WebMarCom Blog: Focus on Web Marketing Communications

Social Media Tips: Should You HIDE or BLOCK Your Linkedin Profile?

  

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Internet troll got ya down?   Met an undesirable and you don't want to have them viewing your information on Linkedin?  Perhaps you connected and now really want to disconnect from a bad person. 

Unfortunately, there is no option to block your profile from other members of LinkedIn at this time.

Especially if you suspect the person is stalking your network and following your connections to connect with them, there may be some value in locking down your contact list.  That's not always the desired course of action, though. There is value in having your connections visible so when you are being evaluated by potential clients, your credibility is presented by the company you keep. 

Even if you could block the person, chances are they would create another identity and attempt to snoop anyway, so even blocking on Linkedin, Facebook or Google+ is of limited value. 

In evaluating the opportunity to present your capabilities and experience and network must be balanced with the attempts by others to pilfer your network.  In some ways, I hope that the people that the troll attempts to connect with are smart enough to determine who they are connecting with, especially if they don't know the person and are contacted out of thin air to connect.  But the reality is that many people are busy, they just don't do their homework, or they perceive the number of people they are connected with to be indicative of their importance or stature.  As you should realize by now, that's not the case and connecting with people you don't know can link you to undesirables. 

And you are known by the company that you keep.

First, let's discuss what current privacy settings are available on Linkedin: 

1. Blocking / Hiding Your Photo: Why would you want to block your photo?  Some people are concerned about other people swiping their image to use for devious purposes.   It's hard to prevent this from happening, and honestly, 

2. Changing Your Profile Display Name: If you originally used your married name and want to use your maiden name, or if you decide you prefer to use a nicname, you can change the profile display name. 

3. Hiding Your Public Profile: If  you prefer not to be contacted by individuals then you can still have a profile, but hide it from others.   This also precludes you from seeing anyone who may want to "view" your profile.  I've learned a lot from seeing who was viewing me.

4. Controlling Who Can Send You Invitations: You may not wish to be contacted by others, and controlling who can send you invitations is a way to stop certain individuals from connecting.  Essentially the choices are:

• All Invitations (this is the default).
• Only invitations from people who know my email address or appear in my "Imported Contacts" list.
• Only invitations from people who appear in my "Imported Contacts" list

  

Internet Strategy: How To Handle An Internet Troll

  

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Internet strategy is determining how to place information including keywords and content onto the Internet in a manner that will attract the appropriate audience to your website, webpage or blog.  Its inbound marketing - the art of positioning and appealing to a market segment.  One of the things that is a nemesis of successful Internet marketers are the Internet Trolls. 

An Internet troll is a person who seeks conflict.  They are energized by conflict and tend to promote their antagonistic presence as a way to boost their tiny ego.

At first, you may think that the troll is powerful, but in reality the best way to deal with a troll is to recognize the troll-like behaviors, and once you have done that,  you have removed their ability to evoke emotion.

In fact, having a troll that attempts to pick on you is a bit of a status symbol. You know you aren't someone until you have at least one troll who tries to incite an audience against you.  It's kind of sad in a way, especially when the troll gets caught up in the stalking and harassing behaviors.

The first step to dealing with trolls is to understand that there are some people who are energized by conflict. These people thrive on attempts to cause harm.  If you understand and appreciate that, you should also recognize whether you are a person who thrives on conflict as well.  If you are, then it's fine to engage with the troll and try to go head to head, comment to comment, however, if you realize that is not your style, and you just want the troll to go away, then it's time to come up with another way to deal with the troll. 

I love the way that Nicole Sullivan defined the problem with trolls in her presentation at the Fluent conference, published on the Internet in May of 2012.  My friend Phil shared this with me when we were discussing trolls and their behavior.  It's one of the best presentations I've seen, and it truly shares why you should not feed the trolls by stooping to their level.

Nicole is an incredibly knowlegable female geek (is that a geekette?), who started the Object-Oriented CSS open source project - a method to scale CSS. She also consulted with the W3C for their beta redesign, and is the co-creator of Smush.it, an image optimization service in the cloud. 

According to Nicole, to respond to a troll means your life will be filled with trolls and troll-like nonsense. 

Understanding who you are and how you should respond is the first step to appropriately defusing a troll.  If you are not someone who enjoys engaging in conflict, like the troll, then you will never win responding to the troll.

You may also have noticed that attempts to reason with the troll may not work.  Any form of attention seems to excite them.  They are obsessed with causing havoc and it may seem at some point like they don't even know what their own motivation is, except they seem to want to always get the last word.  Even if that word doesn't seem to help.

You know when you are at the supermarket and you see the mom with a kid who acts up and screams because they want candy. And as much as the kid screams, the mom says no.  Until finally the mom cannot stand it any longer, and she may give in. That's the worst thing you can do with a troll.

Instead, recognize the troll for what it is, then try to deal with the troll-like behavior based upon the type of troll that they are:

• Jealous Troll.  These trolls can be recognized because no matter what you discuss, they've done it better, first or more.   The best response to these trolls is to stroke their ego, even if you do not believe what they are saying. I learned years ago in Dale Carnegie to use a great experession "If I was you, I'd feel exactly the way you do." The reality is I am NOT you and I don't feel the same, but for some reason, a troll takes comfort by thinking they've been heard. 
• Grammar Troll.  These trolls seem to want to pick on your punctuation, as if that makes them somehow better than you. Typically I'll thank the grammar troll for their keen ability to find those mistakes and then correct them if the troll was accurate.  I've always believed you get more flies with honey than with vinegar and actually, this troll is providing a service of sorts, right? 
• Biased Troll. These are trolls who expect others to think as they think or else they have to push their ideals onto you.  We saw a lot of these during political campaigns. If you don't agree with the biased Troll, you may feel that they are an idiot. If you do agree, you may feel that they are a genius.  Either way, you will only encourage them by engaging, so don't engage. 
• Anti-bias Troll. Just as bad as the "Bias Troll" because they accuse everyone else of being biased.  Again, encouraging these Internet trolls will result in more troll postings.   Ignoring them (and not clicking "Like" on their comment) may be the best course of action.
• Scary Troll. These trolls are the worst.  They may personally attack you and cite your articles. They attempt to discredit you personally by publishing untruthful information.  They may even resort to defacing your image.  This is where you need to determine whether the Troll is all bluff, or whether they truly mean you harm.  

With each of these Internet trolls, the response should never be to feed the troll. Do not engage with them, do not respond to them, do not even acknowledge them.  Instead, use your support network to discuss the situation and seek assistance if needed. 

Another example of dealing with Internet Trolls is in this humorous YouTube video posted by CollegeHumor.  It's about the Internet Bridge Troll.  

Having an Internet Troll is not always a bad thing. If you think about it, in some unanticipated way they are helping you with ranking and search engine optimization by providing links and visits to your website.  Just because they are posting derogatory information does not mean it resonates with an audience.  It may just prove how off-track and unstable they are.  

Plus, controversy does help website visits.  

It is a shame that there will always be unstable people who feel that the Internet is a forum to malign others.  Hopefully the trolls will grow up, but in the meantime, don't feed the trolls.

Demand Generation or Lead Generation, What Is Your Brand Strategy?

  

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Demand generation.  Is there such a thing?  Understanding what your brand strategy should be is powerful marketing insight for a company.  Even the big Fortune 100 organizations sometimes have difficutly realizing that 'educating the customer' may not be the best approach when coming up with a marketing plan or branding program.  Also, using jargon, like demand generation or lead generation or marketing ROI may not fit all situations.

In fact, before spending a fortune on any marketing campaign, it sometimes makes sense to take a step back and evaluate whether the direction you are leaning is helping your organization, or whether it may be costing you - not just in absolute dollars, but also in opportunity cost.  

Instead of demand generation, perhaps you should be considering lead generation instead.  The concept of “demand” generation is that you can educate the customers or prospects about what you offer with the concept of what you are presenting as a better way to approach an industry challenge.  One of my customers was in such a predicament.  They wanted to re-align their offer to include services that would, in their words, become a “total solution” for their customers.   Much of what they wanted to offer they were already in the business of offering, however some of the services were what I would define as a ‘stretch’.  By ‘stretch’, what I mean is that these were not services that were in the core product, the company was not known for offering these services, they did not currently have the in-house capability to offer them, and yet, these stretch services are a bridge between two services that they offer.   The goal was to determine whether there was an audience for these new services before actually bringing them in-house.

During a brain-storming session with senior management and organization-wide representatives, we started to define what this end-to-end solution would look like.  During the discussion, I challenged the team to evaluate not only where they stood within the industry with regard to credibility for the offer, but also to compare themselves to their major competitors.

When I asked about the competition, the response I got was that there was no competition.  Digging further, led to the understanding that no one in this market segment or industry is currently offering an all-in-one solution – supplying the customer from soup to nuts with everything that was needed. 

The question then became why no one is currently making that offer.   There was much discussion, and we clarified that there are small suppliers that supply a niche service, linking two giants with a defined segment of supply.  Part of the discussion centered around “educating” the prospects that a service could be offered, then creating a convincing appeal as to why this offer would be better.

If it had not been a very senior person who was making this argument, I think the discussion would have stopped there.  Everyone was sitting around the room coming up with brainstorming ideas about how this new service would be better.

Being the one person in the room who did not have an agenda made it simpler for me to see what was going on. Everyone was trying to show their boss that his idea was great.  It was a situation of telling someone exactly what they wanted to hear. 

However, what I was hearing did not make sense.  The team was proposing using phrases like “Best of breed” and “Only solution”.  I asked one question that stopped everyone in their tracks.

“Is that credible?”

It took a few moments, but the realization sunk in.  How can you say that you are the “Best” at something you have never offered before, or that you currently are not offering.   Even the solution if it could be offered was questionable with regard to whether it made sense. 

Bottom line is this – if you come up with an idea for a product or service that requires “educating” the audience, you may have bitten more than you can chew. Your offer must be credible and that means consistent with the expectations for service and delivery that your customers have come to rely upon you for. 

As it turns out, while this client may not have offered the end-to-end solution that they thought they wanted to offer, they had a tremendous opportunity to improve the depth and market penetration into a segment of the business that they had a tremendous reputation for reliability in.  It makes more sense to ‘go with the flow’ than to try to swim up river.

So, is there such a thing as demand generation?  Yes, but be sure you are using this powerful phrase correctly.  Do you mean demand generation or lead generation?  If the latter, then your goal has to be with positioning, understanding what your customers think about you, and working with their perceptions to maximize the opportunity.

One more thing that has to do with brand development and market positioning – it’s important to understand where you exist in relation to your competition.  While you may not perceive a company to be competitive, if your prospect may consider them as service provider and does not differentiate their offer from yours, then they are a competitor.  It may be that you decide not to pursue certain types of opportunities or customers, but that does not mean that you should discount evaluating where the perception of their offer differs from the perception of what your offer is.  Understand what your prospects and customers think of you for, versus what they think of the other supplier for.

As it worked out in this situation, the part of the market that this company was not currently providing but which it ‘needed’ to offer the ‘end-to-end’ offer for clients was one that had a very low profit margin, and where there were many smaller companies competing for that segment. For this organization to enter that service for the ability to say that they had a single solution would have diluted their profit ratio and most likely would not have meant an increase in overall business for them. The fact was that there was no demand for this service and that’s most likely why it had never been attempted or offered by the competition. 

Marketing campaigns and branding initiatives can be costly - not just in what it takes to get the message conveyed, but also in the opportunity cost for what you could have been working towards.  In this instance, the solution was not to revise the company to support an offer that had little to no-credibity, no demand and then hope and pray that there would be enough dollars to sell demand generation.  Instead, it made more sense and cost less cents to focus on the core of what was believable and credible and consolidate marketing efforts to work to enhance rather than change perceptions.

What do you think? Have you ever been in a situation where it seemed your company was heading down a path that didn't make sense to you?  Were you able to share why and have an impact?  Or did the initiative move forward, and if so, was the result different than you expected? 

Social Media Strategy: How To Effectively Use #Hashtag Best Practices

  

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Social media strategy can be challenging if you feel that you don't understand how to use mechanisms that can help to get you noticed for the right reasons by the right audience. With the recent Facebook hashtag announcement, more and more business marketers will be trying to figure out the best practices for using hashtags.  It's a good thing to learn this now, because inappropriate use of hashtags can result in suspension, unfollows, bad publicity or more.  One of the most frequent mistakes I see among social network newbies is the misuse of the hashtag (#) symbol.

Since abusing the use of hashtags can suspend your account on most social media services, what is the appropriate protocol and best practices for hashtags in social media.

First, why use a hashtag?

1. Using the hashtag symbol (#) as part of a keyword or key phrase helps to categorize information to come up in searches
2. In Twitter, clicking on a #keyword will show other tweets using that same #keyword. 
3.  The hashtag phrase can be anywhere in a tweet. Personally, I like to work them in with the phrase rather than lump them at the end, but I've done both.
4. Hashtags done well can become Trending Topics.  Using trending topics to create a #hashtag can work against you. This is a way that spammers try to get their junk to be visible.
5. Know that if you use a hastag on a public account, your tweet will be searchable by that hashtag.  
6. #spamming #hashtags is not #bestpractices.  Don't over tag, and try to keep tags to no more than two per tweet. 
7. Use relevant hashtags - to the content of the tweet.  Otherwise that's considered spammy and can get your account banned. 

How do people use hashtags incorrectly? 

What does this mean for business and social media marketing?  Brands will be able to determine how their hashtag is used, and can promote content using hashtags.  The potential is enormous.

A simple way to get started with hashtags is with the Twitter #FF hashtag. Using #FF or #FollowFriday is a way to acknowledge the Twitter luminaries that you may recommend to others.  The appropriate way to do this is to mention the person's handle (@Sunswept) and a nice comment about why you are recommending others follow that person.  

The lazy way to use #FF is to cluster a bunch of people together with a recommendation that they be followed using the #FF or #FollowFriday tags.  I've seen and used both, but recommend the first way because it's much more personal and more likely to be remembered by the flattered recipient.  

What do you think?  Do you use hashtags, and if so, how do you use them?  What do you think the hashtags will mean for brands using Facebook for marketing?  

Social Media Marketing: Pinterest Web Analytics - A Game Changer?

  

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Inbound marketing consultants have an interesting opportunity.  Internet marketing campaigns and web branding programs relatively new tool in the marketing toolkit.   The landscape of social platforms and best practices for social media engagement with prospects and audiences is a book that's constantly being updated.  

Understanding the audience and learning the best way to reach them is an evolving skill. Every day there are changes to the ups and downs and popular social networks, and additionally, there are new and emerging favorites like Pinterest that take the place of social networks that don’t get the same amount of traction. For example, I recently wrote about a social platform called “Phewtick” that had some interesting characteristics that made it viral among the college kids. Since that time, “Phewtick” has changed their platform and usage rules, and (in my opinion) it’s pretty much killed their chances of mass growth, and certainly limit their opportunities in the short term.

Consistency and value for any social media platform has to include value to businesses for the social network to eventually turn a profit. From the “Free-mium” social networks that integrated user content as the reason for existence, there has been a struggle for platforms to monetize. Even Facebook, with its massive audience struggled when they went public. And they are still struggling. According to a recent article in Bloomburg:

“Facebook Inc. (FB) reported a plunge in fourth-quarter profit on higher spending, even while it made long-awaited progress luring advertisers eager to reach mobile- device users.”

Mobile is critical.

Americans spent over 120 billion minutes on social media during a one month time period last summer, a giant increase in the year prior from 88 billion. This increase is partially fueled by the increase in mobile devices coupled with an explosion of better apps. Americans’ social media use is growing exponentially, driven by a heavy increase of using mobile apps, according to a new Nielsen study.

So what’s the latest fuss about Pinterest?

One of the biggest struggles marketers face is having the ability to prove the effectiveness and Return On Investment (ROI) for social media. Pinterest has proven that it can bring eyeballs to a website, but until recently, there were limited analytics to prove this. Recently, Pinterest announced it will give page managers a more powerful marketing tool by providing insights into how viewers are engaging and interacting with pins from their website. The first step is to verify your website with Pinterest so you can gain access to the analytics. The steps to verify the site are easy for most developers and web designers.

This free new tool will be called “Pinterest Web Analytics”. By bringing analytics services to companies and brands, Pinterest is positioning for the ability to accept advertising.

Understanding how many visitors and pins trend over time, what types of pins get the most attention and having the ability to do a/b testing is powerful for marketers who are always trying to make their online programs more effective. This makes Pinterest a one-stop shop, kinda like Facebook insights offers for Facebook.

For those of us who track where our web traffic is coming from, this is exciting news. We know Pinterest is effective for sharing great visual information with prospects, and also for social influencers to introduce what they love about what we offer, but the missing link between folks coming to our site from Pinterest and what happened while they were on Pinterest was murky, despite outside analytic solutions.

I admit to being guilty of shopping from Pinterest. It’s hard not to. When a friend or someone posts something that is irresistible, it is so easy to follow the link to check it out. As a Pinterest user, it’s no wonder so many love the platform, but for a brand or a business, this new marketing media can be a powerful way to attract new shoppers. After all, we know that it’s much more powerful to get a word of mouth referral… Pinterest as a social media marketing platform has the visual edge over other platforms and links directly to the ecommerce site or website. It’s just a matter of time before this becomes a formalized relationship.

The next step to watch for is the introduction of paid advertising into Pinterest. To some extent, that’s a good thing, but as a social media purist, it’s a bit disappointing. Watching the dilution of really great content on Twitter, for example, has soured many of the audience. The question will be whether the way Pinterest offers advertising winds up alienating users or complementing the stream of user generated content.

Proving the value of its scrapbooking network is just the groundwork for the next steps of monetizing.

Inbound Marketing: Are You Guerrilla Marketing or Gorilla Marketing?

  

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Internet marketing consultants seem to spring up every day.  Just saying you are an expert seems to be the rage among the inexperienced and unskilled who rely upon buying an audience to show results.  These pseudo marketers are dangerous, because they think they know what they are doing, they may even convince you that they know more than you do, but after they take your money, will you really see results?

A truely well-constructed inbound marketing campaign will use a multi-faceted approach to reach your audience that begins with understanding who you are trying to reach, determines what the motivation of the audience is, investigates where is best to reach them, then constructs a message that will appeal to the audience to encourage action. 

Is your "Internet marketing strategist" or "inbound marketing consultant" making a MONKEY of himself? 

If you are contemplating hiring a web marketing consultant, do your homework.  Sometimes that homework can be easier than you think!

I recently saw a communication in which a person who referred to himself as an Internet Marketing Strategist professed that he used his "professional gorilla marketing expertise" to prove a point.  

He proved it.  He's a fraud.  

Seriously?  

Gorilla Marketing?  Didn't he mean "Guerrilla marketing"?  You bet! 

Yep, he made a monkey of himself.  That's about all it is.  Other than making a group of us laugh out loud, we realized that there are many small businesses who may make the mistake of believeing that this person may know something about the Internet, just because he says he does.

First, let's set the record straight.  The term is "GUERRILLA" marketing, not "GORILLA" marketing.

What is Guerrilla Marketing?

Guerrilla marketing is a name for a marketing style similar to guerilla warfare, but using non-conventional marketing tactics.  Coining the name is attributed to Jay Conrad Levinson, who is the author of the Guerrilla Marketing books. Mr. Levinson was formerly with leading advertising agencies including J. Walter Thompson Advertising and Leo Burnett Advertising where he served in Creative and Executive Positions.  When the book was published in the early 80's, the concept of marketing along the lines of guerrilla warfare was a new concept.  The idea was to hit fast and get out, making a big impact with less money but lots of smarts.  The concept caught on quickly and especially in this word of new media, there are great opportunities to use guerrilla tactics, especially for small businesses without a huge budget.

Some great guerrilla marketing tactics in an online world may include:

LinkedIn:

• Create a keyword rich profile on Linked in.  Using keywords is important for search engines and LinkedIn has great authority with search engines. 
• Join Linked In Groups. Generally to connect on LinkedIn, you need to know the contact information and be connected to the individual.  In Groups, you can contact other members of the group and introduce yourself.  It's a great way to increase your contact list. 
• Ask questions on Linked In.  Each time you ask a question, you can phrase it in a way that enables a prospect to self-identify.

• Write responses to posts on blogs.  Each time you write a thoughtful comment it positions you in the eyes of the other readers. It also identifies you as someone the author may want to know better.  You can also add links back to your website or landing pages.
• Write your own blogs.  Creating keyword rich content and answering questions that your customers or clients may have is a great way to be discovered when someone is Googling that question.  
• Guest Blog for others.  Posting blogs on other sites that have authority is great, but even better is having a bio that links back to you.  Recently Google introduced "Author" tags, which are important to compile the authority in the articles that are linked with your name. 
• Offer contest for your readers.  Having a limited time to respond for a great prize garners excitement. Be sure you know what the goals are.  Ask readers to subscribe to your articles or posts, or to comment, which is a great way to boost your rank in the search engines. 

Unfortunately, there are a new group of self-professed "marketing guru" people with very little experience or knowledge,who have jumped on the "new media bandwagon".  These small potato marketers have picked up phrases that sound important to them. To the entrepreneur, the term guerrilla and the word gorilla (which is a large ape) may sound similar, but then again, they are vastly different. 

So, if the individual refers to him or  herself as a gorilla marketer, you absolutely now know they have no idea what they are talking about.  And even if they chuckle and say it was a typo, you know better!

What's Phewtick And How Will It Impact Inbound Marketing

  

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Social media marketing is a constantly changing field. Just when you think you understand all the idiosyncrasies of Facebook, the rules change.  Social networks rise and fall, as is evidenced by MySpace's devise and the surge, then stall of Quora.  Everyone wants to be in on the next "big" thing - which explains the sudden spike in Pinterest and Instagram as they get more press. 

Earlier this week, I got a text from my daughter. She's attending college and it's unusual for her to suddenly text me during the day.  Her message asked whether I had heard of "Phewtick". 

What is Phewtick? 

The name, Phewtick is an onomonopaedic description of the sound a fly makes when it buzzes by in an animae cartoon... and then the sound of it landing on an object.  This 'new' social media is now all the rage on college campus and from the sounds of what it is, I fully expect it to grow like wildfire in the next few months. 

Why?  Well, its not because they use sophisticated graphics. The interface looks like a kid drew a variation of "Hello Kitty".  It's not because there are levels of skill either, because there really are none.  Nope.  Its because you can 'win' money, just by using the app with your friends. 

Imagine that if you tell your friend and then you scan each other's QR code, you can earn a random amount of points.  Once you've accumulated enough points they equal real dollars.  These dollars can be either cashed out (through PayPal), or they can be donated to charity.  The code changes so it has to be fresh, and the connection has to be in the real world, not over the computer or video sharing. 

The game cost nothing to join.  How can they DO that? 

The founder of the company, Kazuhiro Naya came up with the idea when he was attending Berkeley.  He saw social media begin to soar with Facebook and Twitter.  His dream was to "change the world" by connecting people.  And "Phewtick" is a way to do that.  It appears that he is funding the initial phases of Phewtick, and eventually the business model will feature offers by businesses based upon activities by individuals.  For example, if four friends meet once a week in the same location, it may feature an offer from a restaurant nearby.  The restaurant or business would pay for the ability to reach prospects at a time when they are likely to buy. 

Will this be the next Facebook? 

Not sure if this is actually going to replace Facebook, however the premise is very simple and I can definitely see this catching on, especially on college campuses where the opportunity to scan each other's QR code seems to be driving new behavior.  If you know that scanning the QR code can get you points that will mean dollars, why not tell all of your friends?  Plus students are less likely to be concerned about sharing their location then their parents would be.  

In fact, to sign up, you can use Facebook credentials and even post your Phewtick meetings on Facebook.  

Will Phewtick replace Facebook?  In my opinion, it won't... Partially because it is much more limited in scope than Facebook is.  I do think it may reduce the time spent on Facebook, however - partially because there are only so many hours in a day, and if you are "Phewticking" you are not "Facebooking". 

Geo-targeted Marketing

If you are a brick and mortar business, you may recognize the potential of a Foursquare or geo-targeted social media.   The ability to 'virtually' tap someone on the shoulder when they are nearby is powerful.  Offers can be changed rapidly - lunch time, dinner hour, specials, limited time incentives - all shared at a point when a prospect is near your door.  In some ways, Phewtick picks up where Foursquare left off, and with the economic incentive to share with friends, it's a powerful combination.  

Demographic Marketing

Because you get points for recommending friends who join, the college kids are inviting each other and they are hungry to find friends who have not yet joined.  They still get points for sharing QR codes with friends who are already in the system.   The fact that the number of points is so random encourages them to scan often.  The points can be 18 or 5000 or 300, with no rhyme or reason as to why they change.  Interestingly enough, you can scan your friends once every hour.  

The appeal of this type of social network is huge among college kids.  According to my daughter, she'll go to a class and the first thing the kids want to do is scan each other.  Easy to see how viral this becomes so quickly.  Especially because if other young adults are like my daughter, they are in touch with their high school friends on other campuses, and of course, they want to share.  The economic incentive is powerful! 

As Phewtick builds an audience and monitors their behavior they will be creating an impressive database. That's where the value is!  

Will Phewtick be important? 

It's smart, it's viral, and there are incentives.  Phewtick is growing quickly, and its definitely a social media worthy of watching.  

And now, at least, you'll understand what it means when someone comes up to you and says "Phewtick me!"

Social Media Marketing Lessons From The Superbowl

  

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Admittedly, I am not a huge sports fan.  I do enjoy the Superbowl, though.  Whether it's the comeraderie of a few friends or the chance to munch on fattening junk food, Superbowl Sunday is a tradition that transcends other social mores. 

So, what social media lessons can we learn from the Superbowl.  To me, the Superbowl isn't so much about the teams who have risen to the top fo their profession, fighting it out in tight uniforms and grunting enthusiasm.  To me, the players on the field are just a distraction from the true meaning of the Superbowl - the commercials! 

Yes, it's more exciting when YOUR team is playing, and to some extent, we can pick one of the sides that we prefer to win, but really if your team is not in the game, does it really matter who wins?  If you are in a football pool or you have some skin in the game, you would be more interested, but seriously, I'm a chick, so what do I care if it's the 49ers or the Ravens. They are both great teams and regardless, one will win and one will lose. 

The true winners or losers in my opinion, are the entities that have pledged millions for the chance to make an impression.  No, I am not talking about Beyonce.  Yes, the skimply little black outfit and pyrotechnics were brash, but heck, I expect her to put on a show.  I'm talking about those commercials, those short vignettes that attempt to get our attention away from the wings and beer and munchies, and keep us glued to the television when the players take  break.

In old days, the commercials were a necessary evil.  When they came on, we walked away form the television and visited the fridge or the facility.  Today, the commercials are front and center, and if you missed them, you feel it when you get to the office the next day and everyone else has an opinion.  Yep, even the pundits on the morning show spend more time discussing and reviewing the commercials than they do discussing the game.  Let's face it, that is a win or lose, however the commercials... oh, they have a life of their own. 

This year we witnessed a few, new and fascinating superbowl social media trends.  The first was a lightening fast reaction to the power going out just after halftime. For those of you who missed it, the lights went dark and for about half an hour, the players were cooling their heels and waiting to see when the game could resume.  

Unlike the players on the field, social media heated up!  

This year, I watched the game in a Hangout on Google+.  My friends from all over the US and even all over the world were there with me.  We shared snacks (look what I'm eating) and joked and even shared the screen to watch local commercials (which were different, obviously, dependent upon geography).   

In the meantime, I monitored and participated in the Twitter stream, commenting and replying as the game progressed.  I think half time the comments were most entertaining. The "LOL's" and "ROFLOL's" streaming along. (Laugh out loud, roll on floor laugh out loud).

On Facebook, there was active dialogue as well.  Friends commenting and chastising the players, or commenting on Beyonce's skimpy attire or gyrations.  (Was she lip syncing or not?).

Breaking news alerts were ironically late when the power went out.  Faster, perhaps, were the advertising teams who responded with great graphic ads through Twitter and Facebook and Google+.   (Bravo, Oreos, and yes, they are great dunked even in the dark.  But then again, can you still eat the middle first if you cannot see it?).

Immediacy is the name of the game.  As each commercial aired, the comments were just as important to a marketing team as the ads themselves.  Hey brand managers, were you listening?  I know Oreo was, but I'm not sure about many of the others.  If they had, Budweiser would have seen the number soar when their commercial came on, with many men and women both declaring "Awww" when the Clydesdale came charging down the street.  Still makes me a bit misty thinking about it, and that's what a commercial is supposed to do - connect with our emotions.  

This year brands had the incredible opportunity to listen.  To engage. To interract.  But did they?  

The numbers of people interacting through social media plays testimony to the growing popularity of social interaction.  For those brands that spent a fortune on a broadcast commercial but who were not participating in the conversation - shame on you!  If you really want to make that investment count, make it interactive and get the influencers involved.

What do you think? Were you watching through social media?  What social media did you watch through and what was your experience?  

QR Codes: Are They Part Of Your Mobile Internet Strategy?

  

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QR codes or quick response codes have become a convenient way to encourage conversions with branded trade show giveaways, collateral or direct mail.  QR codes became quite popular with marketers in Japan and Europe, and have gained some traction within the US.  Especially with so many mobile users, having the ability to offer an easy, convenient way to share information or drive traffic to a direct mail website has become much more appealing.  Many realtors are utilizing these qr codes on literature or signs for home buyers to have easy access to information about a property.  

Whether on a billboard, a bus, a postcard or a business card the QR code is a great way to get a lot of information into a little space. 

QR codes can be seen on billboards, the sides of buildings, as a tattoo, on t-shirts, on badges at trade shows, on business cards.  When the QR code is scanned by a smart phone (with a QR reader application) the QR code can direct the mobile user to a landing page or web site with additional information such as product information, sales information, directions, phone numbers or a host of other information that your marketing efforts can now easily get into the phones of potential customers. 

Originally invented by DENSO Corp., a subsidy of Toyota, in 1994 QR Codes have become a worldwide accepted way of communicating.  They have gained acceptance and popularity with marketers across many countries as a way to provide an intriguing call to action and bring the customer or prospect to the next stage of the sales process.

How QR Codes work:

1. Download a QR scanning application for your phone. 
2. When you see a QR code use the phone's camera and the application to read the code. 
3. The application automatically opens the link, video or image. 

Some popular QR scanning apps include RedLaser, i-nigma, NeoReader and Grip'd.  There are applications available for most smart phones. 

It's easy to see how the ability to scan a code and go directly to a website could be useful.  Real Estate agents can use the code on a sign outside of a house, which when scanned, leads to a website with more information about the property.  Buses can have a QR code on the side that shares information about upcoming events in town.  T-shirts can be printed with QR codes that lead to a Facebook page.  Removable tattoos with the QR code on them can lead to a Paypal donation site for charitable organizations.  The creative usage and ideas are limited only by imagination. 

Want to try creating a QR Code? There are many QR code generating tools on the market.  The QR reader is universal, so it doesn't matter who generates the code.  

How would you use a QR code?  Would it be helpful to have a way to get viewers to your website? 

Lessons In Internet Strategy From Political Campaigns And Elections

  

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Now that the dust has settled a bit, and we've all licked our wounds or celebrated, it's time as an inbound marketing consultant to share some of the observations for Internet strategy from the recent political campaign.

The awesome thing about living in America is that we value Freedom Of Speech, and the gush of passionate dischord through social media was witness to the vitriol and opinion that this campaign evoked.

I'm actually glad about the passion. One of the worst things that can happen during an election is apathy.  There was no apathy with this election - the sides were polarized and it's almost as if the parties themselves fueled the rift.  In this day of social media, the decorum that used to dictate that there were two topics you just don't discuss (religion and politics) no longer seemed to be part of our 'new' culture.  Instead, it became a war at times though social media. Consider the record number of tweets for each of the Presidential debates, and during and post election coverage. 

During the campaign, there were incidents of "unfriending" and open hostility to oposing viewpoints. There was disinformation posted from peudo news sites.  Fact checking sites saw record traffic and even the broadcast news stations were guilty of favoritism and bias. 

There were a few who remained calm and tried to post articles and stories unrelated to the campaigns.  For the most part, they were somewhat ignored. 

After the campaign, post election comments continued to evoke a spectrum of emotion, ranging from smugness to anger, discouragement to jubilation. 

At this writing, I'm not sure whether the viscious television advertising fueled the online jousting, or whether the online sparring became the fodder of the television advertising campaign, but I suspect it was a little of both.

I conducted a small, unofficial survey to determine whether the information that was shared through social media evoked any change of opinion with regard to which candidate an individual favored.  The response was a resounding NO.  No one would admit that the stream of political babble influenced their vaote one way or another.  Yet, I do know that when the streams from my friends seemed to sway one way or the other, I found myself reading their comments to see if there was any validity to the derogatory information they were 'uncovering' about the opposing party or candidate.  For the most part, many of the posts were invalid or the points made were observations of comments that were twisted and misconstrued into something unsavory - regardless of the way the comment had been intended. 

Overall, I have to admit that the Democrats have a better social media and new media campaign than the GOP does.  Not sure if it's due to demographics of the average member of each ot the groups, but the older, conservative Republicans were less inclined to post opinion, and less inclined to share viewpoints.  That kind of makes sense when you consider that they are, but definition "conservative".  The more liberal Democrats did take liberal poetic license and splattered social media with tons of content - much more than the R's did. 

If there are any tips I could share with a potential future campaign manager for either party, and also share with busineses who want to effectively use social media, it would be these lessons learned from the recent Presidential campaigns:

1. Monitor the social streams.  Without listening to "the people" you wind up being "out of touch" with the electorate.  The Democrats did a better job of not only monitoring but also responding to the tone and trending topics.
2. Use a visual that can be shared.  Consider the popularity of the meme - those pictures that become viral and which are shared throughout the Internet.  Put visuals together that are humorous and which can be shared easily though various social media channels.
3. Play on the topical emotional trends.  During the campaign, some of the emotional trends included picking up on Mitt Romney's comment about Big Bird.  Suddenly Big Bird was being served roasted for the Romney Thanksgiving feast.  Also, the empty chair for Barack Obama used by Clint Eastwood during the GOP convention turned out to be satirized repeatedly.  Look for these types of opportunities to utilize a graphic depiction and then run with it in a format that is funny, strikes a chord, and is suitable for sharing.
4. Group pages on Facebook.  Ok, this was kind of cheating, and I think the D's used this tactic much more to their advantage than the R's did.  Did you know you can create a group on Facebook and call it anything you want.  Pick a minority, pick a candidate then create the group and populate it with some activists.  Then add people to the group. They have to opt out!  You read that right.  If you add them to the group, they are in the group unless they opt out.  Wow,  you can build a pretty impressive group pretty quickly, and if there are people who are followers and who are swayed by the crowd think, you have a powerful tool to enlist an audience.
5. Special interest blog websites.  I saw a plethora of pseudo sites that sprung up favoring one party or the other, and adding very slanted content to the site on an ongoing basis.  I discovered many of these when I saw an article that was posted on the Facebook stream that did not make any sense to me.  I clicked on the link and was taken to a website that was decidedly one-sided.  Not sure how anyone rational can take the information from a site that is obviously slanted and quote it as gospel, but it seemed to be an effective tactic since I saw this over and over again.

So how can we, as rational beings use social media and have our voices heard for greater good?  The best uses of social media are:

• Share Information but check out the sources first.  PLEASE use credible sources.  Try to avoid extreme bias, like the anti-Romney video that blames Romney for Hurricane Sandy.
• Encourage Dialogue politely.  Posting that someone is going to make a "Mitt-stake" or elect an "Obamanation" is not helpful to an open discussion. 

In the end, did the parties let us down, or did we do this to ourselves? By letting us down, I'm referring to the fact that as of now, there is a vast chasm in our nation.  Believe it or not, we are more polarized that I think we have ever been.  And the vote was not a mandate.  Sweating it out to the end, even if he won, Obama has to realize that this was a pretty squeeky win for him considering that he is the incumbant and he has the edge.  With the populace so emotionally divided our nation has more than an economic hurdle to overcome. 

Will social media be used to help mend the nation, or to further push it into turmoil?  It in our hands much more than ever before.  Thanks to social media, we can have our voices heard.

What do you think?  Was this the nastiest election you ever lived through?  Do you feel that social media helped or hindered the campaigns?  Please share your thoughts.

God Bless America.