Marketing – Page 2

Broadcasting equals less Engagement

January 25, 2011 by Raul Colon

255658719_1113bbdc97_z — Photo Credit: Flickr

Many business accounts are constantly Broadcasting their sales, accomplishments, product features, company news, and anything they can find about themselves that appears to be interesting to them. When people broadcast a message it is mainly to attract the masses not focusing on quality. Something I have found through social media is that the more you broadcast the less interaction you get.

I have outlined the reasons why some twitter business users end up broadcasting and end up with little or no interactions.

Self-Promoting products, services, and company

Many twitter business users that are new to twitter create accounts and immediately start sending messages about there products, services, and other information relevant to company and interests. I have even seen a few that go after users and beg or harass them to follow them.

Most of these users also lack interaction with other users. On the other side they feel that everyone should learn about there company but they don’t take the time to learn about the others. They fail greatly in not looking for the interests of their community and clients.

Sharing Accomplishments

It is human nature to feel you need to be recognized for your accomplishments. A good example of people that want to be recognized are the so called Social Media Experts which share a collection of names such as Guru, Evangelist, Kings, and Queen. One of the terms still up for grabs is “Swami” for those of you who want to make the recommendation to these experts feel free to recommend it to them. They are constantly bragging that they have a certain klout score or have to announce how many followers they just gained. What they don’t realize is that other people take there perspective they really don’t care about how many followers you have they are to worried about their own.

Let other people share your accomplishments you will get better results. If you feel like sharing something find a polite way to share it but don’t bombard your users with your constant accomplishments.

Hoarding Followers

When I started using twitter I confused it with other social networks. I remember when I used ICQ in the late 90’s where my objective was trying to get in contact with as much people possible just to be able to keep multiple conversations all the time.

Twitter is a micro-blogging portal very different from others in social media. It is key that you earn your following and focus on quality of contacts. The more interested your followers are to your tweets the more probable is that they can be advocates of your message or thoughts (and maybe later on your company and services).

Always look for contacts that have things in common. Many people start adding people randomly in hopes to get someone to follow them back. Even if they follow you most people might not even read your tweets. By interacting with the people you have and really taking care of your audience you will start building a community that will be well worth waiting for your follower count to rise organically.

More Attention

There are no many ways to call attention to yourself. But something you need to keep in mind is that you can do it in a negative or a positive way. People that try to hard end up sharing a negative image. When you are using twitter and/or other social media platforms it should be with the purpose of establishing relationships. To increase the opportunities to establish those relationships you should do a great job at projecting a clean and positive image.

If you need some help on getting attention to attract clients in a positive way @jimkukral’sAttention! This Book Will Make You Money: How to Use Attention-Getting Online Marketing to Increase Your Revenue.

In what ways do you interact with your online communities?

How are you going to increase interaction and eliminate Broadcasting?

Spreading a Message Without Writing or Talking

January 20, 2011 by Raul Colon

For those of you who thought that @chrisbrogan needed to talk, write, or blog to get a message across this video is proof of the opposite:

I am always looking at ways for people to understand that businesses have to have that human touch. A few days ago I was talking to someone who decided not to get more information because once the requested more detail of a product the person on the other side decided to send them to the website for more information.

Once you have someone engaged in your product please take the time to assist them in learning more. I think this subject is great for another post.

I also really wanted to show a video that is very effective in getting a message across without any dialogue.

Watch the great video and let me know if you really get the message @chrisbrogan is trying to convey.

How do you send your message out without writing or speaking?

Do you have a clear enough message that speech or writing is not needed to be understood?

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.

Importance of a Good Logo

January 17, 2011 by Raul Colon

Guest post by Dwight Santana (@slayerkun)

Many people think that a logo might not be that crucial for their, brand, individual, company, institution, or product. Are these people right?

Historically people have been using logos to brand their work. So is no coincidence they use logos to associate whatever they were “promoting”.

Right now we use logos with the same purpose we did before. The logo always has a direct relation with the concept of the brand and it’s promise. We use logos so we can communicate a message, so we can achieve an interpretation from the spectator.

Jörg Zintzmeyer affirms in his book “Logo Design” that:

“…the logo is a promise. The logo is not a brand in it self, it’s a form of expression of the brand or a condense image of the brand… The brand must offer what the logo promises…”

These are strong words but is exactly what you want to have in mind when you’re designing a logo. Because you should start working on a logo after you have outline all aspects of the business, product, or the individual you’re trying to represent. It’s not always a good choice to design a logo first if you don’t know what you are going to represent.

The most important feature of a logo, is recognition. This makes the logo a mnemonic device. A mnemonic device is a learning technique that helps memory. Usually it is use so people can remember easily a data that is to be remembered, or remembered the source from were the device came. i.e. The logo.

E.g. (insert de Mcdonal’s M) when you see it from a far you know, or at least your brains knows, that near that “M” there’s a place were you eat.

That example is the perfect representation of how a logo impacts those who perceive it, and why is important. The logo is the image representing an organization. This concept is represented with the example above, we imidiatly distinguish this example and recognize what it symbolizes. It is, ok, to take time a develop a good logo, because one thing we want to avoid is changing the logo frequently, if were to do that is gonna be counterproductive with what we want to achieve.

When designing a logo, you can take a lot into consideration, deciding what fits your logo needs, it’s hard work. Like I have said it is important that you reflect what your selling thru your logo. The logo is the vehicle of communication on the real world.

There are a lot of concepts and tips regarding construction and design, for the most part, for now, the most important thing when working with your logo is to remember some basic design principles:

The logo must be legible (at any size)
The logo must be scalable
The logo must be able to be reproduce in any material
The logo must be distinguishable (in any color)
THE LOGO MUST BE MEMORABLE

This process usually doesn’t happen imidiatly it takes time, and a lot of analyzing. Like building anything we could have 40 drafts, and after a process try and error we find one that fits, and decide on using that one.

Also one good last recommendation might be that we shouldn’t rush into deciding in a logo on the fly, take time analyze it, verify it and make sure it really represent the message your trying to deliver and if represents what you want to sell. But be sure it is what you want, you don’t want to be changing logos every time, as I said before changing it a lot is bad and it will ruin the purpose of a logo.

There’s a whole lot to cover in the logo subject but I’ll be addressing them as I develop each area.