Cut the Crap – No More Lofty Social Media Terms

So we’ve been just as guilty as the next for using those lofty and abstract social media terms that drive everyone mad: transparency, engagement, content generation, conversation monitoring, blah blah blah. I think it is time we all shut up.

I don’t mean that we stop talking about social media or social influence marketing. I just think we need to re-evaluate the way we speak about it. We (as marketing professionals) need to move from the general to the specific and actionable. We need to move from “motivational speaker” to “business coach.”

Step back for a moment.

While we’ve got more and more people jumping at social media, we’ve also got some seriously bad lingo that follows. Let’s look away from jargon and look to stimulating specific, strategic social media dialogue. Saying that each client is different doesn’t cut it anymore. Let’s take these lofty ideas and break them down.

There are countless more ways to impact your audience: Need a flashmob? Don’t know how to pitch bloggers? Want to see how geo-location features can help your business? Need some social media resources? We try to give you resources to see how social media really works, and if you can’t do it yourself, well, that is what we are here for.

Setting Proper Expectations & Follow Your Plan

As an agency, its important to take a look at what is on our plate and strategize. Who is the client? What do they need? Are we working with a Business to Business (B2B) client? We can use social media tactics to locate key influencers in that company. Working with a Business to Consumer (B2C) client? We can locate their audience online by doing an in depth online audience scan and find their consumers, whether it be on blogs, forums, or Facebook, and leverage that community.

So can we please stop talking about lofty, abstract social media terms? Let’s cut to the chase and get working.

Stop giving “social media” all the credit

I was just reading an article about how Starbucks used social media to drive 1 million people to its stores on one day. But these stories are misleading, because it’s not really social media that got all those people through the doors of Starbucks. Those people came to get something that was valuable to them (in this case a free pastry). And as for how they heard about it? Yes, an important TOOL involved was social media, but the STRATEGY was what got them there. The strategy was based on the concepts of word of mouth marketing.

Word of mouth marketing (WOMM) operates on certain concepts that underlie the new ways that consumers think about and interact with brands. WOMM recognizes that the consumer has more power because they have more of a voice. So don’t think I’m discounting the importance of social media, because social media is the entire reason that consumers have more power. But I want to emphasize that you can’t “do” social media. And if all you do is interact on social media because you heard that Starbucks just made a gazillion dollars, you won’t get anything out of it.

To be successful with social media, you need to be successful in word of mouth marketing. You need to give people someone to talk about, or you need to find what people are talking about and get your brand in the discussion. There are tons of other ways to take advantage of word of mouth marketing concepts, but they all relate back to this:

- The consumer is tired of you interrupting them and yelling at them.

- The consumer has so much information thrown at them daily that they are quick to stop paying attention. You know what they will always pay attention to? Their friends and people that they respect.

- If you want their attention you better be telling them something a lot more valuable than “hey look it’s us! buy our product!”

- The consumer will call you out if you have a bad product, and they might have 100, 1,000, or 100,000 people listening.

Respect word of mouth. Start with these concepts and you are bound to get people talking about your brand.

Social Media Measurement

Tim Trefren recently wrote one of the best blogs I’ve ever read in regards to social media tracking (although that’s not necessarily saying much, because people seem to write vaguely about the issue).

I wanted to commend him on his “3 new ways to measure the social web” even though none of them are new. We’ve been using them to track social media and online interaction for several years now. I might sound a little cynical (I am) and I might be using a lot of parenthesis (it’s just my style), but I sincerely thank him for getting the word out about conversion tracking, engagement tracking, and repeat visitor tracking. For some of us in the industry, this stuff isn’t new at all, but many businesses refuse to acknowledge the extreme trackability of social media, and how to use that data to make informed marketing decisions.

I’m not going to take the time to outline our tracking system here because I already wrote a blog post about it several months ago. Some of our metrics change depending on the client, but our philosophy hasn’t changed: social media is as trackable as you want it to be.

What does that mean for us as marketers? I’ll lay it out, plain and simple for you:

- More data = more information = better market research.

- More data = more accurate ROI = better informed marketing decisions

- More data = more targetability = more effective advertising

And these points say nothing about the other obvious benefits of increased communication, positioning, search engine optimization, promotions, etc. Hopefully social media tracking doesn’t seem as daunting as it once was.

If you have any questions, give us a call (410-280-5451) or send us an email. We love to teach companies how to measure their social media efforts!

We Can See Right Through You

In social media (and pretty much any other type of business), transparency is pretty important. If you are a business that is trying to increase buzz or awareness of your products or services, being sneaky and shady definitely doesn’t help create a pretty picture. If you are open, it allows your consumers to give real feedback and engage in real conversations.

Take Tiger Woods as a real-life example. Yes, yes, we know that everyone everywhere is talking about him (hey, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em). When the scandal broke, Tiger remained hidden and unavailable. Had he responded immediately, even with a vague statement, media speculation would have not been as damaging or rampant. We do have to commend him though, because eventually he did release a statement. Most other celebs choose to just stay cooped up, waiting for the storm to blow over. Or they just go on an interview without ever actually talking to their fans. We may not respect Tiger Woods’ decisions, but at least he stepped up to the transparency plate.

On another, more social media oriented note, Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook’s creator and golden boy) also recently practiced transparency. His recent letter, which first appeared on your Facebook home page and now on the Facebook blog, addressed changes that were being made on Facebook that would directly affect the users. He tells you exactly what you need to know: how these changes will be made, when, how, and why. And even though Facebook received some backlash for their changes in privacy settings, we commend Mr. Zuckerberg on his transparent letter in attempt to let everyone know what was up.

That being said, transparency helps. It just does. Having conversations on the web and engaging consumers is about having real, open discussions with people. You can’t have a meaningful conversation if you aren’t acting like a real person. Even more so, timing in your transparency goes a long way. The sooner, the better.

So take the time to make sure that you are being transparent. Reflect on the conversations you are having and make it a priority to be clear and fully open about who you are and what your purpose is.

Facebook-itis and Twitter-itis

Now we aren’t epidemiologists, but we have certainly noticed a trend with business owners and marketers trying to enter the realm of social media; Facebook-itis and Twitter-itis. These serious afflictions leave victims obsessed with the two most popular social networking sites, and prevent the victim from receiving and interpreting proven advice on other tactics that ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISH their respective marketing objectives.

It is extremely urgent that you get these people help IMMEDIATELY. This condition can cause blatant disregard of proven marketing tactics, and an uncanny disregard for measurable client objectives.

Luckily, here at The Cyphers Agency, we’ve got a cure. It’s a five step program with a 100% success rate.

1. Meet with client to discuss situation and marketing goals/objectives.
2. Complete a situation analysis, taking into account (among other things) audience participation, audience sentiment, competitor positioning, and search engine optimization.
3. In conjunction with client, develop a campaign (based on RESEARCH and OBJECTIVES!)
4. Implement campaign.
5. Track results monthly, make adjustments as necessary.

Here in the Push-N-Pull department at The Cyphers Agency, we are tasked with finding the right tools and tactics that align with each of our client’s goals. We can create Facebook pages and perform lead generation via Twitter, but just because we can do those things, and because you heard on the news that Twitter is the next best thing, doesn’t mean that you should automatically flock to that tactic. We’ve been doing this for a while now, and have TONS of great tactics that can accomplish specific goals. Here are some other examples:

Meetups – Meetup.com is a really cool site where people meet up based on similar interests. There are tons of WOM possibilities, from sponsorship to partnership to events and more.

Flashmobs – Flashmobs are a great way to generate interest and just make people say “what the heck just happened?” We’ve got a series of top-secret flashmobs for one of our clients that will occur around the country next near. Stay tuned for details!

Blogger Outreach – This is like PR for the new generation. With newspaper sales declining steadily and blog readership consistently growing, blogger outreach might be the best tactic to gain awareness of your brand/product. It also helps with search engine optimization.

Social Network and Forum Outreach – There is a community somewhere online that is talking about your industry. You should at least find and listen to the conversation, and possibly enter the conversation and engage the community. We can do this for you, we can teach you how, or we can encourage your most loyal customers to do it for you.

Blog creation and writing – Blogs are great for a bunch of reasons. Actually, they can accomplish so many objectives that it would take too long to go into it here, but suffice to say, blogs are one of our reliable tools at The Cyphers Agency.

Multimedia Push – Do you have lots of video, photo, or audio content? Old commercials lying around? We know how to re-purpose your material and get it out on the web for your audience to see. Best of all, we know how to brand your online presence, tag and title your content for search engine optimization.

Reputation management – Are people writing negative reviews about your business online? Do you wish you could increase your positive reviews in a legal and ethical way? We know how, and have great results from other clients that we would love to show you.

And just remember – these are just word of mouth tactics! We’re a full service agency for a reason! (In case you were wondering, that reason is so that we can do everything that a client might need, not JUST social media, or JUST a billboard. Because effective campaigns are integrated and multi-faceted.)

Ok, I’m sure you’ve had enough of my caps-lock emphases. Let us know if you’ve got Facebook-itis or Twitter-itis. We’ve got the cure.

Why Flash Mobs?

What’s a Flash Mob?

A flash mob, defined by Wikipedia as “a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse.”

They’ve been used large companies and non-profits alike, as a non-traditional presentation that is used to generate buzz. T-Mobile coordinated the flash mob below to promote its “Life’s For Sharing” campaign, as you’ll see below. This video currently has nearly 14 million YouTube views.

While a flash mob caused a big stir about T-Mobile, they aren’t just something only huge companies can pull off. Flash mobs don’t require a lot of money, making them an ideal tactic for a small business or non-profit. Below you can see video of a flash mob done for a non-profit, Donate Life.

Flash mobs can be as simple as chasing something. Check out the “Official VT Flash Mob Banana Chase” video below. While it looks like something college students did for kicks, if Chiquita or Dole was associated with the coordination of this flash mob, they would have generated a ton of online buzz about their brand.

A coordinated dance, simultaneous freeze or banana-chasing aren’t the only things a company can do to generate some buzz non-traditionally.  Guerrilla marketing, an unconventional and unexpected method of generating buzz, is an umbrella term for pretty much anything non-traditional you can do to get people talking. There’s no rule book for guerrilla marketing; it just takes one objective and a lot of creativity.

The Benefits

1. Break the noise- Flash mobs and guerrilla tactics a fun way to get people talking about your product or service. The average American is exposed to thousands of advertising messages a day.  While traditional advertising is a critical part of most campaigns, if you really want to get your point across, you absolutely have to break through in an unconventional way.
2. Captivate your audience and generate traditional word of mouth. Flash mobs and guerrilla tactics are fun for the audience to watch and interact with. If you give your them something entertaining, they are likely to take their own pictures and video, and tell their friends about it.
3. The beauty of flash mobs and guerrilla tactics is their potential to go viral. They provide entertainment that people want to watch and share. If T-Mobile’s Flash Mob was not recorded and uploaded to YouTube, then 14 million people would have not been exposed to its message.

At The Cyphers Agency, we have an entire WOM team that lives for these kind of projects. And that creativity thing? Yeah, we’ve got that covered.