Community Building

A "Monster" Brand

January 19, 2011 by Raul Colon

Guest post by Dwight Santana (@slayerkun)

If you havent heard of Lady Gaga by now, you are living under a rock. This pop-star in the last Year has escalated into being one of the music industry’s most important celebrities. From the eyes of manyLady Gaga has exceeded their expectations.

Her first album, The Fame, is the best-selling debut album of 2009. Her single Just Dance has been viewed 87 million times on YouTube. Gaga’s tracks have clocked 20 million downloads this year. Poker Face, is the most downloaded track in the history of U.K. digital music.

With that stated, I’m no interested in giving you Lady Gaga’s background, I want to define what a “Monster” in Marketing she is.

After seeing footage and analyzing many of the stunts she gets away with, its necesary to remark that Lady Gaga directs and envisions every step of her life and career, before it is executed. Her understanding of marketing integrates well with her form of doing things making her effective in social media channels . A good example is the dress she used for the 2010 VMA Awards the infamous meat dress, she might have made it look conservative , but in reality she was literally wearing a meat dress. The meat dress became a #trending Topic online and generated a lot of buzz.

We also see why in 2010, 11,500 mainstream media articles mentioned her. This is impresive considering that she is still consider a new artist to many.

Her marketing is fueled by her fans, which have decided to fall in line with what she represents. Her fans or “Little Monsters” are responsible for carrying her brand. Last year in november Gaga posted a link to one of her own videos on fashion icon Alexander McQueen’s Web site.After a single tweet by Gaga, her rabid fans streamed in and crashed the site’s servers. Not many brands can acquire this influence over it’s fans in such a short period of time. Lady Gaga has manage to prove other that it can be done.

Her maketing translates into pure harvested loyalty, a few examples of how she does this are:

a) Give fans a name. Gaga actually doesn’t like the word fan so she calls them “little monsters” after her debut album “The Fame Monster” this way fans have a way to relate to each other, and feel special, like joining an exclusive club.

b) Making it something bigger than herself. Last year during a Tour, in the middle of a concert she stopped everything and recited a “Manifesto of Little Monsters” many of the fans see this as a dedication getting the point across that she is there because of them.

c) Establishing a connection. She connects with her “Little Monsters” with a signature stretch out “monster hand claw” its also the Little Monsters greeting.

d) She puts the spotlight on her fans making them feel like rock stars, one of the things she does on tour is to call a fan in the audience during the show, the fan screams out then cameras focus on him, and after being on the big screen, she invites him to have a drink after the show.

e) Social Media Influence , right now Gaga has around 7.5 million followers on her Twitter account and countless more on her requisite Facebook Page. She shares her personal life and connects with her fans, she tweeted before opening the Grammy Awards. She has also tweeted to her fans , about buying them pizza, for staying all night at line waiting for an alum signing.

These things show a good understanding in marketing. One great example is how she does not allow professional photographers to her concerts, but her fans are allow to capture pictures, and video so they can later upload via youtube. In my opinion that is just brilliant.

For the moment Gaga’s staying power is yet to be seen. But she is making a Tsunami in the music business, and showing a few the power of fandom, and how to sculpt a successful brand.

What other brands can we compare to Lady Gaga?

What can you do to get closer to your clients or fan base that would be unique to them?

Monitoring Social Media To Sell More Food and/or Drinks (Part 1)

January 18, 2011 by Raul Colon

If we where restaurant owners at @cimapr we would easily find a way to monitor social media to sell more food and drinks.

I run social media efforts very lightly at @archipielagopr one of our clients in Ponce, PR and have collaborated with other restaurants in the metro San Juan area to assist them in using social media to increase restaurant revenues and brand recognition. With the little efforts we run we have been very successful in translating our efforts into revenues.

We became Re-sellers of the JitterJam application which is focused on the mid- to small-business market companies who are looking to generate true Return On Investment from social, mobile and email engagement and marketing.

Here is how we picture and have used Jitterjam for one of our clients:

LifecycleGraphic — image from jitterjam.com website

Discovering New Prospects. We are able to monitor conversations based on keywords, geolocation, and other factors that are relevant to our clients. By identifying people who have not decided what to eat or where, tourists that are looking for places to eat or have a drink. We monitor conversations based on keywords such as “Where can I eat in Ponce?” once we see this type of phrase we take at the user’s profile and identify the most inviting way to communicate with that person usually via twitter although it can be done via facebook also.

Creating Dialogue. by creating dialogue and offering sincere help we are able to grab attention from that prospect. We usually give them various quality options other than our clients restaurant, places of interest if they are tourist, and clear any other questions. If the prospect asks more questions like menu items or how to reserve we quickly send them links to the menu and online reservation system. In most occasions the prospect is so happy that we where so helpful that they end up making a reservation.

Develop Intelligence. No matter what tool you use either @jitterjam or doing it the hard way manually you should be monitoring the following:

What people are talking about near your geographical location?
What people are eating or drinking?
Mentions and sentiment around your competitors
Mentions and sentiment around your products and services.
What people want to eat and when?

Based on these factors you can improve your list of services and see how you can improve What’s On Your Menu?.

Buid Trust. By taking the @zappos attitude to helping out prospects and customers even when you are not able to make a direct sale you are able to establish great long term relationships. By using @jitterjam you can really focus on being helpful to your community which in the long term will result in an increase in business.

Market to Contacts. Once you are able to monitor people mentioning your brand, product and services it easier for you to directly contact them. If contacts are making positive mentions then you can also leverage those mentions and try to motivate that behavior throughout multiple platforms.

Measure learn and Grow. Measuring your efforts is key to see what is working and take a Stop, Start, and Continue attitude. Stop doing what is not working, Start doing new things that might be of interest to your audience, an continue doing what has worked so far. If you track twitter mentions, retweets, blog comments, facebook interactions, and other factors mentioning your brand you are able to see what works and what does not.

How else would you use a monitoring tool to Sell More Food or Drinks at a restaurant ?

We will be discussing in more detail the benefits of using a social media tool as strong as @jitterjam in our next post!

If you wish to get our (part 2) via email and join our newsletter feel free to Subscribe to CIMA IT Solutions Corp. Newsletter by Email.

If you have questions regarding JitterJam feel free to contact us to set up a Demo.

How often should you update your Corporate Blog?

January 14, 2011 by Raul Colon

I have heard many people ask different people how often they should update there blog. I use to have that question until I had the opportunity to see the following speech by the awesome @unmarketing author of UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging.(affiliate link) at the Inbound Marketing Summit last October in Massachusets.

If you really want to get an overview of how you should handle your blog I recommend you to watch this video on @unmarketing’s presentation. ( I would Recommend you to go to minute 12 unless you want to see the whole video)

Here are our recommendations on how often to update your corporate blog:

When you have something interesting to share with more than one person! On many occasions we go through the trouble of reciting the same event or information over and over again with clients. If you create a post you allow many people to have access to it and those who are interested can get as much detail as they want.

If you have something that is valuable to your community! On multiple occasions I run into many resources like videos, articles posts, and experiences I know my community would take advantage. If that is the case you should definitely create a blog post.

When you have the time! Many people create schedule on blogging and if you need to do that that is fine but in my case I try to write when I have the time. My main goals in life is primarily my family and second growing my business. If I stop focusing on the clients I have acquired because I have to post something on my blog I will start getting into trouble very quickly. The same goes with not taking care of family and friends. Try to make time to blog but if you are too busy then you should definitely leave it for another occasion.

If you have an Event you should write a blog post about it. It is key that you write a post previous to the event preferably with a significant amount of time to get those who might be interested in the event engaged. During the event it is good if you provide resources for people to use especially if it is a multiple day event. Posting schedules, pictures and videos can actually increase the reach of your event outside of those who are attending. After the event it is a great opportunity to get your attendees engaged and set up the stage for the next event making them part of your community.

When YOU can create an Awesome Post! In the words of @unmarketing the best time to update your blog is when you have something Awesome to post. If you go to his blog un-marketing.com he posts periodically with no set schedule.

What do you think is the right time to update your post? What have been your experiences?

5 Benefits of a LinkedIn Company Profile

January 11, 2011 by Raul Colon

Does your company have a LinkedIn company profile?

Just yesterday we established our company profile going in line with launching our new and refreshing image.

I have been a LinkedIn user since 2005 and when I registered CIMA IT Solutions I quickly saw benefits of having a Company LinkedIn Profile.

1. Accessibility

The company profile is accessible from each company employee’s individual profile.

Meaning that every employee each company has on LinkedIn increases the reach and brand recognition for that company.

2. Job Board

Each company profile has an area to post careers and/or jobs.

Instead of a company using a job board they can directly post on LinkedIn which increases significantly the probability of finding possible candidates interested in your company.

3. Validating actual employees

Many recruiters and companies take LinkedIn as a reliable source. Every company (and individual) should keep an eye out on people posting relationships with them online.

The profile allows employees with your companies domain email to sign up. I am not sure how it works when the employee leaves but at least there is a filter for an employee to sign up.

Other features include:

Employee Directory
Communication of organizational changes such as promotions.

4. One More Channel to promote your business and create relationships.

Having a company profile in LinkedIn also acts as a beacon for possible leads and opportunities.

This can also serve as a main place to promote your services and products.

The profile also allows you to include key company statistics and a quick overview of your company.

5. Conversations

Each profile also allows you to link a twitter account so Twitter conversations are posted on the profile. This can increase the amount of conversations and followers on twitter by cross-polinating contacts from LinkedIn to twitter.

If you are new on linked in feel free to connect with me http://pr.linkedin.com/in/raulcolon. ( it is helpful if you let me know that you came through this blog post).

Do you have any other questions regarding LinkedIn Company Profiles? Feel free to contact us directly or leave a comment.

If you feel you need help with improving your overall online presence or want to focus your efforts on LinkedIn ask us how we can help.

Keeping Followers Interested With #FollowFriday

August 5, 2010 by Raul Colon

6 recommendations to Unleash the Power Of FollowFriday

If you are just starting on twitter who should you start following? I think everyone new on twitter runs into the same situation. How about if you are a business how do you gain followers?

In my opinion I see the benefit of growing your followers organically. I have seen many companies with new presence on twitter spamming and following as many people on twitter as they can get a hand on. Personally I think they should really focus on earning followers (without spamming), establishing relationships, and keeping those followers.

On twitter I have been a huge advocate for #FollowFriday and the Spanish version of #VivaViernes. The #FollowFriday hashtag was initially created and suggested by @micah on twitter. As you can see the first #FollowFriday Tweet below.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/micah/status/1124262248″]

For individuals it is a great way to share top people to follow on Twitter. It also gives you the chance to find recommendations from friends who they think deserve your attention. If you actually take those benefits and transfer them to a business account I see many advantages.

Getting back to actually maintaining your users by using #FollowFriday we recommend:

Give a short description of your opinion on a user or what they tweet about. If you also see they are aligned towards efforts that your followers or yourself are an advocate for make sure to mention them.
Opt Out if you are not going to give it your genuine touch. I see many people just creating lists of people but if you really want your followers to feel that you are mentioning them because they mean something to you then you should at least accompany the #FollowFriday with a short description of why you think they should be followed.
Categorize your #FollowFriday. If you want to recommend a list of users who have something in common. Example if you follow a group of Web Designers then you can mention the category small phrase and the users recommended.
Recommend People with High Impact Tweets. If you consider that a certain user is impacting you and might have a high impact with other users this is a user you might want to recommend.
Take care of users who share Helpful Tweets. If you find that you ask a question and one of your users is actually replying with help or assisting other users in your list what better way to be grateful than with a recognition accompanied by a #FollowFriday.
Most Interactive users with your account should be mentioned. I personally created a list of the Top 40 people who I interact with and usually I use that list as a guideline to send out my #FollowFridays

Overall search for the best option of the #FollowFriday to fit your business needs. I constantly switch them up and would recommend you to try or even mix my recommendations.

I also recommend you to visit Followfriday.com (@followfridaycom) which is a great new tool to measure how many #FollowFridays a user has received.

It also gives you a few tools to help you be grateful for the people who mentioned you with the #FollowFriday hashtag.

Are you using #FollowFriday for any business purpose?

How do you use your #FollowFriday?

Any other suggestions on how to keep your users interested?

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