Ad Agency Necessity: Social Media Contingency Plans

The social media realm has required us to have a different set of rules. Everything from strategy to implementation has changed. That even extends to who does what in which department. A blessing of a small agency is that everyone on our social media team works closely together. And while we are all pretty well versed in the ins and outs of each client, we’ve each individually got our niche.

But while we are all well versed in each client, we’ve got to have a back up plan to ensure that all necessary work gets completed (and done the right way) if the point person on the account is out sick or on vacation. Because in social media, there are no sick days.  So here’s how we do it.

1. Check the Driver’s Manual

First things first, you need the proper documents. We work in pretty close quarters here at Cyphers, but we can’t all know every minute detail of every client. That’s where our internal social media documents come in handy. We prepare them before launching a new client and it gives our team the tools each person might need if someone is MIA. They’ve got everything from social media tone and voice to answers to common questions.

2. Have a Snow Day Phone Tree

When someone is out sick, running late, or on vacation, a communication plan is vital to ensuring that work gets done (and that the person that is out can breathe easy). Okay, so maybe it isn’t your traditional phone tree, but there is enough communication so that someone can step up and into the missing person’s shoes. All necessary team members or account executives are included in this communication plan so everyone is on the same page. All in all, discuss a plan so that each person knows how their role is altered when someone else is out.

3. Rinse and Repeat

Your back up plans aren’t always going to go off without a hitch, but once you’ve been through it once or twice, you’ll be good to go. Make changes as necessary. Also, always think of the worst situation and plan accordingly. That way, should the worst happen, you’re more than prepared to deal with it.

Having a social media contingency plan in place helps ensure that all work gets done, all social networks are managed or maintained, and that nothing slips through the cracks. It can give a proactive peace of mind to a sometimes stressful agency setting.

The Baristas and the Tip Jars.

Are you ready for a fun example of creative marketing? No, it’s not from a big national agency, nor is from a young, spry two person shop either. It’s from a group of baristas at my local Starbucks.

I walked in for my usual iced grande cinnamon dolce latte (because it’s only the manliest drinks for me) and noticed that the baristas had their tip jars arranged next to each other in an unusual way. As you can see from the above picture, both jars were sporting Post-it notes. One read, “Batman vs.” and the other read “Ironman”. The tip jars, which are likely to be near invisible to the every day customer, were visually and mentally catching. Putting money in either jar was a way to not only tip your barista, but a way to voice your opinion (this is my vote of course). And who doesn’t love a little superhero humor? I think this is brilliant.

But being the marketer than I am, it got my wheels turning. The baristas had taken a tip plea and created a benefit for themselves AND their customers. It heightened the Starbucks experience for the coffee purchaser and was a way to get more tips than usual for people behind the counter. Each day there was a new matchup and the previous day’s winner was posted. It just shows how a little thinking and creativity can create lasting impressions and experiences for your customers, AND benefit your company in a real way.

We just talk ourselves out of it.

During Baltimore AdWeek this year, I got the pleasure of listening to Justin Kownacki speak on creating web content people will actually enjoy and share. I won’t divulge too much of what he said because, well, you snooze you lose! I will tell you one thing he said that got me thinking, “It’s not that hard to create media people relate to, we just talk ourselves out of it.”

How true is that? There seems to be this belief that creating engaging, relatable content is hard to the point of being some kind of black magic. Creatives try to decipher what the “secret” is, like there is some formula we can crack while clients ask for the world and then settle with the safe bet. I think we’ve all psyched ourselves out a bit on this one.

Not to say that creating engaging content is easy, it definitely isn’t. However we’ve made it into a terrifying monster that eats web denizens like us for breakfast. We still valiantly charge into work each morning with our swords held high, but I know for me, after eight hours of trying to brainstorm interesting ideas I can get discouraged. Whether it’s a blog post, or a client campaign or a giveaway that I need to get a Facebook audience to participate in, I can convince myself that it’s never going to take off. And you know what? It might not. I’m not going to lose my job though. I’m going to try again and at the end of the day, the biggest obstacle to creating good content is often my own insecurities and doubts. Mr. Kownacki shared a plethora of good advice on creating content, but the best thing he said was that we just need to stop talking ourselves out of it.

Class of 2015: Our Future Consumers

This video shows us the characteristics and behaviors of the next generation to enter the work force. With drastic moves from traditional to digital, this group will be the first to really see the adoption of new ways to advertise. What is normal to them will be different from what is normal now. How do you think we will reach these consumers over the next ten, twenty, or even thirty years?

(via)

The Cyphers Agency is Hiring an Account Executive

We’re hiring! Please click here to read more about the account executive position.

Don’t Get Too Busy To Keep Up On Awesome

BUSY is a word that I seem to say at work every day. “Dude, I’m so busy.” “Seriously, I am going to be really busy this week.” “Sorry, I’m too busy.” “Tell them I’m busy.” “Busy, busy, busy…” “Wanna get busy?” Okay, not the last one, but you get the idea. Busyness permeates everything we do and trust me, I’m not complainin’, because it usually means I’m getting to do some cool work.

Still, inevitably I get so busy doing all that cool stuff that I get into too much of a routine, cranking out the urgent tasks at hand and solving all the unexpected problems that come our way. Routine is great for folks whose job is to put the same wheel on the same spoke over and over. Get it down pat and you are a productivity machine. But for us in Push-n-Pull, we’ve got to be creative, innovative, forward-thinking. With the pace of the digital marketing industry quickening more each day, we’ll get left behind if we’re not.

I’ll admit, sometimes I will let cobwebs gather on my Google Reader when I am just too busy to keep up with what’s going on in the industry. While one of things I love the most about my work is that it is always new and exciting, when you have a pile of specific tasks to be completed, mulling over ideas that are less tangible and pressing can seem almost indulgent.

But social media strategy isn’t like riding a bike. If I leave exploring the innovation of others and inspiring some of my own for another day, sooner or later the web 2.0 know-how that guides what I do day in and day out is going to get painfully outdated. My value as an online marketer is measured as much, if not more than, by my understanding and interpretation of the ever-changing digital realm as it is by my ability to complete my tasks.

The irony of this post, of course, is that the very thing I’m doing right now – blogging – is one of the indulgent things that it never seems like I have time to do. How meta. But while its easy to start drowning in all the bright shiny Next Big Things, it’s really about getting back to the basics of social media: Communication. Conversation. Finding new, effective ways of getting cozy with people where they like to hang out online and then saying, “Hey, here’s an idea…”

Happy Holidays from the WOM Department

Happy holidays! Here is to hoping that you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. Don’t forget to see what The Cyphers Agency did to commemorate our time together this past year: Gingerland!

We’ll be back shortly after the holiday to get back into the spirit of social media and to hang out in the wonderland of word of mouth, but until then, enjoy your holiday season!

Email 2.0: You’ve Still Got Mail

With all the excitement over the latest online marketing techniques, email seems to have lost its appeal. Perhaps you’ve seen open- and click-through rates dropping and you’ve moved on to greener pastures, like search engine marketing and social media. Certainly we are all jaded by the incessant, often indecent, random appeals that flood our inboxes. But email is not quite ready to go the way of the broadcast fax. Email is still very effective for an engaged audience that expects and wants to communicate with your brand.

The problem is that most marketers are still just indiscriminately blasting out email to large groups – which today is barely one level above a Viagra offer. If you take even a modest step up from the discount email systems, there is a powerful world of tracking, segmentation and a/b testing available to you. It requires a bit more strategy and campaign management, but when you realize the money you are leaving on the mousepad right now, you’ll be plenty motivated. Here are just a few examples that have proven to produce double-digit increased click-through rates:

Capture shopping cart abandons – Send offers within 24 hours, consider additional incentives.

Welcome series – Craft a progression of emails when people join your list.

Personalize – Not just a name, but based on their profile, browsing activity, recent purchases.

Transactional emails – Cross-sell when you confirm shipment or send a Thank You.

Triggered mail – Engage soon after a visit to your site or a recent purchase (online or in store).

Let me leave you with one simple tip that can double your overall open rate: Simply re-send the exact same email offer to all your “unopens” several days later with a new subject line. Moral? It’s not that they don’t care, they’re busy – and inundated. As always in marketing, we need to cleverly cut through the clutter. With email, it just means a bit of technology added to the strategy and the creative.

Going Digital? Don’t Forget Strategy

I always do my grocery shopping at the Safeway just around the corner from my house. It’s location can’t be beat, but if we’re being honest, most of the time their prices can. I regularly use my Safeway discount card, but a few days ago I googled “Safeway discounts”, hoping for a little extra money in my pocket after my shopping trip. Right away I struck gold! At Safeway.com, you can electronically load coupons onto your Safeway card. No printing, no clipping, just click “clip” and you’re racking up the discounts! Alright, I only ended saving about $6, but it was enough to make brag about my discovery to everyone I met.

While coupons may not seemingly relate to social media or WOM, the truth of the matter is that I couldn’t stop myself from telling my friends and colleagues about it. It got me thinking of how something as old-fashioned as a coupon could go digital, draw me in, and create buzz.

“Going Online”

Recently, every company is interested in “going online” to reach their customers and generate more business. It allows for an additional arena to interact with consumers. What we often see is that this foray into the World Wide Web takes shape as a Facebook page or a Twitter account. While those tools can be effective, they might not be the perfect tactic for everyone.

Social media may not be the answer to every question, but there are a multitude of untapped opportunities to reach your customers that don’t involve joining a social network. It may be offering coupons online, like Safeway did. It might involve the creation of an online store to sell your products. It might even be a contest.

Take it to the next level.

Creating unique and different online experiences for your consumers encourages interaction with your product, brand, and messaging. It may even encourage a new audience, who may not have interacted with you in the traditional sense, to experience your brand. And if your digital experience is good enough, it’ll keep ‘em coming back for more. It may even get them hyped enough to tell their friends, just like I did. What company doesn’t dig consumer loyalty and buzz?

Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t saying to abandon traditional offerings. They are still meaningful and worthwhile. However, it is dangerous not to think of ways to encourage online interaction. If you aren’t doing it, know that your competition is. Sometimes revitalizing your brand is as simple – yet revolutionary – as adapting a time-tested marketing technique and turning it into something fresh online.

What ways are you going digital? Are you taking the opportunity to revolutionize your brand by engaging consumers online?

Word of Mouth Internship at The Cyphers Agency

The Cyphers Agency has an opening for ANOTHER paid internship during Summer and/or Fall terms. We are seeking a dynamic, creative, fun and interesting candidate that would like to learn about word of mouth marketing.

We are looking for someone with a thorough understanding of:

- Internet Research

- Social Networking sites (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Myspace, Meetup, etc)

- Blogs

- Online Forums

- Viral Videos

- Flashmobs

- Digg, Flickr, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Wikipedia, Review Sites, etc.

Requirements:

- In college or a recent graduate

- Advertising, PR, or Marketing Majors are preferred

- Able to work 20-40 hours per week

Wanna prove that you’re super awesome? Do some (or all) of the following:

-Show us your online presence (Facebook, Twitter, Google Profile, Flickr, MySpace, LinkedIn, your blog, etc.).

-Get others to talk online about why you should be the next WOM intern at The Cyphers Agency (comments to this blog would be a good start).

-Show us how you’ve used social media to get results (for school, work or personal purposes).

-Tell us what  YOU think is an awesome example of an effective campaign that used social media and/or Word of Mouth.

-Suggest an ideal client for WOM marketing. Tell us how you would implement a campaign for them.

It’s not required to do all the above listed tasks, but if you want to, go for it.  Before you get started though, take a look at WOMMA ethics guidelines. You can also get great ideas from there. Share any of that information on the comments section of this blog or find us elsewhere online and reach out to us.

As for the resume and cover letter, you can send it to andrew@thecyphersagency.com.