Strategy

Rein in Your Event Hashtags

Too many hashtags leads to confusion and dilutionI saw the program for a social media conference recently that had 16 unique hashtags peppered throughout the agenda program.  My first reaction was why?  Some of the hashtags were the city and state name of the event location while others were plain generic like #Day1 and #blogging.  The event had a unique name that should have been the main hashtag used to create awareness of the event.  However by placing up to five hashtags for each agenda item the event hashtag got lost.

This is the wrong strategy for several reasons.  First it dilutes the main brand that you are trying to promote and position. Secondly tracking the tags to measure chatter volume will be inaccurate when you have tags like #RaleighNC or #SeattleWA that may be used by tourists or economic development tweeters.  Third and most important, you are confusing the very people attending the event that need to understand how to use social media effectively to communicate.

Most of the seasoned professionals in any discipline go to events for two reasons: to speak and to network.  They don’t go for professional development and education.  Sure they may pick up a few tips but they are not there to ramp up knowledge quickly.  The attendees that shell out their hard earned money are there for that.  They want to build up expertise quickly, find starting points for new projects and save time determining what thought leadership blogs they should be reading.

A novice may see multiple hashtags and wonder what they are, what purpose do they serve and how are they used?  By bombarding them with multiple keywords in hashtags the event staf is confusing them and not teaching best practices.  Part of me thinks that the reasoning behind putting multiple hashtags on a conference agenda or signage is to look sophisticated, smart and savvy.  This is when I love to yell at these people through my screen, “You’re doing it wrong!”

Tom Webster (@webby2001) puts out a tweet when he speaks at or attends events stating, “For those of you following at home, the hashtag is…” Tom gets it and knows that there are interested people not at the event that want to share in the information and knowledge being presented.  Multiple hashtags makes it frustrating and irritating for those following the event and not realizing that the hashtag they are tracking is only one of several.

What do you think?  Is having multiple event hashtags smart or confusing?

Are Hipsters Ruining Your Brand?

10 comments Written on August 12th, 2011 by
Categories: Marketing, Strategy

Convers Chuck Taylor All Star Low Top Navy Canvas ShoesI recently bought a sweet pair of navy blue Chucks the other day.  First pair of Chucks I had bought in a long time and first navy pair I had since I was a kid.  I was a bit excited and nostalgic over my new kicks but was interested in that my wife did not share my enthusiasm.  She pointed out how she was tired of seeing hipsters wear them and felt that the brand was less endearing to her now.

This really caught my attention. Can overexposure by hipsters turn you away from a brand?  And if so, would you ever come back?

When I was a kid nobody really used the word hipster.  My image of a hipster was similar to my image of a beatnik: guy or gal dressed in black, wearing glasses, man has a goatee and woman or man is sporting a beret.  Of course this stereotype was reinforced by many a movie, television show and MAD magazine during the 60s and 70s.  I don’t remember seeing anyone dressed like this in real life so it was a carictature.

Today hipsters are everywhere.  It’s cool to be a hipster and it seems to be the subculture of choice among today’s 20 somethings.  Some of the fashions they embrace are not my taste but I know the same was thought about me when I was their age by some middle aged jerk like me!

Current hipsters have embraced certains brands like Pabst Blue Ribbon which has enjoyed a resurrgance of sales the past several years.  I’ve always loved PBR but I also remember when they were still a big advertiser when I was a kid.  PBR was once the top beer in the US, advertised heavily and then stopped in the late 70s. It hung around and now it’s cool-retro.  Watch out Schlitz’s, you’re next!

But that’s what hipsters do. Embrace brands that people have written off. At first it’s the fact that nobody loves that brand so you look cool ordering it.  Then everyone follows suit and the brand becomes the cool hipster choice.  Others watch in wonder and shake their heads.  As the hipsters age some abandon the brand while others continue.

So in a way the hipsters keep our cool, forgotten brands around.  We all know that diminishing sales will eventually lead to the end of a brand unless there is something to keep it commercially viable.

What do you think? Have hipsters or others change your perception and buying behavior towards a brand?

Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors Infographic

No Comments » Written on July 29th, 2011 by
Categories: Infographics, SEO, Strategy

Search Engine Land Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors

This is a great infographic from Search Engine Land that demonstrates all the different touchpoints and components of SEO ranking. What I like about this image is that it communicates how the relationships and order of importance between the different working parts for prioritization and strategy alignment. Both on the page and off the page SEO ranking factors are grouped as well as violations and blocking. You can also view the full size table with more explanation of the different SEO ranking element symbols.

Search Engine Land has also created links from all the table elements to great information on best practices, how to guides and other posts for a complete SEO ranking manual. I find that this graphic is good for introducing SEO ranking concepts as well as planning and strategy development. The graphic links to the full SEO guide of tips and tutorials. This is a great starting point for anyone that wants to learn about how SEO works.

Should You Trade in Your .com For A .co Domain?

No Comments » Written on July 27th, 2011 by
Categories: Digital Media, Marketing, Strategy
.co domains are now availablePrior to 2011 the .CO domain was the Internet country code for Colombia.  Now it is available to the general public to purchase.  It is possible that the .CO extension will be as widely used as .COM due to its similarity and opportunity for global branding.There are several reasons why purchasing a .co for your company and brand names makes sense:

  • Brand stewardship:  Owning your brand names with the most popular extensions gives you control of the domain and reduces spammers and other malicious use.  With mainstream advertising by GoDaddy for .CO there should be large amount of .CO domain registrations over the next few years.
  • Global Branding: .CO is a natural extension of company’s brand to a universally understandable and relevant domain.  It can be used for a global website or a community site to give instant recognition.
  • Link Shortening:  Recent technology changes along with the nature of sharing information across networks and users has given rise to URL shortening services like bit.ly and tinyurl.  The .CO domain can be use with a short brand name to create a custom link shortening tool that captures analytics as well as perpetuates the brand name.

Check out http://www.opportunity.co./ and o.co as examples.

6 Marketing Myths Busted!

Marketing Myths Busted!Some days I get down when reading blog posts, discussions, seeing speakers talk about new marketing channels like social media or paid search.  I have to remind myself that we live in a world where everyone is getting their mega horn on to blast out opinions.  Some are on target, others a bit skewed and some are extrapolating case studies into generalizations.So here’s my take on some current marketing myths I see.  Please note that I’m not saying these tactics don’t work in a well developed marketing plan that works in conjunction with multiple marketing channels.  I’m debating those presenting these tactics as a single, standalone strategy.

  1. Social media will kill email.  Email can be a burden and require time to manage the flow of messages, archiving, etc.  It’s true that social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn allow us to message and communicate with other in place of email.  But these new communication channels are not killing email, they may be reducing it for some users, however email is not going anywhere.  Corporations are not going to use Twitter, Facebook or texting to communicate directly with customers for e-commerce ordering and other secure communication, for example.
  2. Paid search is all you need to drive traffic and conversions to your website.  For some business, paid search is a great tool for driving online conversions, acquiring customers and generating revenue.  These businesses tend to be e-commerce with short sales cycles and low price points.  For businesses with longer sales cycles, more expensive and intensive purchases, paid search may drive people to your site but will not covert into a sale immediately.  Paid search can generate some awareness but other forms of advertising may be best for specialty products and markets with complex buying cycles.  For these companies paid search may not be the best spend of their marketing budget.  Also paid search works best with a strong organic SEO plan that continues to drive traffic when the paid search budget dries up!
  3. Book authors are experts because they have been published.  Some authors are experts because they have demonstrated their expertise through years of experience and professional work.  Others may be great writers that have worked in publishing and see the value of a specific technology.  While others may just be lucky enough to be first to market and in the right place at the right time.  I follow Tom Webster’s advice and tend to be skeptical until I see some evidence and thought leadership that supports claims of expertise.
  4. Anyone can be a blogger.  While it is true that anyone can create a blog easily with platforms like Blogger and WordPress a blog is more than just writing posts and a blogger is more than being the writer.  It involves being an advocate for your readers, staying abreast of your subject matter, digging for answers to questions,  creating an editorial calendar, focusing on a subject and being consistent.  Heck I don’t even consider myself a blogger.  I’m a marketing professional that writes a blog.  A blogger is someone so dedicated to their audience they post 3-5 times a week.  There’s a difference.
  5. Social media is the only channel that allows you to have a conversation with your customers.  True that social media allows for interactive communication between a company, its employees and customers.  But it does not allow you to communicate with all your customers since not everyone is on social media and you it may not be a preferred channel of communication for every situation.  Email, phone conversations and going into a store to talk to a real person are all still alive and well and will always be viable alternatives to a social media conversation.
  6. Traditional marketing is dead.  While social media has created a new channel to communicate with customers, it’s not a replacement for traditional media.  The challenge for marketing professionals always has been and always will be to find the right marketing mix for their customers.  If the majority of customers are heavy social media users then yes social media can be the primary channel.  Yet we still see billboards, commercials, print ads, posters and other traditional forms of advertising that have not died since the social media exploded the past few years.

What do you think about these myths?  Do you agree or disagree with my myth busting?

The Google+ Project: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

The Google+ Project, will it last?Google announced its latest entry into social networking this week with The Google+ Project.  Today I received an invite to join the network and find myself at a difficult decision. Should I create an account, link to friends and create another online presence? Or should I wait and see if this sticks?  Part of me wants to see what it is and how it works.  For work I need to have a basic understanding of how social networks influence digital marketing campaigns.

On the other hand will this network be around in a year? Google’s past social media efforts failed.  Google Buzz was poorly released and automatically pulled all your contacts into it with little warning.  Then if you wanted to kill your account it had reprucussions with other aspects of your Google account so you felt a bit trapped.  Google Wave was release with much anticipation and killed off quickly, even though you can still access the site.  Like a fine wine, it needed some time to breathe and that did not happen.  I know many people will say that it was around a year which in “internet time” is like 10 years but that’s nonsense.  Wave had some great collaboration features and had a confusing launch to say the least.

As a marketing person I have to ask why Google has decided to create a competitor to Facebook.  I know they are battling for website traffic and users.  But part of me wants to say to Google, “stick to what you know and do best!”  Search, analytics and collaboration tools are where Google shines.  Users go to Google to search, use GMail to communicate, store and share documents on Google Docs and research and track site traffic with AdWords and Analytics.  Do people really want to go to Google to share their photos, short messages, what they had for dinner and other minutua we see on Facebook and Twitter all day?

As users do we really want to have another Facebook?  I think one is enough for me to keep track of and update.  LinkedIn is great for business and I use Twitter to keep informed and update to date on specific topics and communities of friends and others.  I’ve enjoyed connecting with people on Facebook.  It’s clean, easy to use interface has made it simple  to connect with friends and family that I don’t get to see in person as often as I would like.  It’s more social than LinkedIn or Twitter.  There is critical mass there that allows us to connect with a large portion of our community.  Heck no system is perfect and I have several friends and family that Facebook is not a great connector as they are not present or active enough to have a relationship on the platform.

My guess, and I hope I’m wrong, is that Google won’t get a gazillion users on it in less than a year.  They will deem it a failure and proably pull the plug.  If so will it affect my Google contacts and other account features like Buzz does?  If that’s the case then I’m less likely to join it.  Do I create a basic presence there just to have an understanding of Google’s social network platform? Will it be worth my time or just another place to update what I’m doing?

So I’m back to my original question: Should I Google+ or Should I Go?

Does Selling Out Kill Your Brand?

No Comments » Written on March 29th, 2011 by
Categories: Digital Media, Social Media, Strategy

MySpace RIPMySpace and FriendFeed were early social platforms that grew their community and eventually found their respective suitors.  But was acquisition the kiss of death to these companies?  It seems that after they get their payday these companies are forgotten by their new owners for several reasons.

FriendFeed was supposed to be the Twitter killer for Facebook. FriendFeed is a service which, instead of layering a meta-network on top of all your other social networks, will create a news feed incorporating them all much like the Facebook news feed.  FriendFeed was acquired by Facebook in August of 2009.

By providing a microblogging platform to Facebook, it appeared that it would compete for the 140 character crowd and challenge Twitter.  But it never happened.  In fact Facebook’s integration of FriendFeed into its status updates never materialized and unique visitor traffic to the site has dropped from 800K visitors to 200K over the past year.  With Facebook’s recent acquisition of Beluga, FriendFeed’s days may be over.

MySpace had it’s big payday with Fox. After purchasing the number one social network in 2005 for $508 million It became a lonely stepchild in the Fox family.  Once the king of the social media networks, it’s growth has declined over the past few years as Facebook’s has grown.  Recently Fox announced that it was planning on shutting Even though it has more users than Facebook, its growth has stalled and now Fox is looking to shut it down by this June.

So what happened?  First and foremost when companies get bought out for a big payday like these two there is some loss of talent via attrition.  The new owners are challenged to find new creative leaders and must integrate the new company into their corporate culture.  This was the case when Macromedia and Adobe merged, although Adobe was the larger, more established company, Macromedia’s culture became the dominating force in the new organization.  Failure to integrate properly can stifle creativity and hurt the product or service.

Another factor can be that the new owner does not understand the business model of the acquired company.  In the case of Fox they wanted to get advertising revenue but ignored the user experience and how to grow the community. As traffic to the site declined so did ad revenue.  Leaving Fox with a property that is dying.

Maybe Groupon and Facebook have the right formula.  Stay private and keep the quality of your product high and continue to evolve the user experience.

Mobile Website Design Tips

No Comments » Written on March 15th, 2011 by
Categories: Digital Media, Marketing, Strategy

Sample Mobile Website screen shotSo we know that two things are hot in business communication and marketing in 2011:  mobile and video.  And of course mobile video but that goes without saying since it’s a combination of the two.  But with the increase of smartphones and mobile web usage, more and more people will start to access your site via a mobile device during the next several years and beyond.

Creating a mobile version of your website can be a daunting task but it does not have to be.  Like all projects it requires some planning and design with realistic expectations.  With this in mind I’ve created some tips on building your mobile site without too much frustration.

First determine what the mobile web experience should be for your customers, prospects, partners, etc.  If you’re a local business that has a storefront, then you need something that will provide directions and easy to find phone number.

Determine what information you want on your mobile site. If you have a large site you don’t need to put everything on your mobile site.  You can put a link to the full site for anyone that has to have it but determine what the key information you need on your mobile site an build pages around that.

Have a simple and easy to use navigation in place.  Mobile web browsing is not easy and even more difficult if it’s hard to go from one page to the next.  Have simple icons that links to your mobile pages and maybe a Home link that can take the user to the main landing page.

This seems redundant but after reading the previous two points, you don’t want more than 6-8 pages on your site and no more than two levels deep including the home page.  Again look at what the mobile user experience is.  Most of the time it will be to do a quick lookup to find your contact information or directions.

Keep the design clean and simple.  Don’t use complicated backgrounds or image backgrounds.  Use solid colors and icons sized for mobile use.  If you designed a favicon for your website use that where you can.  Or if you have created a good avatar for your brand use that.

If your site has a WordPress blog there are some great mobile themes like WPTouch, Carrington Mobile, News Press that will create a mobile version of your WordPress site.  I use WPTouch and like the fact that I can upload my own custom icon for saving to the phone’s desktop!

If you don’t use WordPress that’s OK.  Creating a mobile webpage requires some simple coding and scripts that can be placed on the main landing page to direct traffic to the appropriate site based on what type of device is viewing the page.  Also check to see if your script allows you to specify mobile device types. For example can you allow iPads and tablet devices to view the site as a normal web browser resolution?

Remember to keep it simple and develop a basic mobile website with your first design.  After testing, review and feedback from visitors then look at how and if you should add more to your mobile website.  Chances are you may hit a home run with the first iteration and a few minor changes.

Align Your Marketing Goals and Metrics

No Comments » Written on March 9th, 2011 by
Categories: Marketing, Strategy

With all the available marketing channels we tend flood ourselves with too much data and statistics around our products, brands and campaigns.  Although it’s important to be tracking and analyzing as much data as you can you have to prioritize what key metrics align to your strategies in order to properly measure how effective you campaign is.

The past few years has seen an explosion of analytics for several reasons.  First and foremost the web has made it quick and easy to gather data for anyone from a single blogger to the largest companies and governments.  But even with an easy capture, all the data in the world is just that, data.

Strategic planning that defines your goals is the first step to defining your metrics.  “What are you trying to accomplish?” can be the simplest questions to ask.  By vetting and grouping the responses into definable and achievable objectives will define your project metrics as well as ongoing measuring.

For instances if you are trying to increase awareness of your product to get more customers your goal is too broad.  What kind of customers?  Everyone wants more revenue and wants every marketing dollar spent result in a profitable customer relationship.  You must further define what you want to accomplish with short and long-term expectations.

For instance, if your marketing campaign is going to employ email marketing the first objective is to get the recipient to open and read the message.  The second objective is for them to click on your link to a landing page.  And the third objective is for them to convert.

Now here is where it can get tricky.  You must define your conversion funnel; the necessary steps are to convert a prospect to a lead and a lead to a sale.  If you have an ecommerce site it can be identified online with the final result being a purchase.  But what are the steps to the purchase? How many visits result in an abandoned shopping cart?  Are you getting the clicks to the landing page? Are special offers being used or ignored?

So each of these steps has a metric from the number of emails that are actually received and opened to how many click through to the landing page.  Once on your site, how many visitors put items in their shopping cart?  If they purchased did they buy the item your promoted in the email or did they buy other items?  When purchasing did they use any special offer codes or coupons?

From a long term view, how are you going to market to the different types of customers with the next email campaign.  For those that did not open, are you going to adjust your subject line to increase open rates?  Visitors that clicked through but did not purchase may get a better incentive.  Those that abandoned their carts may be prompted to revisit and complete their purchase.  And finally those that did purchase can be offered different incentives based on what they bought.

Each of these steps should have a defined measure in the plan that aligns to the goals and objectives of the campaign.  Now instead of getting more customers and more revenue, there are several achievable goals of increasing delivery and open rates, increasing click through and cart abandonment thereby increasing sales and revenues.

By defining each measure and metric in the planning stage you have the ability to increase the likelihood of achieving your overall goal.  Each measure should be aligned to a specific action item or deliverable in the plan and vice versa.

Are Mommy Bloggers Taking over the World?

Mommy Bloggers Represent a Growing Trend in Online Advertising and InfluencersThe New York Times ran a great article about Heather Armstrong last Saturday called Queen of the Mommy Bloggers. Who is Heather Armstrong you say and why should we care? Well Heather is better known in the online world as Dooce (@dooce) and is one of the most influential women in media reaching an estimated 100,000 readers everyday.

Of course it’s easy for men to say so what? Unless you’re in the consumer goods industry where influential mommy bloggers have the ability to make or break your product.  Bloggers with large audiences like Dooce can turn off millions of potential buyers and existing customers with one bad post.  Of course a bad posts should be the result of poor quality or service and that was the case with Dooce and her  Maytag washer experience.

But mommy bloggers are nothing new in terms of how women have communicated about their purchasing decisions since the 1950s.  Traditionally women have been the key shopper in families and seek other other women’s opinions about specific brands and services in order to justify their decision as well as possibly explore other avenues.  Men do it too but men’s purchases  tend to be larger, less frequent items, not the day to day consumer goods and staples.

One of the lines that struck me in the Times article was:

..countless other banalities of one mother’s eclectic life that, for some reason, hundreds of thousands of strangers tune in, regularly, to read.

What struck me is the “for some reason” part. The reporter should have thought about why do so many mothers tune in to Dooce or other parenting blog on a regular basis? There are several reasons why mothers, especially new mothers are going to these sites and social networks:

  • It gives them an opportunity to connect with others in the same situation, especially if they are new mothers and facing the challenges of being a parent for the first time.
  • They can talk to adults versus children and even see what their non-married, childless friends are doing.
  • It gives them a platform to communicate and document their thoughts in written form.
  • Sometimes people just need to vent and express how they are feeling.
Many times mothers are stuck at home dealing with children, household responsibilities and social networks offer them an opportunity to connect with the outside world in real time.  Generation X and Y moms are the first generation that can seemlessley integrate technology into parenting.
Savvy marketing and advertising execs have caught onto this trend and are pushing online ads on popular blogs like Dooce that reports $30,000-$50,000 in monthly advertising revenue.  Ideally local companies can use apply the strategy by identifying local online influencers and partnering with them for product reviews, special events and other marketing activities to reach customers.
Are mom and parenting blogs a part of your online marketing plan? Are they key influencers in your market?