Marketing Places, Spaces, People & Ideas

Google Goes Social And Size Does Matter

January 28th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

Results from my Social Circle for "Marketing"

I noticed yesterday that new results were on my Google results page (entry on the page, above?). A bit stalker-ish, I guess, but its the beginnings of mainstreaming the relevant web the way we’ve been talking about on this blog and many others.

Google’s take on Social Search mirrors what I’ve been saying (or my thoughts mirror theirs, I guess… probably should go ahead and assume they thought of this whole relevance thing first… ) for a while: Results from people we’ve chosen to connect to are more relevant to us. Now that Google is showing me results from people I’m connected to online (Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, etc.) the size and quality of that network matters more than ever.

The search page above is one for “Marketing.” Since I am connected online to a number of talented, prolific, smart and creative marketing people, the results returned for me were a list of awesomeness I could peruse. Blog posts I missed, white papers, web sites, all sorts of goodness. From people I’ve already chosen to listen to. In one place, regardless of how I’m connected to that person and where the content resided originally.

Some of the "Marketing" results from my social circle via Google

If I were only connected to a few great marketers, I’d miss out on some of the great resources I found. Social search filters the web through my definition of relevant and shows me more of who I trust. I am very, very happy.

Where do you see this going? How will it change how businesses view connecting with people? How they treat their web sites? Social results are on the bottom of the coveted first page… maybe the best new way to get first page placement is to be (drum roll…) RELEVANT to your prospect rather than merely the best SEO-’d web site out there. Here’s hoping.

Tags: Communication, connectivity, Google, Marketing, real time search, relevance, Social Media, web site
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media | 3 Comments »

Start with WHY – and Win

January 22nd, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

Go for WHY: http://www.flickr.com/photos/oberazzi/318947873/

List posts have their place, and I know they are good for traffic. I’ve written them, too. But our super-connected world and the constant flow of information seems to be driving us to oversimplify complex subjects and interactions. By creating lists. Lots of lists. In some cases, lists of lists.
I’m not against all lists… I believe in a to-do list, a grocery list and have tweeted & retweeted helpful design tip, font and how-to lists. But not all things can (or should) be reduced to a bulleted list.

If it’s a complex subject, treat it with the depth it deserves. A marketing communications plan, encompassing goals, objectives, strategies, tactics and metrics should be more than a list of items. A public relations plan should be more than a list of ideas or publications and an editorial calendar. When we start to work with a new client we ask a lot of questions about their business… not just about what they sell and who they sell it to, but about things like:

Where does your money come from? Revenue? Profit streams and margins?

What is the recent history of the market segment you inhabit? Near future changes or evolutions you expect? Long-term future or potential?

Adjacent markets? Competitive markets?

What factors in the market and within your company’s revenue map do you control or influence?

We augment with our own research and then we tackle goals and objectives, clearly grounded in the business case for what we’re doing. The marketing communications plan addresses how the goals and objectives fit the larger picture of the business and where it wants or needs to go. When you start with a good WHY, all the WHATs and HOWs become much easier to define and later on to sell to the people who have to sign the checks to see them implemented.

Tags: Business, business development, Communication, Marketing, messaging, planning, PR, Writing
Posted in Marketing, Public Relations, Small Business, Social Media, Social Media, Writing | 3 Comments »

They Buy Because We Use These > Brand Audit, Pt 2

January 4th, 2010 by Mandy Vavrinak

By now, you’ve completed all the steps in part 1 (previous post) and have a mountain of data…. random bits of impersonal knowledge. Next, we need to add some human insight to the data, season with some business sense and a dash of intuition and we’ll develop actionable information.

Talk to your customers. Especially your best ones. I don’t like lengthy, impersonal surveys for this. Customers are valuable and you should treat them (and their time) as such. Call up, go see, take out to lunch (depending on your business) your best customers and just ask them why they do business with you. Tell them you’re in the middle of trying to quantify who you are as a brand and that you value their opinion. In fact, you’d love to find more customers just like them. Ask them how they’d describe your company to someone looking for the service you offer (if they were selling your company to a connection, what would they say or do?) Encourage honesty… and look for telling information. Do you have a web site, but your customers don’t think of that as a way to tell people about you? If not… then perhaps how they think of your business isn’t reflected well on the web site. This happens when you THINK your market position and brand image are all about (A), and (A) is splashed all over your site (or brochures) but the perception in the marketplace is really (B).

Talk to your employees. Ask them how they describe who they work for… how they characterize your company. Ask them why they think customers buy from you. Don’t just ask your sales or marketing people. At one company, one of the guys out on the shop floor showed us a nondescript (to me) metal part. “These,” he said. “We use these. No one else does. At least, not in their regular line product.” I asked for some clarification… and found out that the company routinely uses a metal part two grades better than specs require in this particular product. It fails less often than comparably priced products. And this part shows in the product exterior. I talked further with sales, service, dealers…

The company was (attempting) selling itself on service… how they took care of customers and any problems that happened. Their service WAS good. But the real selling point, the reason customers recommended their products to other people, was that part. It meant (to the marketplace of people who actually USED the product daily) something to see that quality… though every part and bolt isn’t an upgraded version and the customers knew it. The product was a quality piece through and through, even so.

In their marketplace, long-lived equipment mounted to your truck was a badge of honor. Toughness and all that. Their peers could see the quality of their equipment and their investment… and that meant something to this market. Owning this brand meant you cared about how you did your job.

Service is great and all, but it’s even better to not need to call because the thing doesn’t break.

So the company’s web site, stuffed with service messages, and brochures with maps of authorized service locations, etc., weren’t helping their front line sales force (their current customers) sell. They needed to step back, go through the brand audit process and align their public messaging and touchpoints with what the marketplace told them was true… And arm their sales force, their employees and their customers with the right tools and information to share the message that toughness mattered.

So… now you are ready to sit down with the data from part 1 and the human insights from part 2. Really think about what all that stuff can tell you. Even if at this point you decide you want professional help or insight (let me know), you’ve already done a great deal of work and saved that time, effort and dollars. If you’re game to tackle it yourself, just remember that sometimes the biggest insight comes from the smallest details. Be not afraid.

Tags: Business, business development, Inspiration, Marketing, marketing places, planning
Posted in Economic Development, Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Small Business | 1 Comment »

Pause For Station Break…

December 29th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

I was getting ready to write the second post in the DIY Brand Audit for Businesses post when I wondered… since the first one didn’t exactly generate conversations, comments, crazy sharing… maybe I’d better evaluate.

I’m just wondering what you would like to see/hear/explore in this space. The blog is going to evolve in the new year as I evaluate what posts seem to have been the most interesting or useful to you guys (based on traffic, comments, shares…)

What do you want to see in this space?

It feels like more “how this connects to that” posts and more posts about marketing trends and how they affect businesses.

I know everyone, at some point, does a “What do you want me to write about?” post. It’s not so much about the writing as it is about finding topics and ideas you want to talk about… because the best posts are the ones where we all learn from each other through the conversation.

Thanks for sharing some of your time, attention and thoughts with me. I truly appreciate it.

Tags: blog, community, question
Posted in Economic Development, Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Small Business | 3 Comments »

DIY Brand Audit for Small Businesses

December 28th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

This is the first in a series of posts about how Small Businesses can perform a Do-It-Yourself brand audit.

Overheard:

“You can’t embark on any new marketing until you’ve had a brand audit done!”

“I don’t even know what that is… seriously.”

“You hire a marketing firm or ad agency and they come in and tell you how people see you brand.”

“You mean, what they think of my logo and my ads?”

“Yeah, and then what you need to do to meet your goals.”

Assumptions (before you read further): You understand that your brand and your logo are NOT the same thing. You understand that while advertising is a form of marketing, all marketing is not advertising. And that branding is more (much more) than either one of them.

A brand audit is a good idea for all businesses, but unless you have many locations, lots of employees, multiple campaigns across multiple channels… you can do at least a preliminary one on your own. Here’s how:

Accept that you’ve made mistakes - begin with the attitude that you will discover some things about your brand and company that might be painful. Decide (now) that this is a voyage of discovery and the end result will be a stronger, better-positioned company.

Map your touchpoints - Every way you interact with your customers and every place you attempt to influence them. Obvious ones include ads (yellow pages? online? TV? newspaper? Football booster poster?) and brochures. Less obvious ones might include the signage on your company van, envelopes, invoices, how the phone is answered, what your front door looks like, employee uniforms/appearances, online presence, community involvement… Really think about this. It doesn’t matter what the INTENT was (ad on the football booster program to support the program, not to gain customers). If it does or potentially could touch your customers or prospects, include it. Visuals work well here (take a snapshot of your front door, your van, one of your employees on the job, etc.). Ask your employees to help you think of ways you touch customers that might be out of the ordinary.

Gather some opinion - If you aren’t tech-savvy, a friend who knows how to help you set up Google alerts, search social networks and generally do some listening is really helpful for this part. If you are interweb-friendly, take a look around the web. What are people saying on sites like Yelp, Epinions and CitySearch? Look up what local sites have to say about you… if you’re a dentist, for instance, search for common phrases like, “dentist in [your community]” to see what’s being said, on what sites. Many sites exist out there purporting to be “portals” for people to find information on services (like dentists) but really are just scraping the web, listing what they find, and making money off of serving Google ads (for dentists, teeth whitening, etc.) when people visit the “listings page.” If inaccurate info is out there (wrong phone numbers, work hours, specialties, etc.) then try to get it updated or changed.

Gather your financials, invoices, etc. - You need to know where your money comes from… and from whom. Where does the profit in your business really live? Many businesses we’ve worked with have started the audit process telling us they want to move their brand to “x” but when we delve into this part… their money, lifeblood, where people trust and connect with them, is “y.” Unless there’s a very, very good reason, trying to change y to x is a difficult (at best) and disastrous (at worst) proposition. A better one is to see where in the y space you can expand, improve or illuminate new markets.

This is a good time of year to begin an audit process… you’re dealing with your end-of-the-year financials anyway, and most businesses are thinking about next year’s marketing initiatives.

In the next post in this series, we’ll be talking about what to DO with all this fabulous info you’ve gathered. If you think of/know of other types of info you think would be relevant to beginning a brand audit, please share them in the comments. Also… have you been through an audit? Good outcome? Bad outcome? Please share!

Image credit from Flikr user tiffanyday

Tags: Business, business development, Marketing, marketing places, planning, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 5 Comments »

Passion, Influence, Relevance and Bubbles

December 21st, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

Yeah… bubbles. Stay with me… you’ll see

After another furious #blogchat on Twitter where smart people were discussing the differences between passion and influence as it pertains to blogging and why (if?) it mattered, some things I’ve been thinking about began to crystallize. And because it’s what I do when that happens, here I am writing about it.

Before we dive in, thanks to @spikejones for inspiring some of this, @MackCollier for #blogchat (and lots of inspiration over time) and @edosegal, who wrote the ambient streams post I read recently.

First, some definitions (well, mine, anyway):

Passion (in the marketing sense) = commitment to/attachment to a brand, product, idea or position regardless of compensation.

It’s a feeling, an internal condition. It cannot be manufactured or externally created. Passion is a choice the individual makes… I choose to love Godiva dark chocolate. Godiva hasn’t asked me to love it, paid me to love it, and doesn’t particularly care that I do so… I, on an individual level, am not influential in their marketing planning. (Oversight on their part? Perhaps… )

Influence = ability to affect other’s perceptions or awareness.

Influence CAN be purchased/created. It’s an external perception… Billions of ad dollars are spent every year trying to influence the awareness and perception of potential customers. Is it possible for an individual blogger to have influence in a space he or she is not passionate about? Long term, I think the answer is no. Bloggers who have influence in a particular space usually have earned that right through good information, solid community, earned respect. Not always… because, as we’ve already said, influence can be purchased. Programs and tools and schemes exist to “grow your blog” and “get thousands of followers” to jump-start influence.

At least initially. Some of the current “stars” of the social media world, for instance, may not be around in a year or two. If they aren’t passionate about the relevant, interactive web, they will run out of things to say that resonate with the community marketers are hoping to reach through their influence. If they stop resonating, they will lose influence, and their relevance.

Someone who is passionate about an idea or product or brand keeps on learning, and loving, and sharing experiences and interactions born of the love affair. And those shared moments will typically only resonate with those who are interested in the same brand or idea. Maybe the audience isn’t in love yet… maybe just experimenting or looking for a first date. That’s where passionate people and influence intersect.

I can be influenced only by those people or messages I choose to pay attention to. Repeat… I can only be influenced by those people or messages I choose to pay attention to.

Why do I care what TechCrunch thinks in general about [insert brand here]? I don’t. I don’t care about what TechCrunch thinks about a lot of things. But I <3 Apple products. I tend to pay attention to what TechCrunch says about all things Apple… I am passionate about that brand and TechCrunch’s opinion is more relevant to me when they are talking about Apple than when they are talking about XBox360. I choose to pay attention… and then TechCrunch has a chance to influence me and my opinion.

What is missing from all this influence and passion is a way to filter relevance. It’s a fact that humans filter information and stimuli all the time. The web’s current model is based on active search:

Random thought triggers question…

Brain can’t supply answer…

Enter phrase into Google, or more typical for me, Twitter (or your weapon of choice)…

Scan results… (FOR WHAT… ?)

Click on choice that seems THE MOST RELEVANT to me (I trust the source/know the source or believe Google’s method for determining importance and value)

The future of the web, I believe, won’t be based on active search, but on ambient streams. Already, who I choose to follow on Twitter creates ambient streams that bubble up the information I care about. As more and more of the web dabbles in relevance… more information will find us rather than us going to look for it.

Who we choose to be influenced by (who we let control our information streams) will matter a great deal more than it does now. I suspect we’ll get more picky, too. More fragmented as a marketplace, more determined to know what we want to know and not see the rest. How will we determine who makes the cut? Passion… who we believe. Influence… who we trust. And relevance… who we perceive to “understand who and where we are in life.”

Already, the web can tell where I’m located, who is tweeting or geotagging near me, what sites/locations/stores I’ve visited recently (and if I positively or negatively reviewed them), and who I’m choosing to be influenced by (who am I connected to on Twitter, Facebook, Ning groups, LinkedIn, etc). How far off is that one app/program/site that will analyze that info, assign relative relevance scores to the possible streams of info, and show me what is relevant to me based on ME, not on Google’s basic algorithms?

Heady, and scary, stuff. What do you think… what’s next?

Tags: Business, community, connectivity, Google, passion, relevance, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Interesting Stuff / Other Things, Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 14 Comments »

Real Time Relevance – The New SEO

December 13th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

Google's Real Time Search is the "oh, Shiny!" topic we need to talk about.

I don’t claim to be an SEO expert…. But I DO know something about marketing. This post is about the future, the possibilities, and what people who are using any form of online marketing need to be thinking about NOW to get ready for what is coming. And it’s coming much faster than you might think.

Buzz is beginning about Google’s search integration deals with Facebook and Twitter… here are a couple of other people’s posts with more of the details, if you wanna know the specifics:

Info from Mashable

More, especially about Facebook

What does it mean for marketing? It means “integrated marketing” can’t just be about cross-platform and multi-channel. It now has to be about timing and velocity, too. If enough people on Twitter and Facebook are talking about your company’s product release, blog post or other shiny new thing, will you achieve the golden Google award of auto-real time search? What drives Google to choose which search terms/items get an auto real-time feed? I (obviously) don’t know the algorithm. But I bet it’s got everything to do with velocity and relevance. If Mashable tweets a post, and lots of people retweet it, is that out of the ordinary? Or a “blip” in the search world? Not really. If I tweet a post, and two hundred people retweet it, is THAT out of the ordinary? uh.. yes. Quite. It makes a blip on the search radar. It means something that WASN’T relevant a short time ago (my blog) is now relevant to (proportionally) many more people. Maybe I get my own Google live feed for a bit while people are tweeting, facebooking and commenting on the post. And then it goes away… rather like the auto live-feed for “Tiger Woods Mistress.” Was there… then not. May be again when another “revelation” breaks from someone else.

The point? “Buzz” has another dimension now. Real time matters because it gives the whole world (well, the whole Google-ized world, anyway) a snapshot of what’s important to EVERYONE, right now. Think of it as Twitter trending topics, writ large. Companies need to be ready…

Imagine a major hail storm hits the midwest in the United States. Guess what would suddenly start being very relevant?

“Roofing damage”

“Hail damage”

“local roofing in [city]“

These searches would all gain immediate, non-characteristic, traffic. They would form a blip, and the real time, relevant web will respond with live updates. If you’re a local roofing company, will your tweets/FB page/web site/blog be ready to take advantage of the traffic potential?

What do you see as the dangers? Benefits? Strategies needed? Future? So much to discuss here… looking forward to your thoughts!

UPDATE >> the number of results on Google for “Mandy Vavrinak” has jumped by about 1,500 since I last searched, about a week ago. THAT is what adding results from Facebook and Twitter means…

Tags: connectivity, Google, Marketing, real time search, relevance, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 16 Comments »

Google Wave is a Useless Single Shoe

November 30th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

Random shoe

Blogs, sites, social networks, profiles, waves, channels… the level of content I consume, create and comment upon can sometimes feel incredibly overwhelming. Many things compete for my attention every day (including projects for my clients… and they have a built-in advantage in the attention-grabbing realm since their completion fuels my ability to pay attention to ANYTHING else.

Recently, I saw some conversation on Twitter about a Google Wave invite which reminded me I hadn’t logged into Wave in awhile. I made a mental note that I needed to do that… and finally did, three days later. I discovered it had been 7 weeks (since mid-October) since I’d “waved.”

OK, so life has gone on. Babies have been born (though thankfully no more in my house), business has proceeded. But there were two conversations/waves that ended in questions to me. Questions that had been waiting 7 long weeks for an answer. Ouch. Hate that… they were just hanging out there, lonely and useless… kind of like a single shoe without a mate. And that, for me, sums up my Wave experience to date. Without a mechanism to tell me something has happened, activity has occurred, SOMEONE WANTS MY ATTENTION, Wave feels like one half of a really great pair of shoes. Love the look, stylish, classy, hip! Feels great on… can see myself wearing them out and about… Goes with most anything… nearly perfect pair of shoes. Except I only have one of them.

My “new shoe” looks great, but without the mate of notification functionality it’s not very practical to actually wear (use). In the hyper-connected world that I live and work within, a better way to connect holds much promise and a definite allure. But I think Wave will never be the medium of choice unless it finds a way to successfully draw attention to what is happening in a user’s personal universe in real-time. Most social-media thinkers I know (I use the term loosely, I know them through social media) agree, as do I, that the channels in social media will change and evolve. The expectation of real-time availability, connectivity and interactivity between people, brands, information and applications will not change… only grow.

Wave feels like it is missing this key component for any new connectivity channel. If it’s me missing something… tell me what you think! Oh, and I have invites… if you want to test-drive it yourself, let me know in the comments.

Tags: connectivity, Google, opinion, shoes, Social Media, Wave
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 4 Comments »

UPDATE: Social Media Project with FOX23 Tulsa

November 12th, 2009 by Mandy Vavrinak

via StuckInCustoms photostream at Flikr

We’ve now completed two full weeks with the team at Fox23 Tulsa, and its been a whirlwind. With station newsroom schedules, our team of Ron Hudson, Cindy Morrison, Mike Henry, Sr., and myself deliver four presentations each week to Fox23 employees. Fox23 News Director Todd Spessard and the rest of the leadership team at Fox embraced the idea of elevating their social media interaction to a new level and have been incredibly supportive as we’ve worked together.

When I posted previously about the launch of this project, I mentioned that we chose a traditional media company to approach about this project… we felt they would potentially have the most to gain. What we didn’t realize until we started discussions with the Fox23 team is how passionate they are about growing and evolving and becoming what their market wants and needs. To put it another way, they may be in a traditional media space, but their approach is anything but traditional. Could we have picked a better partner? I don’t think so.

In the staff meetings, we’ve seen people who were already using social media effectively and we’ve seen some who had no idea at all how to get started or why they should try. We’ve worked through both the hows and the whys as we’ve taken the news and production staffs through the basics of Facebook and Twitter. The sales staff has learned about LinkedIn and Twitter. Next week we’ll be talking LinkedIn with news and production and Facebook with the sales group. Hopefully you’ll begin to see some of the Fox23 staff start to engage via social media more frequently and get to know them better. Here’s a list of the Fox23 on-air personality Twitter accounts (20) so you can choose to follow if you’d like. Rather find them on Facebook? Here’s that link.

First Two Weeks’ Takeaways:

Facebook encourages deeper digging. Implement privacy controls so you can share without worrying. It’s an ideal platform for behind the scenes looks, personal connections to stories and transforming viewed personalities into people.

Twitter is real-time… as a news organization, the value of Twitter is immediate action and reaction. Use it to share relevant content, engage with potential viewers, gather ideas, find out what local people are thinking or worrying about, and to respond to viewer requests, ideas or critiques as appropriate.

LinkedIn uses the power of connections and networks to reduce or eliminate cold-calling. Come pre-recommended and with instant credibility because all your credentials, experience and recommendations are visible and sharable. Use it to share knowledge and experience to help build your reputation as a subject-matter expert and to maintain connections even if you or someone in your network changes positions or companies.

I’ll continue to share some of the project highlights as we go through weeks 3 and 4. While we are excited about helping the Fox23 crew, we want to give them the very best insights out there and that means they need to come from the community as a whole. What traditional media outlets do you think employ social media well? What are they doing differently than the other guys?

Tags: business development, FOX23, Lessons Learned, Marketing, Social Media
Posted in Marketing, Small Business, Social Media | 2 Comments »

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