Archive for the 'Communications' Category

25
Apr
12

Back Tweet Driver: Eight Twitter Habits to Avoid

By Mark Plumb 2 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Communications, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

As much as we love the unprecedented access to newsmakers and the powerful search engine of Twitter, there is a dark side to the micro blogging service. In some cases, spammers and twitter bots pollute your feed and your @tweets. Sometimes your timeline is overrun with the solo opera (Me, Me, Me, ME), self-promo artists and links that go nowhere. Since we know these are a few of the things we can’t stand about how some people use Twitter, it is important for anyone wanting to use Twitter for its intended purpose to know what types of behavior you need to avoid.

Here is the list of dubious Twitter behaviors:

1. The Snob – When you follow back fewer than 10% of the people that follow you. If you do not choose to follow people back, you are not engaging with your audience. The winning formula is being open, transparent and freely sharing with information.

Interestingly, breaking this rule is the norm for celebrities, but we know there are different social media rules for celebrities. For example, if your name is Lady Gaga with more than 23 million followers, we’ll cut you slack for following back fewer than 2.3 million.

2. Blah, Blah, Blah – You average more than 24 tweets per day (excluding @reply.) These people are pumping out information and not engaging. This tweet volume is the fast track to being ignored or worse…saying so much without saying anything makes you background noise, like a ceiling fan.

3. What He Said – If your tweets either average more than 70% retweets, or more than 50% famous quotes, nobody is going to consider you a thought leader. You become a “hype man” always telling people what someone else said. Mix in an original thought.

4. Snoozefest – If you have fewer than 30% of people follow you back, you are following too many of the first three categories and at the risk of insult…your twitter feed is kinda boring.

5 – 8. Spam-tastic – the following makes you look like you are spamming, even if you don’t think you are:

  • If more than 90% of your content is pushed out from an RSS feed (look like a twitter bot), or
  • More than 50% links to apps (like Foursquare, and paper.li), or
  • More than 25% of the time you post the same link URL (self-promo), or
  • More than 80% of your tweets are links (shameless plugs)

If you are doing one of these, you look like you are spamming, if you do more than one – you are a spammer. Unless spam is your end game, incorporate more appropriate Twitter behavior: ask a question, answer a question, and respond to an issue with your opinion.

I have examples of each one of these categories; I’ll share on request. For example, tweet me to find out who averages more than 125 tweets per day and NEVER replies.

Shout out to @twitcleaner for cataloging the type of behavior and setting thresholds to let us know where innocent Twitter mistakes can make you look terrible. Did we miss anything? Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

Did you see our “Wall Tweet Journal: Four Twitter Tips to Improve Your Presence Today” on the SideNote?  We can’t help ourselves, if we tell you things you shouldn’t do, we have to give equal time to best practices, right?

23
Apr
12

Wall Tweet Journal: Four Tips to Improve Your Twitter Presence Today

By Mark Plumb 2 Comments
Categories: Communications, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , ,

Reporters, news-gathering organizations, celebrities and many businesses have unleashed Twitter as a tool to find, engage and expand their fans and followers.

However, when marketers start tweeting, they can’t understand why they are not making connections and seeing results. I heard a colleague describe Twitter as opening your glove compartment, shouting your info into it and slamming the door shut. Not particularly satisfying.

Resisting the urge to say “You’re not doing it right,” I promised to deliver four tips to improve your Twitter presence that can be implemented today.

1. Make your Twitter bio meaningful and searchable – You have 160 characters of searchable content, use the keywords you wish to be associated with you and/or your company.

Below are two profiles, one has 17 followers and the other has more than 146,000 followers, can you tell which profile has the bigger following?

I have a deep relationship with sleep and I’m about whatever, man!

Social Media Thought Leader, Consultant, Speaker | Author The New Relationship Marketing | Coauthor Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day | Scottish-Canadian

I’ll spare the first bio the embarrassment. The second bio belongs to @MariSmith. Mari recently co-hosted a content-rich webinar with @GuyKawasaki. The webinar is titled “7 Hottest Social Media Business Trends Impacting Your Profits Today.” Since I’m using Mari as an unauthorized example, check out her webinar for other social media trends to leverage today.

2. Use Twitter Lists to gain credibility about a subject – A Twitter list is a selected group of Twitter users. All Tweeps have the ability to create and be a caretaker of a Twitter list. When you click to view a Twitter list, you’ll see a stream of Tweets from only the users included in that list. As you build lists of Twitter users with content that you believe is valuable on your subject expertise, you become a resource for others as your lists are shared.

Here is a hidden SEO tip: Link your Twitter feed to your website (RSS feed) and include your Twitter handle (@username) in the naming convention of your list. When your Twitter list is shared with others, your list will link back to your website through your Twitter handle.  It takes patience and a strong Twitter list curator mentality, but as your credibility increases, it will also impact your SEO.

3. Maintain laser-like focus on your subjects – Friends and colleagues know that I am a proud graduate of the University of Oklahoma and a huge fan of Oklahoma football (Boomer Sooner!) However, my twitter feed positions me professionally as focused on marketing, social media and SEO. It is not the venue to discuss the latest recruit, coaching decision or blowout victory. We recommend multiple twitter accounts, one focused on your professional brand and another that feeds your personal passions.

4. Twitter is a conversation, engage your audience – Nobody really cares what you had for lunch. Instead keep these four words in mind: ask, answer, retweet and respond. The key to engaging is asking and answering questions, retweeting interesting items on topic and responding to subject related inquiries.

If you are looking for an easy way to get involved, Twitter comes to the rescue, through @twchat. There is a collection of nearly 600 chats you can participate, check out this schedule of chats. Your bound to find at least one that you can engage and grow your audience.

To summarize your Twitter action items: optimize your bio, curate Twitter lists, use multiple Twitter accounts and participate in a Twitter chat. You can get these done today.

Let us know how much impact you see after implementing these tips. Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

Be on the lookout this Wednesday for “Back Tweet Driver: Twitter Habits to Avoid” on the SideNote.

03
Apr
12

QR Codes – Unfulfilled Potential: The Next Big Thing or Robot Barf

By Mark Plumb 2 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Communications, Marketing, Marketing Trends, Mobile advertising, mobile marketing, QR Code and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

The possibilities seemed limitless. QR codes allow consumers with mobile devices to access great content, in-depth information and a higher level of engagement. Yet, companies consistently botch the execution of QR codes.

Back in August of 2010, The Side Note wrote about QR codes for the first time. The inspiration for that article was a Calvin Klein billboard in New York City linked to a video that could not be aired on broadcast television in the U.S. At that time, we saw QR codes as a cutting-edge way for businesses to reach consumers. Little did we know, the Calvin Klein billboard would be one of the better executions of a QR code. It teased to create interest, it clearly identified the sponsor and it delivered content that could not be accessed in another way.

Frankly, the blame for QR code failure lies with marketers. QR codes are simple to use, however the delivery of content requires more finesse and significantly better execution by marketing experts. Since consumers don’t know what the QR code does before they scan it, companies need to reward them for stepping into the unknown.

These errors are frustrating because the majority of these mistakes are the marketing version of basic blocking and tackling errors in football. We’ve categorized errors into three types: stupid, lazy and ignorant.

  • The stupid… the content linked to the QR code is not optimized for a mobile device – this is forehead smacking stupidity.
  • The lazy… businesses use a QR code to direct consumers to their business website – too boring, you have to include more engaging, exclusive and interesting content; Bonus error: if the website is not mobile optimized – that error is both stupid and lazy.
  • The ignorant… simply putting a QR code on an ad with the assumption that consumers know what to do – a friend recently said to me, “These things look like a robot barfed, what do I do with it?”

A little more about the ignorant errors, you would assume that college students would be on the forefront of innovation. Research company Archrival surveyed 500 students at 24 colleges and universities. In the study, Archrival found that although 80 percent of the students owned a smartphone and had seen a QR code, only 21 percent were able to successfully scan the QR code used in the study. A legitimate argument can be made that preloaded software on smartphones with an easier way to scan the codes will increase understanding and if people understand it, they will use it.

However, I believe that the payoff needs to be better. The content someone receives when scanning a QR code needs to deliver undeniable value. For example, give me a discount on something I want. Make something available to me because I scanned the code that others cannot get. Show me something amazing that I can’t see everywhere else. Too often the result of scanning a QR code (assuming I’m successful) is a massive letdown.

Today, I mostly see QR codes sending me to a standard company website. The same website I can get with a simple Google search. This key insight is most succinctly stated in this article from Sean X Cummings, “People will not adopt a technical solution that serves to replace a manual task, if that solution is less efficient than the manual task it replaces.”

Overall, the message to fellow marketing professionals is…step your game up!

04
Jan
12

Google creates a keyword black hole negatively impacting SEO

By Mark Plumb 1 Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Communications, Google, Marketing, Search engine and SEO
Tags: , , , , , ,

On October 18, 2011, Google announced it would block keywords from natural search results for users signed into Google products such as Google+ or Gmail. Google said the motivation behind the decision was to protect the privacy of personalized search results. This motive is bogus for two reasons:

  1. Google has NEVER provided a keyword search result tied to a specific individual.
  2. They are still providing the keyword search results for someone signed into a Google product if it is PAID search traffic.

Now, our Google Analytics for the Weise Communications website, weiseideas.com and for clients’ websites returns, “Not Provided” as the highest or second highest keyword result.

As someone who creates Internet content, I believe hiding keyword search referral data from unpaid search results impairs my ability to deliver high quality content to my audience and my clients’ target markets.

By creating a black hole of keyword results, I also predict that some websites will turn to black hat tactics to compensate for the loss of data.

However, we send major props to Avinash Kaushik for his post about five steps to Smarter Data Analysis of Google’s https (not provided) change. I have not seen anything close to adapting to Google’s decision and improvising a solution.

What Avinash proposes is not easy to do. Quite frankly, I don’t know any clients that would be willing to pay for this analysis today to improve SEO. However, “not provided” is only at 10 – 18 percent, Google wants that to be as close to 100 percent as possible. I reserve the right to revisit that statement as more and more keyword results are hidden from companies and they feel the pain of not knowing what people are searching to reach their website.

Unless they pay for the privilege.

Let us know if you’ve seen “not provided” search results impact on your SEO. Share your thoughts here, on our Facebook page at Weise Communications, or message us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

 

19
Dec
11

SEO Tip: Improve Your Ranking with Google Places

By Mark Plumb 6 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Communications, Google, Marketing, Search engine, SEO, Social Media and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , ,

Last week, I had the privilege to be interviewed by Angel Tuccy and Eric Reamer of the Experience Pros Radio Show on KLZ in Denver to discuss search engine optimization – SEO (Click on pic of Angel and Eric for the podcast) Unfortunately, we ran out of time before I could provide a hot SEO business tip that any business with a physical location can implement today.

Google Places is a free service provided by Google that combines a physical address with the robust Google Maps application. Google Places allows an individual to review and evaluate business listings. For marketing professionals,of of the best reasons to understand Google Places is that Google has a clear preference for businesses listed in Google Places when providing search results.

Here is an example, I entered the search term “copying” and the first page of Google has two paid ads, a wiki entry about the subject copying, two company websites FedEx Office and Staples, then the Google Places results. Interestingly, the top three selections in the Google Places listings all have customer reviews.

Now that you see Google Places is important to Google ranking, there are some to do’s that are important:

  • Since Google Places uses an algorithm to list the most relevant results, you should include the most important keywords for your business in the 200-character description of the listing.
  • Listings are allowed to include up to five photos. Use appropriate keyword titles for the pictures that will also help with SEO. It is important to control the photos attached to your Google Places listing because with the fleet of street view camera cars, Google reserves the right to use their sources to add photos to your listing.
  • Encourage customers to leave reviews on the Google Places page. You can set up a program to give a customer a discount on a return visit for a positive review. One note of caution: Do not submit multiple reviews from the same IP address. The people at Google are smart, if you cram a bunch of reviews from the same IP address, Google will identify and consider this type of behavior a violation.
  • Be sure to add your Google Places site to your analytics. In addition to traffic, the analytics dashboard will show you the search terms used to find your Google Places listing. This will provide valuable information as you can focus your content creation on relevant search terms.

Let us know if you’ve used Google Places and seen impact on your SEO. Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

13
Dec
11

Avoid embarrassment: implement a Social Media Policy

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Business Strategies, Communications, Facebook, Social Media and Twitter
Tags: ,

Regardless of your company size, a social media policy to control the way your team communicates with online audiences is critical to the success of your business. Now that Facebook and Twitter have become an important part of doing business, it’s time for your company to craft an up-to-date and flexible social media policy to protect your company’s reputation both online and off.

Your policy must have a clear objective and should clearly define what employees can or can’t do on social media. Make sure that the objective is practical, reasonable and applicable to all who are participating in social media for your business. However when it comes to your company data, confidential information is an asset and everyone has the responsibility to protect it. If the social media policy is violated, ensure you have reasonable responses. Depending on the degree of damage or violation, you can go from disciplinary actions like suspension, termination, or even civil or criminal penalties.

Back in September, Microsoft employee Joe Marini tweeted about a Nokia Windows Phone. The trouble was, the phone hadn’t been released yet. This upset his bosses, and Marini ended up leaving Microsoft.

In 2008, Virgin Atlantic took disciplinary action against 13 crew members who participated in a Facebook discussion that “criticized Virgin’s safety standards and insulted passengers,” according to the Guardian. The comments were promptly removed, the group was fired.

When crafting a policy, be sure to:

  • Remind employees to familiarize themselves with the employment agreement and policies included in the employee handbook.
  • State that the policy applies to multi-media, social networking websites, blogs and wikis for both professional and personal use.
  • Tweets or posts should not disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary.
  • If an employee comments on any aspect of the company’s business they must clearly identify themselves as an employee and include a disclaimer, that should be something like “the views expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of (your company’s name).”
  • Tweets or posts should not include company logos or trademarks unless permission is asked for and granted, and must respect copyright, privacy, fair use, financial disclosure, and other applicable laws.
  • Employees should neither claim nor imply that they are speaking on the company’s behalf.
  • Require approval on corporate blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc., when the employee is posting about the company and the industry.
  • Reserve the right to request the certain subjects are avoided, withdraw certain posts, and remove inappropriate comments.

When the guidelines are used correctly this policy can help increase productivity as well as secure your company from social media disasters on the web. What do you think about social media policies? How critical is it for your business? How would implement it? Tell us what you think on our blog, share it with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

06
Dec
11

Find Blood via Facebook

By Heather Horsey Leave a Comment
Categories: Communications, Digital Media, Facebook, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Social Media and Social Networking
Tags: , , , , ,

Most treatments depend on blood. And finding a matching donor can be a problem for many hospitals and clinics around the world.

Now in India, a project called SocialBlood.org is saving lives. The Facebook-powered campaign encourages blood donations and enables potential donors and recipients to make contact with one another through the online forum.

Social Blood connects people who has same blood type. Choose your blood type from the website and join the Facebook group. It’s that easy. After you become a  member of your blood type group, you can invite your friends, post a message in emergency or respond to requests for blood donations.

“A recent post from a man asking for blood for his daughter received 74 responses in 24 hours,” said 22-year-old Social Blood Founder Karthik Naralasetty.

This simple idea of connecting via Facebook is taking social media to the next level. Could your health organization benefit from a similar campaign?

Let us know what you think about Social Blood, we would love to hear your feedback and comments here on The Side Note, or via Twitter @Weise_Ideas or on Facebook.

30
Nov
11

Fit 2 Fat 2 Fit

By Heather Horsey 2 Comments
Categories: Business Strategies, business to consumer, Communications, Health and Wellness, Health care marketing, healthcare, healthcare marketing, Marketing and YouTube
Tags: , , , ,

There are many diets and many work out programs today. People are always trying to find the best way to be healthy. At times trying to whip yourself into shape can seem impossible. Drew Manning is a personal trainer from Utah and he is going the extra mile to show that you can lose those pesky pounds and eat right. In May he started an unprecedented journey that has gotten worldwide attention. He was tired of hearing that he didn’t know what it was like to be overweight or unhealthy. So, he decided to start the journey of fit to fat to fit. He quit exercising and quit following his strict diet. He started eating without restriction and even let people choose meals they wanted to see him eat. After six months of an unrestricted diet and gaining more than 70 pounds, he has started his journey back to fit. Manning appeared on The Jay Leno Show and Dr. Oz where he shared his experience of exercising and breaking his new addiction to Zingers and Mountain Dew.

Manning has taken the phrase “lead by example” to heart. Rather than sitting on the sidelines coaching people about fitness, he is on the front lines showing them by example that it can be done. He is demonstrating an excellent way to communicate. People can understand more when they are shown rather than told what to do. People of all professions can learn a thing or two about Manning’s message.

I for one am looking forward to seeing him accomplish this goal and see the many people he will inspire. You can follow his journey at http://www.fit2fat2fit.com/.

P.S. Thanks to our long distance intern Jeff Larsen for this post.

23
Nov
11

Social Media Education – It’s Elementary

By Mark Plumb Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Communications, Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

I recently participated in a symposium and one of the topics was the basics of social media, hosted by my colleague Heather Horsey. I was surprised at some of the questions:

  • How do I get a hashtag? How much does it cost? How often can I use it?
  • When I set-up our company Facebook page profile, everything the company does is updating on my personal wall and to my personal email, how can I delete that?
  • Our company doesn’t want negative comments, is there anyway to choose the comments we want to post on Facebook?
  • When I was tweeting on the Twitter, I didn’t see any results. How can you make sales on the Twitter if nobody is interested?

The intent behind the questions were genuine, but I quickly came to the realization that there is a massive education effort needed regarding social media in business. If we can assume that social media is now an essential function of any business, executives will treat it as a discipline that they must understand.

This will lead to educational opportunities, as companies cannot make strategic decisions without understanding social media. Executives will see social media as function that cannot be ignored. Companies will begin building internal social media teams and it will cross multiple business functions from customer service to employee recruiting.  Any company not fluent in the language of social media will be at a significant disadvantage.

This is an opportunity for the marketing department to step up, take a leadership role in social media education and enhance its value to the entire organization.

Hopefully, we’ll never hear anybody ask about ‘tweeting on the twitter’ again.

Let us know if you think social media education will even extend to the C-suite, even if they never post, tweet or check-in. Share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

16
Nov
11

Four Ways to Improve Foursquare

By Mark Plumb 2 Comments
Categories: Advertising, Communications, Foursquare, Location Based Social Media, location data, Marketing, Social Media and Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , ,

Foursquare, the location-based social media service, has implemented two significant improvements to the service. They have integrated with Groupon to identify when a discounted offer is available for a specific location. Also, they have made home addresses private, which will hopefully mean fewer sites like ‘Please Rob Me’ mocking social media over sharing and identifying when you are not at home.

In the spirit of helping make the service better, here are four ways that Foursquare can become a better social media experience for users, businesses and opportunity for marketers:

  1. The establishment/location should be alerted that a user has checked in. Whether the store manager gets a text message or there is access to a group Twitter account, someone at the location should know when a Foursquare user has checked into their establishment. There is one location that I have been the mayor for more than six months and visited for 28 straight weeks with at least one check in per week. So far, ZERO acknowledgement from management.  The marketer in me wants them to know I am loyal and in return they should consider providing some recognition that will encourage me to spread news by word of mouth or social media. I know this will not be popular with all establishments, as I have heard from retailers that they do not want to ‘pay’ Foursquare to recognize someone that has already entered their store.
  2. The leaderboard and points are irrelevant – connect them to something of worth or simply eliminate them. This is the portion of Foursquare that feels like a frequent flyer program as I accumulate points with every check-in; but there is no cashing in my points for a romantic getaway to Napa Valley. In fact, the most often question I am asked by a non-foursquare adopter is, “A 5 point check-in? What did that get you?” I would be in favor of a donating my points to a charity and that charity can redeem the points for a monetary donation. But, for that to happen, the points need to mean something.
  3. Create another layer of recognition besides mayor. Foursquare has designated the person with the most check-ins over a rolling two-month period as the mayor. Since many locations are offering specials and discounts to the person holding the mayorship, it can be desirable to be the mayor. However, there are many valuable, loyal customers that cannot breakthrough to become mayor of a location. For today’s purpose, let’s call them a patron. Establishments should consider a loyalty bonus for a patron based on repeat visits over a short period. The offer can be less than the mayor’s offer to encourage a patron to strive to mayorship and still recognize the patron for being a valued customer.
  4. Enrich the experience at events. On Nov. 17, I am attending the Thursday night NFL game between the New York Jets and the Denver Broncos. Wouldn’t it be great to have a video highlight from the game broadcast for someone viewing my check in? You know, actually sharing information. This summer, I attended the Peter Gabriel concert at Red Rocks. When I checked into the event it would have been great to have a live video link for others to share the experience, a connection to his Facebook or My Space page or at least a link to iTunes to allow someone to purchase music. This is also an opportunity for ‘Swarming,’ Foursquare’s moniker for a location with a lot of concurrent check-ins. The idea is: everybody is here, you should be too! However, if I am engaged at a great networking event or an awesome happy hour, I am way too busy to check-in. How swarming can someplace be if you are stopping to tell everybody about it? There should be an automatic check in Foursquare pre-set option. For example, if my phone is at a place for 20 minutes with 200 other Foursquare users, it automatically checks me in – and you’ll know it’s really swarming.

We are convinced that location-based social media can be a powerful marketing tool. Many of our franchise clients would benefit greatly from a robust location-based program, but only if they can see a spike in repeat visitors.

Have you had good experiences with Foursquare? Want to add to this list, share your thoughts here or on Facebook at Weise Communications and follow us on Twitter at @Weise_Ideas.

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