Time 21:33

We round out part two of this series on Facebook Marketing with some highlights from restaurant. shipping companies and others . We then get into the social promotion of the social web with Facebook Marketing An Hour A Day co-author Chris Treadaway.

Here are some examples of Facebook Marketing tactics that work.

1. 1) Dumb Questions – yeah some people think they are dumb, the type of questions where you might say “Who Cares” but oddly enough, they get people responding. Questions like, what did you have for lunch or what’s your favorite color. Why do they get a response? Perhaps because they are easy questions, you know the answer right away and it takes little time to answer. Perhaps because there is no right answer just an opinion and everyone has those. The result is lots of conversation starters, which may convey the perception that you have “sway”, that you can get people engaged. 

2. 2) Seek Advice – Chris Brogan did this with his new office using a Facebook wall post, showing pictures of his empty office and asking how he should arrange it. Classic, we the progress from, IKEA furniture to his beverage selection. One of the benefits to this tactic is it sets up a storyline that you want to follow to its conclusion. 

3. 3) Facebook Ads – I’ve had some success with Facebook Ads, whether it provided market insights in the potential online market size of people that can be engaged or actually producing ads that drove behavior, Facebook ads are a valuable resource. 

This chart shows the pattern of click throughs on an ad for USA2Pilipinas, a shipping service to the Philippines. We targeted market segments in the Philippines and Filipino communities in the US using Facebook Ads. The ads are producing a steadily increasing number of click throughs and we’ve adjusted to copy and even gone dark to assess interest. This program had an objective to register 1000 users by the end of the year, it has achieve more than half that number in the first 6 weeks.

Facebook Ad Stats Chart

Treadaway on Social Promotion

In part two of our conversation with Chris Treadaway about his book written with Mari Smith, Facebook Marketing An Hour a Day, we get into some of the subtleties of promotion in social media. It’s a very interesting time, a paradox in that some of the tactics that are selfless, talking about the accomplishments of others, can also be self-serving, gaining inbound links. Hhhmm I wonder if Brogan or Treadaway will link to this page?

No criticism here, just an observation about how interdependent we are. This is highlighted in the Free Economy as coined by Wired Magazine editor Chris Anderson where there is so much information available for free. The logic is no different than your local grocer offering samples of product in the aisles, maybe you’ll by some of my intelligent property while you are browsing.

Facebook Marketing An Hour A Day Drawing

We are giving away the book Facebook Marketing An Hour a Day to those entering the drawing. To enter either email me MarketingEdge AT providentpartners DOT net or just tweet a link to this post. Now if that’s not self serving I don’t know what is. Any proceeds gained will go directly to my five children.

As I post this Facebook is rolling out it’s location check in service called Facebook Places. check back here for ways to incorporate that into Facebook marketing.

Time 24:33

You know I could have done the solutions headline and just throw a number in there, but I hate those things. The hungry part is because in some of this podcast we talk about Facebook and restaurants. Facebook Marketing, An Hour A Day is a book by Chris Treadaway and Mari Smith. In this podcast we talk to Chris Treadaway about some of the ways Facebook is used to market companies. Facebook is a place that requires attention, lesson one if you are not prepared to give it attention, forget it. This is where the hour a day comes in.

To pull a favorite useful idea out of this podcast I’d call attention to using Facebook as a market research tool. Creating an ad in Facebook will give you insights into potential online market size. Here is an example where I took the city of Chicago, people age 21 and over that self identified interest of football or fantasy football. The kind of information of interest to a sports bar owner. Targeting by interest, geography, age and other variables is a great feature of Facebook.

Using Facebook Advertising for Market Research from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

We are holding a drawing for the book Facebook Marketing An Hour A Day. Email MarketingEdge AT Providentpartners DOT net – put Facebook in the Subject line. Link should do that for you.

Other Examples of Social Marketing to Hungry Patrons

Smalley87Club – Tied Twins ticket drawings to items people like on the menu with a link to the Smalleys 87 Club menu page. (I helped on this one)

Dino’s Gyros IAMDEZ – Guess random number between 1 and 10,000 on Tuesdays before 7PM, closest 10 get a free gyro.

Izzys Ice Cream incorporates a variety of platforms and communities. Also has unique notification of the availability of limited time flavors Dave Erickson

The Sterling Cross Group broke new ground with Motoi only Japanese saki brewer in Twin Cities

Back in 2005 it really hit me that public relations was impacted by social media. Between a client (Technomic Asia) getting called directly from a National Public Radio reporter after the reporter listened to his podcast, and another client’s feature piece on the front page of the Wall Street Journal getting but an ounce of subsequent attention, I realized the world of communications was changing.

So I did a little keyword number crunching and dug up this chart from Google Insights for Search. The Red trend line for good ol’ PR is not exactly stellar performance. If the PR trend line were a company’s stock performance heads would roll. Now I completely understand that these search terms are relative and in some cases public relations has more absolute searches, relative to social media, however public relations keyword searches were on a long slide to parity if not lower than the term social media.

I suspect social media consultants and PR firm executives will battle royal over which is which, and who was a leader and who was a follower. The inconvenient truth for corporate communicators, marketers, and public relations professionals is the two must coexist. In my digital dog walk audio piece for Tuesday, August 4 I reminisce about the public relations & social media tipping point, and reflect that it is not an us vs them world.
Here’s what i have found to be helpful for client PR as these two functions have converged:

Four Ways to Capture Reporter’s Attention

1. Identify key people inside a company that can relate to a social audience
2. Find ways for the client to tap the social web either by their own actions or mentions by others on the social web
3. Tell the client’s story on social channels
4. Create a multimedia newsroom
5. Reference articles and blog posts in your client’s digital footprint

Time 25:21

In this podcast we highlight two major issues 1) The idea of resonance as implemented by promoted Tweets and interpreted by Brian Solis at a recent presentation in Minneapolis, and 2) We dig a bit deeper into the 9 ways marketing is being transformed in a conversation with college curriculum developer and instructor Mia Lee

We have a winner for the drawing for Brian Solis’ book Engage with my commentary in the margins where necessary – Ken Okumura of Minneapolis and a Marketing Edge listener is the winner of Engage. Solis was a guest on the Marketing Edge prior to his presentation in Minneapolis on July 27.

I attended his presentation which was thought provoking. One of his key areas for social media moving forward is the concept of resonance. It’s a word Solis combines with Relevance and Significance as a major way to determine value of social object. A social object is a piece of digital content, a tweet, a photo, etc. As companies continue to find ways to engage social commnities and platforms look for ways to garner advertising dollars, measuring the investment of time and dollars is being refined.

Measurement includes Retweets, mentions, clicks, actions, influence etc. During Solis’s presentations I tweeted this :

@WichitaCindy on Twiter asked me why. The reason for the excitement is because it’s a chance to engage and perhaps have an impact on anything, products, service, government etc. The reason for the nausea is caused by the many ways popularity and influence can be manipulated. The irony is that as consumers we revolt against advertising, even coming up with technologies to circumvent ads and now on social media those same consumers may well be part of message, and I don’t mean that in a good way. I mean just because you get a $5 coupon for a burger if you get your friends to fan a restautant doesn’t make it any less of an advertisement. In some respects we are being coopted under the guise of being social.

This is a fine line, and I hope I’m not the guy throwing sand in the social media sandbox, but the potential exists and there are plenty of tactics being used that contribute to search and klout. For more on resonance see Jeramiah Owyang of the Altimiter Group. The Solis event was produced by Jen Kane who does a wonderful job on these events.

9 Ways Marketing is Being Transformed

A while back I did a post on 9 Ways Marketing is Being Transformed. The beginnings of this post was an exchange on Twitter with WebbieGirl AKA Mia Lee instructor and program curriculum developer of digital marketing workshops. Mia developed a popular e-marketing program at the Wichita Area Technical College for social marketing.

In this podcast we get into some of the ways marketing is changing, including

1. 1. Very public behavior – privacy or not
2. 2. Ability to call bull – corporate transparency
3. 3. Everyone is a media outlet – content marketing at its best
4. 4. Consumers are marketers – How to build a community of passionate customers
5. 5. Social culture vs. social tactics – Companies will benefit by adopting their culture to the social web
6. 6. Consumers have an active role – the more you interact the better the information companies will provide
7. 7. Personal brand networks matter – Instead of direct mail lists, online networks will preform better
8. 8. Knowing how the system is gamed – the more social is quantified the more participants will try to gain an advantage, ethically or unethically.
9. 9. Product development will dominate marketing – the social web will recreate how products are researched and developed

Have any to add?

Disclaimer – this is not a shot at the USA on its birthday. This is not a political commentary because this is the Marketing Edge podcast and Blog. I hope it will be a quick eye opener to acknowledge that the citizens of America and the world, live in an interdependent world.

Let’s separate Independence the apple pie, flag waving idea from independent growth.

Independence is the beautiful way Americans have been able to worship as they choose, to roam our vast land without “papers” (with some exceptions over our very short history), to assemble, start a business, build an idea into reality, have children etc. etc. etc. That’s our society, warts and all that we choose to celebrate today. I’m in favor of it. Happy Birthday.

Now let’s look at independent growth. This is the notion that we glamorize for individuals who achieve certain levels of accomplishment. You know top ten lists, richest people, All-Star teams, A, B, C, and D Listers. We love to refine things and people to lists, without appreciating how those on the list came to be, how they were impacted by other people and events.

The social web has put a spotlight on the amazing gifts we give to each other, some of which contribute to personal gain and recognition. The concept that we learn from others in this or past generations is not new. One that comes to mind today is the electrical engineer Nikola Tesla whose work was trumped by Thomas Edison in his day, is the foundation for today’s energy saving light bulbs.

Let’s apply that interdependent concept in the area of social media authors. For example. today’s social media thinking by Charlene Li of Altimeter Group on Open Leadership, a wonderful book about the new participating consumer and how companies can embrace them. It’s a premise based on the work of Shel Israel and Robert Scoble in Naked Conversations or the Cluetrain Manifesto Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, David Weinberger, and McKee Jake. Can we trace some of this thinking to Ralph Nader and his early consumer empowerment? On the marketing side do we owe some recognition to Neil McElroy the Procter and Gamble marketing executive who advocated the concept of brand managers, market segmentation, and several brands under the same parent company?

How about that patio furniture, your sitting on or the grill, or lawn chair at today’s Bar-b-que. My bet is one of them was made by a worker earning $5 a day instead of $10 or more an hour. (Not a political statement just an economic fact of life) What about the house, car, boat for today’s activities, likely owned by a bank now or at some point in the past. This consumerism and ownership is based on the interdependence of individuals and institutions.

America is a nation built on economic and intellectual interdependence. Our roots grew on blood and sweat of willing and unwilling Europeans, Africans, and native Americans (for the most part). Independence – “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

In pursuit of these rights we are an interdependent people of the world. Social media brings this to light with each minute on twitter, each shared cause on Facebook, each entry in Wikipedia, and on and on. It has never be clearer to me that our Independence is based on our interdependence which is now expanding beyond our nation as the social web grows. Our fast-paced society likes to pedal short lists of everything, from recipes to
people. I hope that with every list read today, there is a mental asterisk with the caption *this list compliments of the contributions of many other individuals.

Time 14:20

This was a fun piece to put together, let’s face it I went back to Izzy’s Ice Cream three times to research all the different flavors. Izzy’s Ice Cream is a premium, delicious ice cream with unique flavors, some of them available on a limited basis. Izzy’s co-owner Jeff Sommers realized the loyalty his customers had to certain flavors. He also puts great effort, ingredients, and love into the product. The combination of a quality product and loyal customers, gives a business owner great confidence to do what is best for the customer.

Izzys Ice Cream – Flavor UP from Albert Maruggi on Vimeo.

Sommers created a system where customers could subscribe to a flavor and be notified via email, on Twitter and Facebook It’s called Flavor Up – pretty interesting stuff. As the ice cream server replaces the flavor in the dipping case, they also replace the sign with the appropriate flavor name. The sign has an RFID tag on the back which communicates the new ice cream flavor name to a database which in turn updates, well everything. The system was a Sommers brainchild and the Nerdery did the development work along with contributions from other service providers from laser cutting signs to RFID tags.

Izzy’s is famous for “The Izzy” - a delightful little dollop of ice cream to taste on top of most any selection you choose. The concept of the Izzy’s scoop is to allow people to discover new flavors at minimal risk, to reward customers for remaining loyal to a premium product and to potentially engage the conversation about ideas for new flavors.

Sommers brilliantly comments in the podcast and video about the power of the social web crowd to come up with solutions that may not otherwise be achieved, and for individuals from that same crowd to advance an idea that is beneficial to the community at large. This concept and the way Izzy’s has grown a mom and pop shop into a taste playhouse of retail innovation is an example of a social culture in a business. Whatever social tactic Sommers uses will be a success because he begins and ends with the two most important ingredients. They are - a steadfast dedication to a quality product, and the belief a customer engaged with the Izzy’s experience will always look forward to their next time there.

The takeaway of this podcast for other companies is to determine whether your culture is social. After listening to Sommers’ comment on the Izzy mission statement, do you have a similar perspective about your customers. Social media can be used as a marketing tactic, but without a social culture my experience is it will have a short term impact of limited success.

Special thanks to David Erickson from Tunheim Partners for including me in the Flavor Up news conference. David is the author of the e-Strategy Blog.

A number of posts recently about privacy has prompted me to write this post.

Can you trust Facebook? really, no more than you can trust any one organization with many investors. One person is easiser to trust or at least determine if they are worthy of your trust, with larger institutions it gets a little harder in a capitalistic economy.

Second – Privacy on the web is a facade, gone with the credit card, internet, mobile phones, terrorists, ATMs, and our unquenchable thirst for deals, reward zones, frequent flyers, buyers, stayers and everything elsers.

Consumers have opened the door to their own behaviors. We then swarm onto free platforms, Facebook is the 4th largest country. We complain about the ads that subsidize those free platforms, essentially biting the very hand that feeds our free desires to post about private lives then cry foul when those at risk, those being Facebook management and investors, dare to figure a way to pay for the servers in which our data is stored. That’s rich.

Be forewarned, if you jump my case about Facebook not telling us, changing the rules of the game, etc show me your copy of the Terms and Conditions that you read thoroughly. Yes, I’m being snarky to highlight how we have created our own cycle of addiction.

A society so consumed by consumption and connection, so impatient to get to the next thing, through our actions we have relinquished our privacy and attention to details. Oh yes I’m sure there are 100 of you that read T&Cs etc, and can argue the point. It’s a false argument because it’s not the way the majority of people engage with the social web.

Many marketers know this and act accordingly. This leaves a void for government to “save” us from our own impatience and irresponsibility.

I say the system works. You’ll never have true privacy again, and when the social mob screams loud enough, those dependent upon us to actually exist will listen. Facebook is no more if there is a mass exodus of Israelite proportion from the fourth largest country. The plans for this exodus are being developed by the Diaspora great name BTW. I’ll join Diaspora, but I won’t leave Facebook, competition is good – Hey My Space where are you in this!

No worries Facebook lovers, Facebook is circling the wagons they will repsond to the latest political bandwagon. The yelling pendulum will swing back to Facebook investors and the general crowd of those who want to boost revenues. Then Facebook management will come up with another way to minimize their screaming. Look at it this way, through privacy, advertising, or fees, the residents of the fourth largest country will need some taxation. Through it all, the happy middle will include a a degree of suspension of privacy, willingly or unwillingly to feed our addiction.

This is the conundrum of a socialist information society in a capitalist economy.

Time 17:20

All the social media talk in the last year or so is like gnats on a humid, summer day at dusk. It’s time to get inside, take a deep breath and consider the state of social media. I did that with business communicator and IABC Fellow Award winner Shel Holtz. Holtz and I had dinner at Smalleys 87 Club in Minneapolis after his keynote presentation at the IABC gala.

We share some concerns about the state of social media, they are:

1) The continued blocking of access to social sites by more than 50% of companies.

2) Still too many voices echoing the fear of negative comments about their brand or company. (clearly denying access to the social web will shield those ostriches from their critic, sorry just had to slip that in. the timing seemed perfect)

3) Chasing the A list is not the same as gaining influence, it’s about niches and communities.

4) Over promising that social is a replacement pitting communication functions and their practitioners against each other. Business communications is not a zero sum game, nor should social media advocates do so at the expense of other media which will contribute to the ultimate business goals.

So what does stimulating conversation about business communications over a quiet dinner and a couple of beers get you. Some ideas for consideration what it means to integrate social media into a companies strategy.

1) Drop the word social and approach the communications strategy from the end objectives, essentially what do you want the recipient to do, feel, believe. As you plot out how the recipient of your message will interact with that information, who they do so in a digital way? If so, then social will naturally work it’s way into your effort. No big fanfare necessary.

2) Social cultures are easier to create from scratch than insert comfortably in an established institution. Patience and flexibility are key to bringing about change, incorporating social will require rewriting some company policies along with believing in them.

3) Social media is a communications support function, communications is a business objectives support function. Holtz raised this simple concept as a reminder of how the pieces of this puzzle can fit. Credit given to Shannon Paul for the reference point.

What are the chances of social media being implemented as a standard practice? Is it a fad or a true evolution of business in America? Catch more of Shel Holtz on his podcast For Immediate Release with Neville Hobson.

Disclosure: Smalleys 87 Club is a client with good burgers and beer selection. I suggest all consultants have at least one client with these qualities. Follow Smalleys87 Club on Twitter for fun stuff.

Time 32:21

The eMarketer report How Retailers Handle Negative Buzz caught my eye. eMarketer senior analyst Jeffery Grau and I talked about what we are learning from the first phase of retail social media. According to a report by Dynamic Logic and Milward Brown, AdReaction 2009: Brands + consumers + Social Media” 71% of respondents which were social networks users say they follow companies and brand in the retail space compared to 33% who follow restaurants, or 23% who said that follow banks or financial brands.

Grau singles out Best Buy for having success in social media because they are using it across the board. From promoting products and services, to crowd sourcing new ideas about to to customer service. Based on that report I engaged Grau in some of the experiences of retail brands.

Social Media Tactics for Retailers

1) Build a group of supporters who are socially savvy either as an inner circle group or by giving some kind of value. I’d recommend added access compared to a quantitative remuneration in dollars, discounts or products.

2) Expand any PR crisis communications plan with something a little less menacing, such as defining an escalation and response process for public consumer complaints.

3) Extend social media processes to capture new product and service ideas, criticism of competitors and other market research or product development information.

4) It is an “Always-On” environment sad to say, but a party-induced online rampage from consumers late on a Friday night can get pretty messy by Monday morning.

5) Twentieth century structure corporate structures won’t work. Some parts of the corporate retail structure may not reflect the way consumers on the social web behave or expect companies to behave, for example geographic sales territory, delayed responses, and not having access to certain types of consumer data will disappoint and confuse consumers on the social web.

6) Answers Please – If you have a consumer product that is somewhat complicated, it is becoming necessary to have dedicated “answer people” or at the very least respondents to engage those posing questions on Twitter. You especially see this in these products mobile device, computer, and software. Also with these services, travel, finance and taxes, and real estate.

What are your lessons learned during the first phase of experiences with social media?

I’ve been in communications for 25 years spanning all types of the functions associated with organizations “getting their message out”. Those functions included journalism, grassroots campaigns, legislative lobbying, technology marketing, and public relations.

Perceptions are a largely based on perspectives, so laying out this experience I thought would be helpful to appreciate the lens through which I see these transformations. I’ve also experienced working in large companies and venture capital start-ups and mid-size growth organizations. I share this because it plays into the context of the obstacles facing marketers over this second decade in the 21st century.

Marketing Transformation #1 – Naked conversations leads to naked behavior. Gaining insights to consumers as they willingly (or unwillingly) act transparently by giving up their privacy. This data with be cross referenced and used in proactive programming.

Marketing Transformation #2 – Marketing Rhetoric vs Reality Reconciliation made simple with social media. Careful with your company puffery, there plenty of people and chances to call Bull.

Marketing Transformation #3 - Companies as media properties. Contribute to the stream of conversation that surrounds your company without being the center of attention (don’t be that guy, very difficult for some companies to do). Those that do will gain respect and leadership.

Marketing Transformation #4 – Consumers as marketers, really? When the novelty of social communities wears off, and the reality of the time commitment necessary to be social sets in, be ready to answer the consumers’ question What’s in it for me?

Marketing Transformation #5 - Social Culture vs Social Tactics. Plenty of companies will not make the transition which is OK, social culture will be similar to systemic corporate change like Total Quality Management and Six Sigma. There will be a divide between social companies and social hacks.

Marketing Transformation #6 – Greater consumer participation necessary. As the dismemberment of old advertising continues, companies desperately want to know what motivates you, the more you interact, the better the relationship.

Marketing Transformation #7 – Yesterday’s direct mail lists are today’s personal brand networks. Regardless of FTC blogger regulations, established individuals are conduits of word of mouth as being social on the web has significant overlap between helping and being helped, it’s the ultimate form of interdependence.

Marketing Transformation #8 – 2010 is the year of social media skeptic, have a contingency plan. The more social media is absorbed by the mainstream, the more people will try to game the system causing all kinds of turmoil among the ranks of advocates, enthusiats, and critics.

Marketing Transformation #9 - Less about convincing and more about delivering. Taking a page from the World of Mouth adovcates, companies with enough confidence in their ability to build products and delivery services that consumers are comfortable recommending will spend less time having to “message” their way to growth, they will listen their way to profits.

Recommendations

I don’t see the current format of social media being the end game. It’s extremely time and labor intensive and unless companies are willing to commit to those elements of participation, they will merely pay lip service through this initial adoption phase of social media.

Some believe the data is circumspect, sure if Facebook was a country it would be the fourth largest, but what does that mean? What kind of country exactly? Will its inhabitants grow weary of sharing their data, lobbying each other for worthy causes, and doing the work of marketers who were laid off because friends don’t make friend buy bad things? Or will they unify in a community of users of like mind, feed off of their shared new experiences, and expand to improve their current condition?