December 21, 2011

Christmas is a perfect time to make havoc online

If you want to tar and feather your sworn enemy online using social media, now’s the perfect time to do it! Blog, tweet, and Facebook your slander or meritless accusation; make a chastising video, post it, promote it, and kick it to viral! Turn it up to 11! If you have an axe to grind or a bee in your bonnet, and want to get sweet, sweet revenge, a once-a-year opportunity is upon you … Christmas!

We’re entering a time when most companies — and people — are ill-prepared to defend their online reputations while they’re spending every last minute of their “use it or lose it” end-of-year vacation time! Suckers! From now until some time in January.

If you’re interested in committing mischief, it’s time to put all your resources online.

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December 14, 2011

Social media success demands talent above technology

In response to The Social Media News Release explained in detail, Jonathan Rick asked me, “Isn’t this essentially the same thing that Pitch Engine offers?” Jason Kintzler then added, “Yes Jonathan, exactly! Did I mention you can do it all for free?!” (See Socialmedia.biz’s earlier writeup on PitchEngine: A social PR platform for the new era.)

Well, my response is the topic of this post today: “The article is only about the what and why of the Social Media News Release and not the how. Pitch Engine is a how!” I then added, “Pitch Engine doesn’t take away the work: writing/collecting compelling copy and assets. You do that work” and then “Our SMNR is just a platform and structure. 90% of one’s time should be spent writing amazing content” and then, finally, “Installing WordPress, an amazing platform, does not an amazing blog make; Pitch Engine is amazing but content is king.”

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December 7, 2011

The Social Media News Release explained in detail

Last week I dissected a blogger outreach pitch email line-by-line in Detailed analysis of the perfect blogger pitch as a way of proving that no matter how brief and conversational one of Abraham Harrison‘s blogger pitches may appear at first blush, the effortlessness takes a lot of work and the time of three senior agents. Today I plan to go through, line by line, a site we create to support all of our blogger outreach campaigns. You can call it a Social Media News Release (SMNR) or a microsite, a resource site, or a fact sheet. To those of you who are in communications, you’ll recognize the structural similarity between it and a traditional news release or press release.

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October 26, 2011

You’re seriously over-farming your donors

When it comes to your direct mail campaigns, you’ve probably over-farmed your land.

You’ve been emailing and snail mailing the same donors you have done for a decade. It is time to leave the land fallow and let the lists rest. You have probably responded to lower donations and attention by relinquishing too much power to your direct marketing firm and they have been much more aggressive than you’re comfortable with, sending out many more snail mail and email donation requests than ever before. You used to blame the economy for decreased giving but you’re starting to believe it has more to do with the fertility of the donor list than it does with the economic collapse of 2008–or a lot less than you’ve been led to believe. You realize that the nonprofit space is ever more competitive, but your brand is strong and respected and comes up well in Charity Navigator, so what gives?

Well, in agriculture, it is possible to over-farm your land. Indeed, it is probable, in a couple ways:

Ultimately, you need to do one or more of a couple things: allow the land to rest, either ceasing farming completely or throttling down substantially, though this is impossible if you’re tending only one plot of land; enrich the land you already have with better aeration, nutrition, and pesticides with the expectation that you will be able to increase your yield; rotate your crops within the land you already have with crops that tend to enrich the soil that has been depleted by your main crop, naturally returning your field to a cycle of fertility; or you can expand your fields, distributing your yield over a larger plot of land, reaching into a greater diversity of quality of land, essentially hedging your bets over land of varying quality, durability, fertility, and health, resulting in a more consistent crop that is less dependent on any particular geographic focal point. Continue reading →

September 19, 2011

Golden rule of engagement: Always tell the truth

Tips on social CRM for brands from an industry expert

Guest post by Lauren Carlson
CRM Analyst, Software Advice

The greatest benefit of attending those big, bulky industry conferences is not the swag – although that free Apple TV was pretty sweet. Rather, it’s the opportunity to speak with some of the greatest thought leaders and innovators that attend. One of the more recognized leaders in the CRM industry is Marshall Lager of Third Idea Consulting. I was able to snag Marshall for a bit at last month’s CRM Evolution in New York to discuss the most buzzed-about topic at the conference: social CRM.

Interview highlights:

Social CRM is derived from tools that are entirely consumer-related: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. People use these mediums to communicate and share experiences. Businesses are finally catching onto that, figuring out not only how to foster relationships in the social arena, but monetize them as well.
The first step in getting started with social CRM is simply signing up for an account. Once that’s done, it’s time to listen and find out what your customers are saying. Once you have that, you can start building a strategy around how you will use the networks. The goal is to personalize your company, making it “someone” that individuals can relate to.
Small businesses in particular can benefit from social media. SMBs already have that face-to-face direct rapport with their customers. Social media is a free way to extend that relationship, and because their customer base is still small, social media allows the small business owner to touch every single customer.
Questions to ask when building a social CRM strategy: How are we going to do social media? What do we want to focus on? What’s our personality? What are our rules of engagement?
The golden rule of engagement: Always tell the truth. It sounds simple, but it’s really important. If the customers trust you, they will come back. If they don’t, you’ve lost them completely.

Lauren Carlson is a CRM analyst for Software Advice. She writes about various topics related to CRM software, with particular interest in sales force automation, marketing automation and customer service. Follow her on Twitter at @crmadvice.

August 31, 2011

Twitter success demands both top influencers and everyone else

Do you focus on the most popular and ignore the rest in social media?

Too many colleagues, organizations, and companies are keeping their circles of influencers small, believing it is better to invest limited time and resources on the most influential, the most popular, and the most celebrated. Happens in DC all the time. I’m rocking the latest dinner party, parlaying attendees with my wit and banter, when someone snazzier and trendier enters. Immediately I’ve lost my audience’s attention. The idea easily transfers to Twitter.

Other users focus exclusively on networking within their own space, effectively limiting scope and reach by preaching to the choir. If you’ve invested in running with the A-list, fine; however, that’s an old model reminiscent of old PR, of the golf club, the lodge, and the private club.

The Internet created something that not enough social media consultants and coaches support and advise: the ability to expand circles of influencers, to engage with anyone and everyone. Only recently has the Internet become ubiquitous and global in a real way. Previously, the digital divide was a barrier to not just many Americans but quite a few developing nations becoming part of the global conversation.

The value of the Internet is proportional to the number of connected users. It’s also living proof of Rule 34. No matter how obscure, vertical, or arcane your material may be, there’s an audience for it. Someone will show it love and attention. Online social networks have made all of this even easier to the point where it is becoming less of a potential and more of a promise, an eventuality. In short, there is real value associated with connecting to as many followers and collecting as many “Likes” as is humanly possible. For real effect.

There’s also a psychological benefit of large numbers. I have won contracts and business on the power of five-digit followers on Twitter, which is modest compared to most of my peers. However, for someone who only has a couple-hundred followers, 38,000 is a lot and suggests mastery. To be honest, I wonder how long it will take these “less is more” social media consultants to realize that it’s not good business to dismiss what the client wants out of hand. Continue reading →