you are beginning to do your research it’s very easy to fall for the counting game. What I mean by the counting game is looking at the sheer number of conversations going on about a particular keyword. Looking at the sheer number, and reporting those numbers as the volume of conversation out there, can be a fatal miss-step if you are planning a strategy around engaging actively interested and motivated audiences.

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10 Ways to Reward Your Audience

Written July 27th, 2011 by

One of the major influences on how solidly, far reaching and influentially you build your social network, whether it’s your own personal network of friends or a business account, is making sure you take the time to stop and reward your audience. Figuring out how to reward them in ways they will appreciate and feel your sincerity is essential. Just saying thank you with a generic coupon won’t get you anywhere. That type of gesture comes off as insincere and pandering.

Rewarding Your Audience Keeps Them Coming Back

Reward Your Audience

Time and time again, when you are being real, transparent and genuine with showing your appreciation, your audience will reward you in kind. You’ll see your recommendations increase, your content being shared and the number of people who want to connect with you because of that genuineness grows.

The problem comes, however, when you continually utilize the same measures over and over again. You have to really understand you audience and what they appreciate to be able to reward them in a manner that’s going to impress them personally. Touching them in a personal manner is what social media engagement is all about. With that in mind, here are 10 different ideas that can help you come up with ways to reward your audience.

Like or Favorite Their Recommendations of You:

When someone recommends you, whether it’s via a “follow Friday” on Twitter, a recommendation via a  Fan Page or posting, make sure to let them know in some way that you like their actions. Give it a thumbs up, favorite the tweet, and of course saying thank you lets the person know you recognize the time they took to do that action.

Include Them in Exclusive Lists:

Groups on Facebook, Lists on Twitter or even a list of “Top XX Influencers” in a blog post is definitely a way to reward your audience members. It lets them know that not only are you listening, but you find them important enough and appreciate them enough to include them in something that singles them out to say, “Hey these people are important to me”.

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Social Media Flowcharts

Written July 22nd, 2011 by

At Blogging Strategies Summit, Charlene Li showed the Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment chart and wondered how many organizations had done something similar, and she only knew of one or two similar charts. I thought it’d be interesting to see how it had been used, and here’s what I found.

The Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment

This is the current Air Force Web Posting Response Assessment, available as public domain in a pdf format. The Air Force also has links to several other resources that could be helpful, including the Army Social Media Handbook. Read the rest of this entry »

Giving Up Control: When PR Companies Don’t Understand Social Media

Written June 22nd, 2011 by

Public RelationsPR (public relations) is all about presenting a client (internal or external) in a positive light to your publics (not just the media but investors, employees, customers are all publics).  Companies who offer these PR services strive to maintain a tight grip on the presentation and image of their clients as well as their brands, services, and products.  Giving up control is not something Public Relations firms can do very easily.  It’s a reason why any company should really take a hard look at traditional PR firms that claim they can “handle” their social media efforts because in social media there’s not a lot of control.

I don’t say this lightly either.  I come from a public relations background and understand the ‘old school’ thinking of the industry.  Watching PR practitioners jump into the world of Social Media as been tough; from using bloggers as another place to push press releases, to building & running fake persona’s, it makes online marketers and PR practitioners who truly understand the medium, annoyed at the negative light they cast upon a legitimate marketing channel.

PR Fiasco’s Serve as Learning Lessons

Duke Nukem Forever LogoBas van den Beld, of State of Search, turned me onto a recent fiasco by a Public Relations firm acting on behalf of their clients in the social media sphere, we discussed the implications on Webmaster Radio.FM on yesterday’s State of Search Show.  In this case, The Redner Group was handling the PR around reviews of the game ‘Duke Nukem Forever‘ created by game publisher called “2k“.  In one tweet the CEO of  The Redner Group destroyed months of work and likely hundreds of strong relationships with a threat.

Why?

Because the reviews coming in on the game were poor and apparently The Redner Group wanted to control the image of the game, which is what traditional PR companies try to do.  This is where traditional public relations professionals don’t really have a grasp on social media.  In social media you have to listen to, and accept, the negative as much as the positive.  The backlash that ensued from that one tweet caused 2k to fire The Redner Group – and rightfully so. Read the rest of this entry »

Rewards are the Sticky Glue of a Successful Social Media Strategy

Written June 1st, 2011 by

Rewards can come in  many different forms.  From physical rewards such as coupons or coupon codes, to emotional rewards saying “thank you” or “great job” automatically posted to a user’s news feed in Facebook, rewards are part of the sticky glue that keeps community members coming back and engaging in social media communities.

Understanding what communities find valuable is also important not only for generating genuine interest in your content, but it can also clue you in to what would be rewarding to your community members.  When people who are very actively engaging and sharing around concepts, products, services or brands, recognition of their time and efforts become increasingly important if you want to create avid fans, loyal audience members and even the “golden ticket” of social media marketing – the brand evangelist who is an “Influencer”.  By rewarding your audience in different ways, you are first letting them know you are listening to them and secondly (probably most important of all) you are letting them know you appreciate not only what they have to say, but the time they took to say it.

Money Isn’t Always a Motivator

Not all rewards need to be monetary in nature.  The simple act of saying “Thank You” can be enough of a reward to encourage an audience member to continue being engaged in the conversation the social media community is involved in.  You can also recognize a fan or loyal audience member for their continued participation with the whole community that says thank you in a entirely different way.  By making them the shining star, instead of your efforts, products, services or company, you’re showing that you really understand this isn’t all about you – it’s about them and the value they are actually returning to you. Read the rest of this entry »

Tactics of Top Web Host Tweeters

Written April 1st, 2011 by

Want to know which web hosting companies to trust? Ask for a friend’s recommendation. Want to get a peek at how a web host treats their customers? Look at how that business tweets.

I’ve had some unbelievably bad experiences with web hosting companies.  Some were bad experiences with otherwise solid hosts.  Some were just plain awful, no matter how you look at it.  Such hosts must be avoided!

Looking for Answers

Googling for information about a host often does not give a clear picture, because it’s not hard to find unreasonable complaints – with something as complex as hosting, there are many, many opportunities for frustration and misunderstanding, even if the company has done nothing wrong.  On the other hand, good reports may be exaggerated by affiliate marketers hoping to make a sale.

Social Media is a great way for potential customers to check out a company.  I like Twitter for this sort of insight, because tweets are easier to skim than pages of forum posts and bad Twitter marketing is so very obviously bad.  I trust that I can scan a business’s Twitter stream and tell if tweeters are only trumpeting sales-speak, or if they are using Twitter for the good of their customers.

The murkier Search results are, the more important it is for businesses to Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media Is Everywhere – #SESNY Session Coverage

Written March 31st, 2011 by

On Wednesday at Search Engine Strategies, New York, Li Evans delivered a solo presentation called “Social Media 101″. The foundation of her talk was “Social media is everywhere.” As the author of Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media and CEO of Libeck Integrated Marketing, Evans understands how and why businesses might want to learn more about social marketing.

Liana Evans and her Book

Li Speaking and Showing off her book on Social Media Marketing

Social marketing “gives us a way to talk back”, she stated. The Internet is no longer about one-way communication. People are voicing their opinions more and this provides many marketing opportunities to companies who want to know what you’re listening to, reading, researching and purchasing. Companies know that when something is valuable, it will be shared.

 

Sharing of information is nearly everywhere today and constant. Some examples are instant messaging, social profiles, message boards, forums, blogs, and social sites. “When people share, Google shares.” Be careful when you jump into any Read the rest of this entry »

Web Site Design Strategy Ideas

Written March 14th, 2011 by

It takes a team of people to build a web site in today’s Internet environment.  The most costly mistakes are not understanding what web site ownership is really about.  Where do you go to find out?

Below is a listing of discussion points which are helpful when deciding on a budget, strategy, skills, team members, web site needs and especially, your goals and priorities. It’s a place to start.

Business Requirements

  • Decide the lead goal(s) for the web site (i.e. provide information, online sales, sales leads, product sales, travel reservations, general information, etc.)
  • Who is the target market/user/customer?

Functional Requirements

  • Discuss the types of applications required, such as shopping cart, reservations, contact forms, sales lead forms, etc.
  • Research vendors for third-party applications.
  • Discuss platform, server, programming, database needs

Web Site Design

  • Requirements include type of programming (html, xhtml, php, etc.)
  • Will Flash be used and if so, what are the pros and cons?
  • Is accessibility a requirement?
  • Is usability and user experience design a requirement?
  • Is search engine marketing a requirement?
  • Is mobile design a requirement?
  • Is social media marketing a requirement?
  • Information architecture – taxonomies, keywords, language, navigation and sub-requirements such as search engine optimization and usability
  • User interaction requirements such as product feedback, ratings, blog comments, etc.
  • Discuss video and images usage, format, inclusion.
  • Content writing

*Note that functional requirements should support business goals.
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