Strategic marketing and social media news

January 24, 2010

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie break up – a marketing scheme?

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie break up It’s been reported that the powerful Hollywood couple Brangelina, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, have officially called it quits. With a brand as recognizable as Brangelina, why would this pair consider separating? Could this be a stunt to generate even more publicity? When you’re on top of the entertainment world for five years, what else is there to do?

With six children between them and arguably the most popular Hollywood icons of our time, is this just a silly rumor circulating around the Internet? That’s what Perez Hilton says. However, it seems there is more validity to this report than is apparent.

Was Jennifer Aniston a better fit for Brad… what do you think?

January 23, 2010

Buffalo shines on primetime

Buffalo Extreme Makeover Home Edition Buffalo will get the spotlight for 2 hours this Sunday night (January 24) on ABC’s Extreme Makeover Home Edition. The renovations that were completed last fall on Buffalo’s West Side will be airing at 8:00pm EST. The Powell family is the home of a Jamaican immigrant who has done extensive work on the domicile over the past few years. Apparently the local Buffalo community generated the most volunteers and biggest turnout ever for the final reveal.

Shea’s Theater is hosting a free event tomorrow evening to broadcast the event on the big screen. It will be interesting to see if they can sellout the theater as the community rallies around the Powell family in support.

January 22, 2010

Measuring Social Media ROI

Measuring Social Media ROI For many small businesses, measuring the return on investment (ROI) for social media is a mystery. While some of these businesses actively engage in blogging, tweeting, and perhaps even Facebook, they have no idea on how to gauge the effectiveness of their efforts. The remaining businesses that have not entered the social media frenzy are hesitant to get started because they too are looking for an accurate method of determining the ROI or impact of their social campaigns.

Since this has been a burning question for many small businesses, I’d like to share my thoughts. For starters, let’s take a quick look at measuring ROI for a traditional marketing vehicle – direct mail. The first step is to determine the goal of the campaign. Are you trying to create awareness, generate leads, close sales, or drive traffic to your website? Once you have decided on your goal, establish an attainable benchmark and track responses against that baseline. For example, let’s say you are anticipating a 2% response to your campaign. It’s good practice to direct your recipients to respond to a unique URL or web address. Since this page is not part of your standard web traffic, you can easily determine the number of people that initially reply to your mail piece. Furthermore, if you have an offer, you can have them submit some basic information to access a whitepaper or other incentive. This will further screen your qualified leads and allow you to monetize the results of your campaign. From this point, you should have some metrics that determine your conversion rate – from interested prospect into valued customer. The most accurate ROI calculation takes into account a customer’s lifetime value, or the amount of sales generated by that customer over time.

So if measuring the results of traditional marketing is so tangible, why is social media different? The answer, it’s not. Many of the same principles of conventional marketing analysis holds true for social media campaigns. For example, let’s say you want to start a company blog. Unlike the options for traditional marketing, your goal should be to share, educate, and create awareness. In other words, you post information that is timely and of interest to your customers and prospects. You do this in a non-invasive manner to attract potential customers. You can create awareness and drive traffic to your blog with an e-newsletter and direct mail, but additionally you want people to seek you out and subscribe to your content on their own.

This brings us back to measuring the effectiveness of your blog (or Facebook page or Twitter account). There are many tools available such as Google Analytics which can generate a number of meaningful reports. You definitely want to monitor the traffic of your blog over time. This will help determine trends and most appealing topics. Again, without a clear benchmark, you won’t be able to accurately determine your ROI. Set realistic goals… perhaps set out to obtain 2 new subscribers to your blog in the first month, 5 in the second month, 10 in the third, etc. I won’t get into how to attract new subscribers in this article – but rather stay focused on the success-rate of the initiatives.

Using a combination of website traffic statistics, new subscriptions, and specific page views, can help you determine where to focus your energy – and the effectiveness of your social media campaign. Unlike a single direct mail campaign social media is an ongoing campaign. It takes time, knowledge, and patience to get it right. Over time, you can build long-term relationships and interact with customers and prospects in a friendly manageable format. With the proper tools in place, you can accurately determine the ROI of your social media efforts.

Don’t be discouraged. We can help.

January 21, 2010

Conan – future Donkey Kong champion

As I watch the Late Show with Conan O’Brien (on his second to the last night as host), he continues to take advantage of every opportunity to make fun of NBC. Since he reached a separation agreement with NBC – he will no longer be employed or allowed to work for a competitor until September. He introduced himself as the “future Donkey Kong champion”.

“I’d like to apologize to our guests that were scheduled for next week: Barack Obama, the Pope, the Queen of England… and our good friend, Elvis Presley was stopping by.” He claimed he was ordered to immediately stop production of his NBC documentary “inside the cock”.

He added another brief (30 second) but expensive bit which consisted of the Kentucky Derby winner, Mind that Bird, wearing a mink snuggie and watching restricted NFL footage. He claimed the skit cost NBC $4.8 million – ouch! He is a natural comedian and making the most of his unpleasant situation.
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January 21, 2010

Conan blows $1.5 million of NBC’s cash

Conan O’Brien, who recently walked away from NBC with a reported $45 million settlement after the late night fiasco with Jay Leno, decided that wasn’t enough. Since his show is running through the end of the week, he is on a mission to run up a tab for NBC by broadcasting songs and media bits which demand high royalty fees.

“We can do whatever they want, and they have to pay for it,” said O’Brien at the beginning of the sketch. And later, while describing the reason for playing the Stones’ “Satisfaction,” he said, “Is it crazy expensive to play on the air, not to mention the rights to re-air this clip on the internet? Hell yes!”

Perhaps the buzz will actually help NBC attract a spike in viewers over the next two nights. We’ll have to wait and see. Is he doing the right thing, give the way NBC treated him? Or is he entitled to express his resentment for getting bumped off of the air?

January 21, 2010

Social media creates a small business success story

I thought this was an interesting article detailing how a small bag manufacture in Seattle – Tom Bihn – was able to leverage social media outlets to connect with fans and customers.

Darcy Gray is a VP at Tom Bihn.

Gray manages the Tom Bihn Facebook fan page, forums, blogs, Flickr and Twitter. She said updating them is a lot of fun and works on them whenever she checks her iPhone… She said engaging directly with customers began with the TomBihn.com forums.

“In 2006, it occurred to us that our customers and potential customers could get significant value from talking with each other as opposed to just with us. They could share their experiences of their Tom Bihn bags, offer advice for selecting the right bag to new customers, and post reviews/pictures of their experiences with their bags,” she said.

She said the company’s success on social media starts with their bags and that social media tools have given them more powerful ways to connect.

“Anytime a company is given more ways to directly communicate with customers, it’s an opportunity for growth. Tom Bihn designs all of our bags himself. Interest in a particular type of bag might encourage him in a certain direction,” Gray said.

By using a combination of blogging and interaction with their communities on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr, Tom Bihn has been able to build a sustainable business.

January 21, 2010

What’s next for Twitter?

What's next for Twitter? After millions of people scrambled to get a Twitter account activated, they later asked themselves – ok, what’s next? While the underlying concept behind Twitter is interesting – stay connected with brief snippets, the software is still in its infancy. There are several companies trying to add more functionality and purpose to this infrastructure.

January 20, 2010

Texting instant relief to Haiti

In times of disaster, fundraising can be a tedious and time consuming task. Fortunately, social media technology is paving the way to instantly send relief money. There’s no better example of this powerful fundraising job than the American Red Cross’ texting campaign. By allowing anyone to text “HAITI” to 90999, they have been able to raise over $30 million in just a few days. My wife and I were quick to donate using this system as soon as we heard about it. It’s easy and instantly rewarding. While this is an impressive amount of money, it’s still a fraction of the amount needed to help rebuild Haiti.

Texting money for charitable purposes is just one of many new trends that I’m sure will be emerging in the near future as online communities continue to grow.

Additionally, my wife has been looking for information on how to adopt orphans from Haiti … if anyone has information, please post.

January 20, 2010

Profiting from social media

Many people continually ask me how they can make money or increase sales from social media. My answer is simple: it’s like losing weight. There are no shortcuts or magic pills that will instantly shed pounds. Losing weight is a lifestyle change and commitment to health and fitness.

The same holds true for social media. Don’t expect to sign up at Twitter or Facebook in the morning and start generating sales in the afternoon. It’s not that simple. It’s a change in corporate culture. It’s a commitment to participating in relevant online communities and discussions. It is most effective by adding relevant and interesting content and opinions, inviting others to share their experiences, and most importantly reading and listening.

Jeffrey Gitomer had some interesting observations in his article: Social media – the new cold call. Wanna play?

There are key words to consider as you try to build your social media world. Connections, attract, video, value, consistent, fan, relevance, write, allocate, monetize.

But there’s a secret. How you position and promote yourself in the NON-social media world is critical to your success in the social media world. Your writing, your website, your blog, your ezine, your personal brand in your marketplace, your perceived value in the marketplace, and your reputation, are elements of attraction that affect your social media status – and surely your success.

There’s billions of dollars of new business being generating by social media – how much of it will you get? Maybe you need to get a bit more serious about being a bit more social.

It’s not an overnight sensation; social media is here to stay… and your involvement could be critical to the future of your business.

January 18, 2010

Jersey Shore, proof that sex sells

Ok, I admit it… I finally broke down and watched an episode of Jersey Shore. Since every late night talk show and entertainment site has been referencing this reality show on MTV, I had to see what all of the buzz was about.

In a nutshell, the show is about eight (very) Italian-American strangers who move in together in Seaside Heights, NJ. They are spending the summer to have fun, get tan, and hook up with anyone who is willing. In the episode I watched (#1), three of the guys were able to score three naked girls in a hot tub – and this was just the first night in town.

I had to ask myself – why is this show so popular? It’s really quite simple – it’s got sex appeal. The eight individuals are scantily dressed… they are all somewhat entertaining in a bizarre kind of way. With names like “The Situation”, JWOWW, Snooky, and Pauly D, they’ve each created a personality that’s larger than life. They are all about image, body tone, tans, and having fun.

The show appeals to wide-demographic audience. Clearly the people that have connections to New Jersey watch to see their summer stomping grounds. Others watch for the shock value – what could possibly happen next. Others can live vicariously through the wild lives of these twenty-something party-goers.

I’d be curious to hear how Italian-Americans are reacting to this program? Are the offended, do they find it funny, or do they have no interest? For Olivia Dupont, it seems to be a normal way of life growing up in New Jersey.

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