FLM.TV on the Front Page of Austin American Statesman Movies section talking about Video Services

Companies Use Social to Track and Follow Up on Brand Mentions – eMarketer

{tgprice5: I would recommend that every company monitor the Websphere for social mentions of a company, be it B2B or B2C, especially in a B2C world where there could be thousands, or even millions of customers and therefore, a huge number of posts. On the other hand in a B2B world, we have a client, for example, that has ~ ten customers and has a deep relationship with each of them. Not too many people are going on Facebook to comment on the power requirements for an embedded processor. My advice to B2B companies is know every facet of your market as possible, track competitive activity closely and know your customers from the CXOs down to the department level. As for social media monitoring tools, J.D. Lasica has an excellent article on 20 free tools that are available: http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/01/11/guide-to-free-social-media-monitoring-tools/.}

 

B2C and US-based companies lead the wayB2B companies lag behind their B2C counterparts when it comes to using social media to track what customers are saying about their brands and following up on that feedback.In January 2012, customer experience management software company Satmetrix surveyed over 1,000 B2B and B2C companies worldwide and found that more than half of B2C companies 53% both tracked mentions and followed up on them, while an additional 25% only tracked and 4% only followed up. This is compared to only 27% of B2B companies that both tracked mentions and followed up on them. Almost half of B2B companies 47% did not track or follow up on brand mentions on social media.

Of those companies that have a system in place for tracking and following up, Satmetrix found that the most popular process companies used was having a dedicated team that monitored and responded to customer feedback. In North America, 48% of these companies had a team place, while 49% of companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa had the same.Looking at the differences worldwide, US-based companies were more likely to use social media to track mentions and follow up, with 46% of US companies and 45% of North American companies saying they did both. In Asia, the percentage of companies was lower, at 39%, and in both Latin America and Australia/New Zealand it was 34%.

 Consumers are discussing companies online, offering advice and even criticizing brands, whether or not these brands are active in the social space. In 2011, TNS found that 64% of consumers worldwide wrote about brands online in order to offer advice, and 52% said they did so to criticize a brand. Companies should have processes and tools in place to track what is being said, and a system for following up on comments when it is appropriate.

via Companies Use Social to Track and Follow Up on Brand Mentions – eMarketer.

Creating a #Hashtag Campaign on Twitter | Social Media Today

{I really like this article on Twitter hashtags. To me one of the most important pieces of advice is in this paragraph: “Check to see if the hashtag you have in mind already exists and is in use. It is also very important to check if your desired hashtag has not taken on some other meaning. Twitter Search, Hashtags.org and Tagalus are some tools you can use to do a quick hashtag check.”}

Often the biggest results come from the smallest actions.

Take Twitter hashtags, for example…

The concept itself is deceptively simple; just add the “#” symbol in front of a word or a group of words with the spaces between them taken out.

This tiny bit of detail lets Twitter organically categorize your tweets, as well as anyone else’s, that make use of the exact same hashtag. In a very big way, it is the 140-character equivalent of assigning keyword tags to documents and blog posts.

Just as anyone searching for content about a specific keyword gets pointed toward the articles containing that keyword, anyone searching on a hashtag gets a listing of tweets containing that hashtag. Reflect on that for a moment, for therein lies the power of the humble hashtag.

By including a relevant hashtag in your tweet, it becomes visible to people searching for that specific topic, adding your voice to the general discussion. Conversely, hashtags automatically narrow down your audience, allowing your tweets to reach and engage only those interested in the same subject matter.

The probability of your tweets being retweeted are also higher when you use the right hashtag to share your comments or insights about a subject. People have a natural desire to share these useful insights. Ultimately, you could gain new followers, not because of the hashtags per se, but because your ideas and messages will reach those interested in them in the first place. Including you in the conversation is just a click away.

Given such a powerful tool for initiating conversation and soliciting engagement, the natural next step is to use these hashtags to market products and services using the Twitter platform. It makes good sense; Twitter is awash with stories of how companies have successfully carried out their marketing campaigns using Twitter hashtags.

In the U.K., Domino’s Pizza slashed a penny off the price of its featured flavor each time someone tweeted with the hashtag #letsdolunch within a specified time frame. The campaign generated 85,000 tweets and a host of happy diners who were able to enjoy the pizza at a huge discount. Radio Shack asked people to tweet #kindofabigdeal and earned more than 80,000 mentions.

Even the Obama administration scored a victory over the Republicans on the payroll tax debate. The administration invited people to tweet about what #40dollars means to them. The system’s utter simplicity makes it easy to get your hashtag campaign started. Here are some tips on how to get started.

Determine the kind of value you aim to derive for yourself and your followers from using the hashtag. Do you intend to crowdsource information? Do you aim to create buzz? Are you looking to provoke conversation? Make sure your intentions and purpose for employing the hashtag are clear and focused. Formulate a hashtag that is relevant to your purpose and the subject you intend to tweet about.

Check to see if the hashtag you have in mind already exists and is in use. It is also very important to check if your desired hashtag has not taken on some other meaning. Twitter Search, Hashtags.org and Tagalus are some tools you can use to do a quick hashtag check.

Start tweeting your hashtag. It helps to set the context of your hashtag by briefly explaining what it means. Tweet with moderation. The last thing you want is to be seen as a spammer. Always ask what value you and your followers can get from the tweet you are putting out.

If it does not exist yet, add your hashtag definition to online tools such as Tagalus.

Set up an automatic alert tool that sends you an email alert when someone tweets your hashtag. Twilert is one such tool.

As you can see, the process is simple, but it is not without its pifalls. Just ask McDonald’s. One of the hidden perils of this marketing tool is that your hashtag could get hijacked and used against you. In the case of McDonald’s #McDStories, they mistakenly assumed that the general public shared their own glowing view of themselves.

To spare yourself from Twitter hijacking, you will need to plan your Twitter campaign to the smallest detail. But since it is more difficult to foretell how anything will end up, you could join in on existing hashtag trends, instead of creating a new one.

If the conversation is already on-going and established, there is less of a chance that it will get hijacked. And be human. People warm up more to other people rather than faceless corporations.

via Creating a #Hashtag Campaign on Twitter | Social Media Today.

As Archie and Edith Sang: “Those Were the Days.”

This is not a screed against childhood obesity in America. It is more of reminiscence. As a baby boomer who grew up in northern West Virginia in the 50’s, we had access to three television channels — two in Pittsburgh and one in Steubenville, Ohio (a plug for Dean Martin’s home town). School after hours were spent with my younger brother and my two cousins running through the woods, swinging from grape vines, engaging in may apple battles (look it up on Wikipedia) from our self improvised forts and trying not to get in trouble before dinner was served at 6 pm sharp.

After dinner, which usually consisted of one meat dish and three vegetables with mom and dad, we did our homework, and after that we watched Red Skelton, Tennessee Ernie Ford, George Gobel, Lucy and Life of Riley, et al. Lawrence Welk was a stretch, but Saturday night was reserved for Gunsmoke. Of course, early Saturday mornings included westerns Sky King, Cisco Kid, Lone Ranger and Annie Oakley. Howdy Doody was in there somewhere, too. As for the TV remote for my dad, well, that was me. “Son, get up there and change that to Channel 2.” In bed by 9:30 pm.

(That’s not us, but close.)

Both parents worked, but we had breakfast every morning that consisted of oatmeal or Cream of Wheat and eggs or cereal always with milk. Last week I went to the local McDonald’s and watched kids from the local area high school ordering a breakfast treat and a giant soda. Nothing against Mickey D’s, but what does this say about parenting.

I can only imagine what the bone density of these kids will be when they are about twenty years old if they continue to include a Coke or Dr. Pepper for breakfast. A recent autopsy of a 19-year old traffic victim revealed the early onset of osteoporosis.

Am I being too nostalgic, or should parents encourage activities that do not just involve multiple thumb inputs on a gaming console? I’m all for modern conveniences such as microwaves, ATMs, smartphones, tablets and the Internet, but I do have two recommendations. Make PE class mandatory, if only 3x week and reintroduce health classes that focus on food and nutrition.

Now, I feel much better.

I’ve Been SEO’d and Key Worded till I’m Blind

An early Simon & Garfunkel song featured the lyrics: I’ve been Rolling Stoned and Beatled till I’m blind. Well, with apologies to Paul and Art I feel the same way about SEO and key words. As one who works in PR on a daily basis and who tries to stay current with most developments in the world of social media, I receive up to 150 emails per day. Too many, of course, not requested. But several of the newsletters are quite informative.

Some of my favorites include ReadWriteWeb, Ragan Daily Headlines, Rich Content Daily, IAB Smart Brief and BizReport. They’re usually packed with the latest stats, facts and surveys, not opinions. I’m going to digress for a moment and state that I really like the clean layout and design of the Huffington Post site (except for those giant banner ads that pop up intermittently).

However, I’ve noticed a time wasting trend lately. Many of the social media articles have begun to be repetitive, eg, ‘Top 10 key words to improve SEO’; ‘7 ways to increase your blog’s visibility’; ’6 best social media monitoring tools’; ‘5 words to avoid at all costs in headlines.’ OK, maybe not that last one, but how many times do I need to know that Pinterest is one of the fastest growing sites on the Internet?

Sometimes I feel the social media trend has outpaced common sense. I read a press release the other day that appeared to have been written by a machine. SEO terms were crammed throughout, but the actual copy didn’t communicate much of anything. Guess they wanted quantity over quality.

My conclusion and it’s certainly not original: content that is timely, informative, even entertaining and aimed at a specific audience will generate its own levels of visibility without a plethora of seo terms crammed in the headline or body copy.

Apple Declined to Comment

 

The recent NYTimes article regarding Apple’s supply chain issues prompted this thought. What do staffers of Apple’s public relations department make in salaries each year? And do they earn those dollars? As everyone knows Apple has a policy of being notoriously secretive.

Adam Lishinsky’s Fortune magazines article in January pulled back the curtains on Apples’ corporate culture of practicing privacy. I ran a Google search for the following terms: ‘Apple Declined to Comment.’ Hundreds of page views later, I came to the conclusion that Apple would be well served to hire interns to staff the PR Department and save thousands of dollars in salary expenses.

However, recent news from newly appointed CEO Tim Cook indicates that this policy may be changing, at least a little. He publicly discussed the $98b cash reserve at Tuesday’s Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference.

In this article in Supply Chain Digest Cook goes on record as saying that Apple is leading  inspections that are now underway and are unprecedented in the electronics industry, both in scale and scope.

As a public relations professional with over 30 years of experience in the industry, I can respect the limitations that Apples’ PR staffers have been mandated to follow, but with a company’s share price that exceeds $500 (NOTE: see recent WSJ article that describes Apples’ net worth being so vast that some equity analysts are now publishing two sets of quarterly earnings updates: one for companies that make up the S&P 500 including Apple and another without Apple. The delta is mind-boggling. With Apples’ inclusion earnings should indicate a 6.6% year-on-year-rise. Delete Apple and the growth rate shrinks to just 2.8%.)

Cook now has to lead a company that has the ability to impact, quite frankly, the American economy. Let’s hope his more transparent guidance of the firm will unshackle the internal PR team to actually respond to requests for information, rather than, ‘No Comment.’

World’s Leading: Really? From Fathom Blog

 

{I enjoyed the following article by Patricia Thibault. Too often PR firms have clients that insist on leading each press release with something to the effect of ‘the industry’s leading widget developer.’ And editors just roll their eyes.

And trade show booth behavior…don’t even get me started. Booth personnel engaging in conversations with each other and ignoring visitors passing by; eating and drinking in the booth; being seated or slouching; backs turned to the aisle. Please, if you’re going to spend all that money to exhibit, at least develop and implement a guide for best booth behavior. — tgprice5}

“World’s Leading (fill in the blank)”….REALLY?

By Patricia Thibault | February 7, 2012

I recently attended a material handling conference.  The technologies were amazing, and exhibitors were obviously investing heavily to build brand awareness and generate new leads.

As an online marketer, a large banner which read “Worlds Leading Palletizer” especially caught my eye.

I fired up my iPad and was surprised to see that this particular manufacturer was nowhere to be found in the first 2 pages of Google, nor were they investing in PPC.  I found a weak Linkedin profile, no Facebook page, no tweets and no video…nothing!  Upon visiting the manufacturer’s website I discovered an outdated, brochure ware-like website and a copyright dated 2009.

And here’s what really blew me away…

When I searched for “world’s leading palletizers” on Google, 6 of the Top 10 rankings in Google proclaim that they are the world’s leading palletizer.  So much for claiming a unique differentiator!

It’s safe to guess that this manufacturer probably invested at least $20,000 in this conference (with a 20×20 booth, heavy machinery brought indoors and 8 employees staffing the booth).  And the “World’s Leading Pallatizer” banner probably set them back a few thousand dollars too!

So what can B2B marketers learn from this?

Perception is reality.  If you claim to the “World’s Leading _____”, then your online visibility must resonate with that message.

Where do you start?

• Update your website!  Invest in Web 2.0 and be a trusted source of information in your industry
• Invest in SEO strategies (involving on-page and off-page activities) to heighten organic visibility
• Explore the power of strategically managed PPC to target your message
• Get your social media house in order.  Don’t just claim your social media properties, but contribute to the conversation as well
• Create and promote Internet videos.  If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures.  Show the world your stuff!
• If marketing budgets are tight (is yours?), reallocate budget dollars to support online marketing.  According to Pew Research, online marketing outperforms traditional marketing by a 4:1 margin

Conclusion

The world has changed, and online marketing evolves on a daily basis.  Keep your offline and online messages consistent in order to convey a clear, compelling value proposition.  If you brand your company as a “world leader” in 2012, then your website can’t look like 1997!

Dwolla Raises $5 Million: Bank Customers Save Milions

The transition from traditional banking to true online banking is nearly complete as it drives a more real-time payment or new banking system that can help move financial system off legacy banking system.

This type of disintermediation is key to this years banking watershed period giving way to new forms of banking as new financial services and products begins to make its way to the market.

Companies like Dwolla and Buzzbanking are the two new powerhouse leading the way. Buzzbanking was introduced late last year with it social banking and local retail merchant rewards program giving companies like

Groupon and Social Living a run for their money as these companies move closer to customers wallets.

My eyes are on these guys and frankly, looking forward to a more simple and rewarding banking experience.

Dwolla Raises $5 Million Series B From Union Square Ventures & Others
TECHCRUNCH | FEBRUARY 7, 2012
http://pulse.me/s/5KnbJ

Disruptive payments network Dwolla confirmed today it has raised $5 million in Series B financing in a round led by Union Square Ventures. Also partic… Read more

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Most on Inc. 500 prefer Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter to blogging – Dallas Business Journal

 

{I’m not surprised corporate blogging is on the decline. It takes a total commitment to provide interesting, relevant, fresh and entertaining content on a regular basis and that usually means posting at least once a week. It reminds me of the time when I was in the communications department of a Fortune 50 company and we came up with the idea of a monthly newsletter. The excitement quickly wore off when we discovered how much time was required to produce the monthly piece. Soon thereafter it became a quarterly newsletter and then died a timely death due to resource reductions – tgprice5}

Monday, January 30, 2012

Facebook is the most widely used social networking tool among businesses on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing companies in the U.S., a new study found. Use of Facebook grew to 74 percent in 2011 from 61 percent two years earlier.

Blogging is on the decline while use of Facebook and Twitter is more common among the fastest growing private companies in the U.S.

A study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth found that among companies that made the Inc. 500 list of rapid growth businesses blogging declined to 37 percent in 2011 from 50 percent the year before.

Use of Facebook to promote their businesses increased to 74 percent from 71 percent and Twitter use rose to 64 percent from 59 percent.

Virtually tied with Facebook was LinkedIn’s professional network with 73 percent of the Inc. 500 companies studied saying they use it. This was a new addition to the annual study so comparable information from prior years wasn’t available.

About 45 percent said they use YouTube, but comparable data for Google’s video unit was unavailable, either.

“The use of blogging may have peaked as a primary social media tool in the US business world,” wrote researcher Nora Barnes. “The new data shows adoption of blogging is declining for the first time since 2007 among the Inc. 500 companies.”

The study also found that 25 percent of the companies surveyed said they would keep their social media budget the same, but 71 percent plan to increase their investment.

“This is particularly interesting given that only 24 percent of the Inc. 500 now have a written social media policy for their employees who use these tools on behalf of the company. We might expect to see that number increase if the use of social media expands,” Barnes wrote.

Study reveals importance of UGC to Millennials

 

{At Bernard Group Communications we strongly encourage our clients to leverge UGC (user generated content) by forming user communities. While Millennials rely on UGC, we have found that Boomers who are becoming comfortable with Facebook are also beginning to source UGC.}

If your retail website lacks user-generated content you could be missing out on a huge chunk of business from Millennials, according to new research from Bazaarvoice.

by Helen Leggatt

Bazaarvoice‘s research found that Millennials are reluctant to make a purchase without first having access to user-generated content. The demographic, in their 20s and 30s, will have more purchasing power than any other by 2017, so retailers must heed their needs.

Over half (51%) trust user-generated content more than information presented on a company website (16%) or news articles about a company (14%). Advertising is trusted by even less (6%).

In fact, user-generated content on a company website is more likely to influence a Millennial shopper’s opinion than the advice of family and friends (49%).

“Millennials have grown up in a world where word of mouth is shared and found just as easily on a blog or in a product review as it is around the water cooler or at a dinner party,” said Brett Hurt, founder and chief executive of Bazaarvoice.

“The result is that this generation expects to have access to opinions from people like them no matter where they are or how they shop. Brands that don’t understand and embrace this shift are making a huge mistake as this generation becomes a dominant economic force.”

So what is it about user-generated content that so appeals to Millennials? According to Bazaarvoice’s research almost two-thirds (65%) feel it is a more trustworthy source of information than any other online and 86% believe it gives a better idea of a brand or retailer’s quality of service and products.

So important is user-generated content that some Millennials won’t complete a purchase of some items unless it’s available. The top purchases that Millennials won’t make without some sort of user-generated content include major electronics (44%), cars (40%) and hotel accommodation (39%).

Bazaarvoice’s report, “Talking to Strangers: Millennials Trust People over Brands”, along with a high-resolution infographic and details of a webinar to be held on 2 February, 2012, can be viewed online.