Archive for June, 2009

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12
Jun
09

260,000 followers on facebook for National Man Day

By Jay Weise 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

Picture 30

I read this story story from the AP on my local news station’s website. Its about the creation of “National Man Day”. I love this idea. It was highly promoted on Facebook with 260,000 followers. But it did not go so well.
http://www.9news.com/news/watercooler/article.aspx?storyid=117534&catid=337

Now, I think it’s great that men have finally “manned up”  and got themselves organized for a “National Man Day”. And using Facebook to find followers and spread the word only shows there is was a real interest in this kind of kind of day…. maybe one that Hallmark could have gotten in the game with. And even better, Facebook became the great marketing tool it should be for spreading the word.

Now, on the other hand, that fact that these guys didn’t at least do some simple research on Google, the web’s ultimate resource for everything under the sun, to see if there are any other remotely related events on the same day as NMD, really deflates their efforts. And does not speak well of our great gender. A day dedicated to all things manly does not go well with “Sneak a Kiss Day”, its just way too romantic. But come June 15, I will be found in my back yard grilling some ribs and drinking some beers. Maybe even smoking a cigar. And probably talking about it on Facebook and Twitter.


11
Jun
09

Create your own social network

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Social Media, Twitter and YouTube
Tags: , ,

Picture 25Ever heard of Ning? I hadn’t either until I read an interview with its CEO and co-founder on mediabistro.com. Ning is a digital media company that lets people create their very own social networks, for free. From what I can tell, it’s kind of like a blog, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter all rolled into one customizable site.

According to comScore, Ning had approximately 5.2 million unique visitors in March 2009. This is “an almost unbelievable 314 percent year-over-year increase,” explains mediabistro.com.

The interesting thing and Ning (rhyming unintentional) is that it enables users to focus on their favorite people and interests. For example, one Ning network is all about Corgis, others focus on public relations, some are about Beyonce, and others highlight ice cream businesses (those may be my favorites!). The networks people have started pretty much run the gamut on topics. If you can dream it, you can have a social network about it (within legal limits, I’m sure).

Ning seems to be all about “mapping the world’s interests and passions”, according to the CEO and co-founder, Gina Bianchini. I find this concept very interesting, as a good part of my job is to reach consumers through their interests and passions.

A few hours ago I had never heard of Ning, but now I’m going to follow them and their networks much more closely. It seems to be a fast-growing company with huge potential in the social media world.

Are there any new social media sites you know of? Any you think are the next Facebook or Twitter? Share them with us.

10
Jun
09

expand your franchise with linkedin

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Best of, Business growth, Communications, Franchise, Franchising, Linked In, LinkedIn, Marketing, New Media, Profile, promotions, Social Media and Tips
Tags: , , , , , ,

linkedinpic1LinkedIn is an extremely popular social networking site used by professionals in all walks of life. A quick scan of your Gmail contacts will probably reveal that many of your peers are already using LinkedIn to network with like-minded professionals. But you are a franchisor. Why would you use LinkedIn? It’s not like you are trying to connect with CPA’s. You’re trying to expand your franchise.

LinkedIn can be used to accomplish your goals. Franchisors must focus on three areas to completely leverage LinkedIn to expand their franchise business. These include joining groups, participating in the “Answers” section, and creating a “great” profile.

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Joining Groups:

LinkedIn has hundreds of groups available to franchise professionals. Do a group search for “franchises” and you’ll find that you can join over 300 such groups. Why join?
LI Groups
The most important reasons for joining a group include:

1. Search functionality: Being a group member allows you to access the profiles of the other members in your group. (If you belonged to the “Franchise Networking” group, you would have access to over 2,200 LinkedIn profiles!)

2. Communication: Not only does being a group member give you viewing privileges, you’ll also has the ability to directly contact your fellow group members.

3. Showcase your group affiliations: When you join a group, LinkedIn gives you the option to display a digital badge on your profile. These show people visiting your page what groups you belong to and where your professional interests lie.

Becoming an Expert:linkedin-answers

LinkedIn’s “Answers” section gives anyone the opportunity to answer or ask questions on almost any topic in almost any industry.

You should seriously consider spending some time in the Q&A forum to find questions that you can answer. Why?

LinkedIn awards its users with expertise points for every answer they provide. According to LinkedIn’s Web site, “When your answer is chosen as (the) best by the question’s asker, you gain a point of expertise in the question’s category.”

Creating a “Great” Profile:

There are many articles out there that attempt to sort out the do’s and don’ts of setting up your LinkedIn profile.
The following list of three articles will point you in the right direction and help you create an outstanding LinkedIn profile:

LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover: Guy Kawasaki offers short easy-to-digest recommendations to vamp up your profile.

Six Elements of a Great LinkedIn Profile: Scott Cunningham offers great information and the details to help you implement his suggestions.

4 Minutes to Optimize a LinkedIn Profile for SEO: HubSpot offers two key pieces of advice and a four minute video detailing how you can optimize your profile for SEO.

Now that you have the skinny on LinkedIn, join some franchise groups, become an expert and create a great profile!

Drop us a line. We would like to know what tip(s) you found most helpful!

09
Jun
09

Put your Money into Marketing…Especially in a Recession

By Marne Brase Leave a Comment
Categories: business to business, business to consumer, Economy, events, internet marketing, lead generation, Marketing, Marketing Budgets, PPC, recession marketing, Social Media and Web sites

Easier said than done. Or is it? Many business owners find it difficult to allocate dollars to marketing, whether they’re starting up or growing their business. However, the name of the game these days is lead generation.

The question becomes, “How am I going to keep my client base or find new consumers?”

If you are starting up your business, you are probably struggling to raise enough capital to just open the doors. However, costs today are lower than years ago. On businessweek.com, “Your Startup on a Shoestring” holds true even as our economy struggles and banks tighten up their lending process.

Look to the Internet. Establish your Web site, and even do this in steps if necessary to keep costs down. Cap your pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns and budget your dollars. This article also has some great money saving tips and provides great recommendation, such as “put as much of your money into marketing as possible”.

If you are an established business trying to grow or just maintain, the same is true. Look to the Internet. Evaluate your Web site. Maybe it is time for improvements. Explore social network opportunities. Get involved. Create a PPC campaign. Update your promotions and coupons.

On entrepreneur.com, the article “Win Sales from Recession-Minded Consumers” discusses “3 ways to woo shoppers this summer”. You know it is all about savings!

  1. Market Special Promotions
  2. Modernize Coupons
  3. Woo Stay-at-Home Shoppers
coupon

coupon

Just think, coupons are back. And, by popular demand! This article highlights that “nearly 80 percent of consumers surveyed in the 18-to-34 age group say they’re much more likely or somewhat more likely to use coupons if they can download them and have them automatically connected to an electronically swiped frequent shopper card.” That is something to think about.

dell couponAnd coupons are not just for consumers. Dell has coupons for small businesses online.

In times of recession, we must be creative and continue to think of ways to reach clients and consumers to build relationships. Talk to your audience online or at an event. In the article “Recession Marketing All About Connections”, the author recommends face-to-face connections to build credibility. Hold an event and promote it though your social media networks. Promote your business at a trade show. New and old ways of marketing can be combined to keep costs down and maximize exposure.

There is a lot of good conversation and advice online for B2B and B2C. You will notice writers continue to talk about Internet marketing and social media. Why? I believe it has to do with putting clients and consumers in the driver seat and putting your money into marketing channels where you can track results immediately.

How are you allocating your marketing dollars? What results are you seeing? Let us know and we may share your story!

08
Jun
09

healthcare marketers: are you on the twitter bandwagon, or watching from the side?

By Tracy Weise 1 Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

I read a recent article in HealthLeaders by Gienna Shaw regarding the benefits to physicians posting tweets during surgeries. The article itself provided a great overview of the benefits of this type of communication as well as some of initial negative reactions. Overall, as the title to the article indicates, the benefits win out.

What is interesting to me is that so many hospital and health organizations are still slow to embrace, or even try, social media. Besides using Twitter as an outlet for surgeons, there are a lot of other reasons for hospitals to use the social media tool, including the following:

1. The majority of hospitals that believe they are “community-based” need to maintain a position as the health leader in their community. Traditional ways of establishing this position included health fairs, seminars, advertising… all things that are costly to create and time consuming to manage. Instead, try substituting some of your traditional methods of communicating with online messages. The healthcare organizations that are online that I follow do a great job of sending out health tips and information to keep me healthy. For their customers, they are continuing to be the community leader in providing health information. @GradyMemorial @BradleyHospital do a great job posting health tips on Twitter.

2. Lets just say hello to the elephant in the room – the hospital Web site. For many of the hospitals we know and love, their Web sites are created and controlled by their parent company. And those sites are often hard to navigate, have too much information and are out of date. I recently checked out one hospital’s Web site that is owned by a national healthcare organization. It has construction news on the homepage that is more than a year old and covers the initial ground breaking ceremonies. Turns out, the addition is complete and open. Photos on the site are of steel framing and fork lifts, not private rooms and updated facilities. If you are not going to or are unable to update your site regularly, get the information out about your organization in a timely and efficient manner through social media programs.

3. Social media can help any PR person do a better job in understanding their media targets. Most reporters and outlets are online, so you can follow them to learn what they are writing about and what their interests are. And if your content is good enough for the to following you on Twitter, something you tweet may spark their interest. @NMHnews does a great job posting what I would consider to be PR content. At the same time, they are letting their community know what is going on at their hospital.

The bottom line is social media can help your hospital. And social media is not going away. Yes, it may evolve, it may change, but it’s not going away. Learn to communicate with your audience where they are – online. Healthcare is traditionally slow to embrace, but its time to stop the excuses. Get on this bandwagon.

Are you following us on Twitter?

@weise_ideas

@tracyweise

05
Jun
09

Does your business need a jump start?

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Ad Agency, Advertising, BtoB, Business growth, Economy, Marketing, Media Relations, Public Relations, Steve McKee and Uncategorized

I just returned from a compelling conference in Palm Springs, Calif. One of the keynote speakers at the event was Steve Mckee, author of the new book, “When Growth Stalls”. His presentation was an overview of general business and marketing issues that may derail your company or prevent your company from growing. I recommend anyone who is concerned about his or her business growth stalling, or wants to prevent that from happening, consider reading Mckee’s book.

Below are the highlights, based on my point of view, from Mckee’s presentation:

You company will cease to move forward when any of the following four things occur:Steve McKee, Author of When Growth Stalls

1.    Your business suffers from a lack of consensus – Your board of directors, executive team and managing personnel need to be in agreement on where the business is going and how you are going to get there. Any break in that unity will derail your plans.
2.    You lose focus on your business model – This concept should be taken to heart, especially in our current economy. Remain true to your core business model. Sure, you might need to tweak it some – you should be doing that regularly anyway. But trying to do everything for everybody just to get business…? You won’t do anything right or well if you take that approach.
3.    You lose your nerve – This issue can arise in many areas of your business, but most importantly in your pricing. Mckee said it takes two minutes to cut your rates and two years to get them back.  I recognize that many companies are currently reducing fees to gain sales, but be careful how you market the reduced rates or you could suffer the consequences when there is more money to spend down the road. Remember, don’t sell your service or product short just because you are afraid.
4.    You are inconsistent in you business and in your communications – From a marketing and public relations point of view; remember to make sure your message is integrated and consistent so that your target audience hears you loud and clear. If your current campaign is working, don’t make big or random changes to it. Make sure your public relations message and your marketing message are integrated – consumers don’t differentiate between a message they hear in paid placement (advertising) versus earned placement (public relations), so make sure you are consistent in what you are telling them.

Regardless of the size of your business or the type of product or service you are selling, you might want to consider if one ore more of these issues exist within your company and if it is holding you back from reaching your growth potential. McKee stated that recovery begins when you figure out where you are failing and you fix it. If your growth has stalled, how are you going to jump start it?

04
Jun
09

Facebook still “worth”while

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Facebook, Nielsen, Social Media and Twitter
Tags: , ,

Picture 22We’ve talked a lot about social media and its value to businesses, so I thought it would be useful to note a recent Nielsen study that found that time spent on Facebook is up 700 percent.

“In the U.S. alone, total minutes spent on social networking sites has increased 83 percent year-over-year. In fact, total minutes spent on Facebook increased nearly 700 percent year-over-year, growing from 1.7 billion minutes in April 2008 to 13.9 billion in April 2009, making it the No. 1 social networking site when ranked by total minutes for the month.”

Jon Gibs, vice president, media and agency insights, Nielsen Online, is quick to point out that older social networking sites like MySpace and Friendster have fallen out of favor – fairly rapidly I might add – with consumers. Who’s to stay that Facebook and the ever-popular Twitter won’t go the same route in one or two years when something “better” comes along?

Nevertheless, Facebook’s worth is currently estimated at $10 billion, and people continue to join the social media site in record numbers. Whether a new site appears on the scene and takes the No. 1 spot is anybody’s guess, but Facebook is here now and clearly getting the most traffic. If it’s not already, Facebook most definitely needs to be a part of businesses’ marketing plans this year and for years to come.

03
Jun
09

Ten Key Principles of Franchise Marketing For Any Business

By Marne Brase Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Branding, Businesses, Franchising, Marketing, PR and Social Media
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

One of the benefits of being a franchise owner is inheriting an established brand and receiving immediate brand recognition in the marketplace. Owners can leverage the strategy and creative developed by the corporate office and capitalize on its proven direction that is executed consistently across the state, region or global market.

An article posted on AllBusiness.com highlights the key principles of franchise marketing, all of which apply to business owners in any industry. Below is a summary, or click here for the complete article.

TOP TEN MARKETING PRINCIPLES

  1. Know your market
  2. Differentiate your product or service from the competition
  3. Promote through PR, internet advertising, and traditional media such as radio
  4. Position yourself as an expert
  5. Keep past customers coming back with loyalty campaigns and special offers
  6. Create your Web site or utilize what your franchise package provides
  7. Develop marketing collateral (needs depend on the type of franchise – this is important for B2B franchises and less for fast food)
  8. Develop a database and track your campaigns
  9. Establish a referral system
  10. Be innovative and try new ways to reach customers

I think the most valuable ones to focus on today, if you are not already doing them, are No. 5 and No. 10.

It is always more costly to find new customers. I recommend finding ways to keep your base and grow organically. We talk a lot about social media. These networks allow you to communicate with your audience providing you with an opportunity to send messages with offers or important information through Twitter and Facebook – something to consider if you are not already doing it.

I always find it interesting when franchise owners buy into the company vision and offering and then don’t use the provided campaigns or Web site system. Most often they are already paying for these tools. Some say they want to have their own program or campaign. Some don’t know what is available to them. I’ve had conversations with prospects and clients alike on this very subject.

In the article “10 Signs of a Great Franchise Opportunity”, No. 5 talks about marketing and advertising; stating the importance of knowing what is in place and what you will get for your money. So if you are looking to buy, I recommend finding out more beforehand, so you are better equipped when times are tough in order weather the storm and even grow your business.

As the economy slowly improves, consider what your franchise offers or try new ways to reach out to your market.

What new campaigns or new ideas have you implemented? What were your results?

01
Jun
09

why do hospitals need to attack their competition to gain market share?

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Brand Loyalty, Communications, healthcare, Marketing and Media Relations
Tags: , , , , , ,

Gienna Shaw recently authored a story for HealthLeaders Magazine that has brought to light a recent dispute between to competing hospitals in New Jersey.

Shaw begins his story by focusing on environmental factors that are causing healthcare providers to turn-in traditionally passive advertising campaigns for those that aggressively aim to steal market share from their competitors.

Shaw cites some of the cutthroat activities hospitals are engaging in by stating:

“A smattering of hospitals put up billboards within view of other hospitals’ front doors. Hospitals started creeping into new territory—opening freestanding clinics and critical care units within spitting distance of their competitors’ facilities and expanding their referral share by gobbling up physician practices. Hospital CEOs started arguing in the local press about quality claims and awards, telling reporters that the data was meaningless, flawed, or bought and paid for.”

Furthermore, Shaw discusses a recent legal dispute between Virtua Health and Cooper Health System. In short, Virtua claimed that the most “Top Docs” are at their hospital. Cooper took them to court and won an injunction that required Virtua to pull the advertising.

Ultimately, both organizations created a lot of buzz online, but not the kind they wanted. According to Shaw, “Online comments on news sites and blogs were uniformly negative—bordering on nasty—toward both organizations.”

I think that Cooper did the right thing by challenging Virtua’s advertising. However, I don’t believe they needed to take Virtua to court. Cooper obviously had the data to back up their position on Virtua’s claim, and I think that a well-crafted campaign could have saved Cooper from the negative comments about their organization.

Cooper should have focused their time identifying and creating a dynamic campaign centered around their strengths/unique selling point.

Has your hospital encountered a situation like this? How did you handle competitor attacks and what was the end result?

Please share your thoughts with us.

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