Shannon's thoughts on marketing, public relations, social technology, entrepreneurship and other things

Necessity
Work?
I don't have to work.
I don't have to do nothing
but eat, drink, stay black, and die.
This little old furnished room's
so small I can't whip a cat
without getting fur in my mouth
and my landlady's so old
her features is all run together
and God knows she sure can overcharge-
Which is why I reckon I *does*
have to work after all.
--Langston Hughes
Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951

As Langston wrote 60 years ago, there are very few "have to's" in life; however, in business there are a great number of "need to's."

You need to market your business.
You don't have to have a Facebook page (Gasp!).

You need to find your customers.
You don't have to have a Twitter account (Get out!).

You need to generate revenue.
You don't even have to have a website (Blasphemy!).

There are a number of "old school" marketing tactics you can employ for your business. None of them are better or worse than any other, all of them require different levels of commitment and resources and all have been successful in one form or another. It is a question of which one(s) will work for you, not which one(s) you have to do. 

Some "Old School" Marketing Tactics

• transportation advertising (signs on buses and at bus stops)
• posters, flyers and postcards
• radio, television and print advertising
• movie advertising
• newsletter and program advertising
• referral and word-of-mouth
• incentive programs
• sponsorships
• networking
• billboards
• promotional items
• tradeshow exhibitions

These are a few methods for getting your message out; however, the best marketing campaign is the one that works for you in meeting your business objective. Before you begin expending valuable marketing resources, consider the following:

What is the goal of my marketing campaign?
Do I want to generate revenue, increase brand awareness or intimidate my competitors?
What marketing tactics are my competitors using?
What are the direct (capital) and indirect (time) costs?
Who is going to manage the campaign?
How long will the campaign last or run?
How will I know if the campaign is working?
What do success and failure look like?
Is the campaign going to reach my target audience?

However you decide to market yourself, remember, the only silver bullets are time and consistency.

Does this conversation sound vaguely familiar?

Consultant: Your business should have a social marketing strategy.
Brand XYZ: Why?
Consultant: Because social technology will help you generate buzz, get people talking about our brand and in general help people know who you are.
Brand XYZ: Ok, but why is any of that important?
Consultant: Because you want to engage your customers and begin building relationships with them.
Brand XYZ: And why exactly do I want to build relationships with my customers?

Have you been on one or the other of this conversation?

Most communication vehicles had their turn as the shiny new marketing toy, billboards lined the horizon as cars began to venture cross country, radios gave voices to a generation and televisions brought products into homes like never imagined. By now, most businesses "get" they need some sort of social technology plan, if for no other reason than everyone else is doing it. However, remember what Mom used to say, "If your friends jumped off a bridge, would you jump to?"

Keeping the age old adage in mind, there should be solid business reasons for getting into the social space. Just as a business gives serious thought to choosing location, messaging and product delivery, so to should serious deliberation be given to social technology. It will take up resources, time, money, man power, etc. that could be used for other revenue generating activities. Is it going to be worth the effort?

To ensure your social technology efforts are yielding the expected results, you must first know what results you want from social technology. Right? Right. Begin by answering these basic questions: how is social media going to help your business and what are your objectives for your social media?*

Consider these sample objectives as you begin outlining your social marketing plan:

• Bring fresh ideas into the organization
• Create word of mouth
• Increase customer loyalty
• Increase product and brand awareness
• Enhance public relations efforts
• Lower customer acquisition costs
• Lower customer support costs
• Lower market research costs
• Lower product development costs

Nugget of knowledge: Your business objectives should be SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-based.

*Social technology may not be the right communication or marketing vehicle for your business, and that is okay.

It's time for summer vacation:

• car ready: oil changed, gassed up and washed
• clothes packed: an outfit a day, plus a couple for dress up stuff, lingerie and sundries
• entertainment (car): bag-o-fun packed with electronics, DVDs, CDs, magazines, games and extra batteries
• mail forwarded and dog at the kennel
• picnic basket packed: snacks, water and treats
• stove off, iron unplugged and alarm set
• map in hand: route planned, rest stops and best exits for food noted
• hotel reservations: made last month and confirmed yesterday via email (copies on hand)
• entertainment: amusement park tickets reserved last month and confirmed via email (copies on hand)

You're all set to go!

Think for a second...if you put that much effort into planning a vacation, wouldn't you put in the same amount of effort to planning your organization's social technology? As in the example above, proper planning helps to ensure you'll have an enjoyable vacation, with solutions and contingencies at hand for the unexpected. You should do the same thing for your business, plan, with solutions and contingencies in mind for the unexpected.

Nugget of knowledge: successful marketing campaigns are thoughtfully planned out.

Consider these steps as you begin planning:

1. Do your homework: read blogs and white papers; attend webinars, meetups and tweetups; watch videos --> learn from other's missteps and get motivated by their accomplishments


2. Begin at the end: envision success, know what it looks like --> set your goals and objectives, make sure they are realistic and set a time to reach them


3. Control your brand: capture your name in the social media space --> get your username on as many sites as possible, you will not use them all, but no one else can be you in those spaces


4. Be self aware: know your organization's history and mission, know who your customers are and where they are --> go to where your customers are


5. Get your house in order: make sure your organization is on board with adopting social technology --> who is responsible, resources allocated, social media policies and integration plan into current marketing efforts


6. Check out your competition: do a CASE study


7. Evaluate your progress: make sure you're social media is taking you where you want to go --> set benchmarks as you would for a traditional marketing campaign


8. Go for it! You will make missteps, it is okay --> do, mess up, learn...it's the evolution of success

And yes, you are there now.

Social media marketing is the shiny new toy. Everyone is doing it, trying it and seeing how to make it work for them. Your president wants you to bring in a social media expert to help the organization understand and utilize it to increase the bottom line. A good consultant will tell you it is important to listen to customers. A better consultant will show you tools to monitor what your customers are saying. A great consultant will work with you to take what you hear and use it to improve your organization, product and brand.

Consider some of these marketing insights for your brand and how to use them:

• Who are your best customers, biggest fans and most fervent defenders (brand advocates)?

Action: Reward their loyalty, invite them to be a Brand Ambassador or part of your Product Advisory Council*

• Are you marketing campaigns reinforcing your brand?

Action: Adjust your marketing strategy to support the brand promise

• Are your product development decisions based on what you hear your customers say they want?

Action: Give your customers what they are willing to pay for, not what you think they need

• Who are the movers and shakers (aka influencers) in your industry?

Action: Find your E.F. Hutton and put her/him to "work" for you

• What are your competitors doing and what do people have to say about them?

Action: Fill the gap of satisfaction for their customers

• What insights can you glean around product satisfaction, product management and product development?

Action: Start discussions to garner information

*If your organization doesn't have a loyalty program, consider implementing one.

Nugget of knowledge: Having conversations with your audience, getting to know your clients and ultimately building relationships with your customers is invaluable for long term success.

United should've listened:

Social media marketing is more than setting up a blog, updating your Facebook status and tweeting your organization's latest news. Doing those few activities are only the beginning to truly delving into social marketing. The organizations that "get it," understand the key concept of listening. They listen to their customers...all of them.

• What are your customers saying about your brand and products?
• Where are your customers saying things, which sites, platforms and technologies are they using?
• What are your customers saying to each other about your services?
• How does what they are saying about your brand compare to what they are saying about your competitors' brands?

Posting, updating, tweeting and connecting is no different than robocalling, direct mailing or advertising if you aren't listening to what your customers are saying via Twitter, Facebook, blog comments, etc. Otherwise your organization is just pushing out information you think your customers want via different channels.

Social media marketing requires listening to your customers, responding, listening, responding, listening, responding and so on and so on. Does this process sound familiar? It is called a conversation. Yes, organizations must engage their customers in conversations; it is the essence of social media marketing. However, conversations are only the beginning of the process. The goal is to develop relationships with your customers as a way to solidify brand loyalty.

A few things to remember as you begin to have conversations with your customers:

A sub-par product is a sub-par product, regardless of how wonderful your blog is --> be prepared to receive the good, bad and ugly about your brand
Once you open the listening floodgates, you can't close them --> be prepared to manage the conversations
Social media probably won't be *the* marketing silver bullet for your product --> be prepared to integrate your traditional and social marketing tactics

Nugget of knowledge: Remember the three P's, plan for success, prepare for the unexpected and produce your best work.

Is your organization a good listener?
Does it have processes in place to hear and respond to your customers?

Professional marketers have to get in touch with their inner love, peace and light...and it's all social marketing's fault.

Social technology consultants are telling traditional marketing professionals to be transparent, authentic, trustworthy and community focused. What??? Stop the presses!!!

Yes, social marketing revolves around a level of forthrightness, openness and collaboration that has been unheard of (at least not widely embraced) in the marketing profession. For years, traditional marketers controlled the brand and have cut their teeth on knowing how to deliver it to  the right audience at the right time for the right price. Marketing has been about brand management, conversion rates & conversion velocities, lead generation & close rates, paid media and surveys & focus groups. Then comes along social technology, and consultants are encouraging traditional marketers to listen AND engage with customers in public dialogue, as well as share OR relinquish control of the brand.

You mean...
You're kidding...
You want me to do what...

For some brands this is a sea change in the corporate culture, and for others, it is where they have wanted to go and didn't know how or have the capacity to do so. The key factor to keep in mind, social technology marketing and traditional marketing work together, they complement each other. As 2011 begins, it is imperative that social tools and tactics become a key component of your marketing plans, not a one-off or an add-on. It can provide marketers:

• unbiased market research: marketers should embrace customer ideas, comments and complaints; a user generated comment can be the impetus for the next great campaign;

• unique public relations opportunities: online contests are not a new idea; however, utilizing bloggers, Facebook, Twitter and niche online communities can increase awareness and participation exponentially;

• creative customer service: the ubiquitous 1-800 is still useful; listening to and monitoring online chatter about your brand is more effective as research shows most people won't congratulate or complain, consumers speak with their wallets;

• additional messaging channels: first there was the newspaper, then mail-order catalogs, radio, billboards, TV, direct mail, email and banner ads; now there are sponsored tweets, Facebook ads, Foursquare check-in specials, blog ads...and this is just paid media, imagine the possibilities for earned media;

• and out-of-the-box lead generation: all of the above efforts can lead to increased lead generation and increased sales.

Nugget of knowledge: Traditional Marketing + Social Marketing = A Successful Campaign

It's all about the search:
Brand generated content + Customer generated content = getting Found.

via elliance.com

What is Indie Business?
Indie Business is Indie Business Media, LLC, the company I own with my husband. One of our subsidiaries is the Indie Beauty Network, a trade organization that provides educational and small business networking services, and products liability insurance, for our small manufacturers of health, beauty and lifestyle products. Another subsidiary is INDIEgu, an e-commerce hub for American handmade and artisan products like soaps, candles, fragrances and confectionery goodies.

When did you start?
We launched on January 16, 2000, the day we also published our first online newsletter. Launching this business with a newsletter was the biggest and most important professional achievement of my life.

Really, launching a newsletter was momentous?
Yes, because the newsletter is one of the most fun and effective tools I use to connect with my customers and other stakeholders. It allows me to do four things that are important to me: have fun, help others, increase profitability and stay in touch with people easily and consistently.

Are these four things your priority?
Yes, in the sense that I use them to evaluate how I am doing as a business leader. If I am having fun, helping others, earning a profit and staying in touch with those whom I serve, then I am achieving my purposes as a woman and a business owner. In the case of the newsletter, for example, since I was a journalist/public relations major in college, I learned a lot about publishing. I combined this formal education with my love for the writing process, and this makes newsletter publishing not only effective, but also fun for me. Writing is professionally and personally satisfying for me, as is reaching out and connecting with other people.

Tell me about the newsletter.
The Indie Experience Newsletter is published each Monday. The tagline for the newsletter is my own personal motto, "Enjoy your life! Build your business! Have your way." It is a news, business and product resource.

How do you use media to get the word out about your business?
Connecting with and nurturing relationships with all kinds of media outlets is an integral and enjoyable part of my business. I share information and publish content that helps people, and this ultimately grows my business. I enjoy training others to use their own branded media outlets to do the same through my one-day The Media Is You training workshops. When it comes to media, I employ what I call the trifecta: passion, instincts and training. It's a part of my purpose to help others use media outlets, to discover their voice and share their passions and ideas with the world.

Nugget of knowledge: Everyone needs to be their own best media outlet.

How did you get started on our entrepreneurial journey?
I had a traditional 9-5 job and I was unfulfilled because I didn’t learn anything about myself. I was paid to perform, not to grow. I wanted to grow, and when I realized that a traditional workplace was not helping me do that, I decided to create my own workplace by launching a business that I could design to fit my life -- instead of designing my life to fit my profession. I decided I wanted my life mantra to be, “Enjoy my life! Build my business! Have my way!" So I created that for myself and my family, and now, I help others do the same.

You’ve also found another stream of income as a public speaker, what are some of the messages you share with young people when you talk with them?
This is a great question, since I'm just back from lecturing to graduate students at Georgia State University's J. Mack Robinson College of Business. I encourage young people to start a blog, to be in control of their online identity, their brand and to use technology to reflect skills, integrity, humanity, and professionalism. Young people must be careful to take control of their online personas. If they don't, future employers, business partners, spouses and children could uncover unfavorable things (true or not), which can hurt them in down the road.

"You may not be able to control what people say about you online, but if you aren't a proactive part of the conversations about you on the Internet, you're abdicating your responsibility to present the best possible reflection of yourself to the world."

What are some of the keys to your success?

• Patience: I am willing to do tiny things no one else sees in order to take the big steps that are more visible.
• Focus: I'm not trying to be all things to all people. I have a niche and I do my best to serve it.
• Faith and Family: My husband and personal faith are integral to everything I do, and everything that is done to me.
• Persistence: I don't give up. When an obstacle comes, I assess it and figure out how to go over, around, under or through it so I can achieve.
• Humility: I ask for help when I need it. This is one of the most effective ways to achieve your goals.
• Relationships: Life and business are nothing without them so I try to maintain healthy, interdependent relationships.
• Technology: I embrace it every step of the way. I use it to position myself as someone here to help, offer a service you need, and bringing value to your life.

Finally, life is a process of constant rebranding...I’m in a constant state of beta.

William T. Dillard is credited with the famous real estate quote, 'location, location, location," simply put, when it comes to real estate, location is the priority and a key to success.

Today, I'm taking credit for the soon-to-be-famous social technology quote, "conversation, conversation, conversation," simply put, when it comes to social technology, conversation is priority and a key to success.

Yes, when it comes to social technology it is all about the conversation. Not the diatribe, though it can be interesting, not the rant, though it can be entertaining and not even the meme, though it can be wickedly funny.

To be clear, a conversation is an "informal interchange of thoughts, information, etc., by spoken words; oral communication between persons; association or social intercourse..." The takeaways from the definition are "interchange of thoughts" and "communication between persons." Based on this definition a conversation requires at least two individuals who share-listen-respond-listen-share/respond-listen-and so on, and so on, and so on. There is back & forth, give & take, call & response.

As you utilize social technology platforms to establish your personal or professional brand, ask yourself these questions:

• Am I asking questions to illicit responses from my fans, friends, tweeps, connections, etc.?


• Am I participating in conversations (tweet chats, forums, discussions), offering my opinions or subject matter expertise?


• Am I only pushing out information, such as my blog posts, links, and RTs?


• Am I responding to people who ask me questions and am I doing it in a timely manner (w/in 24 hours)?


• Am I consistently engaging my communities in "interchange[s] of thoughts?"

Remember, your brand is what people think about you, so talk to them, give them something to think about.

Marketers often speak about controlling their brand, which by definition is out of their control. In the most layman of terms, a product's brand is the individual and collective thoughts and feelings of said product's customers --> the product's brand is what people think and how they feel about it.

The most marketers can hope to do is influence what their customers may think of their brands. Marketing and advertising professionals have become experts in observation, research and human behavior, allowing them to give consumers what they want, when they want it and how they want it. On the other hand, consumer's believe they have the power to get companies to create, change or discontinue products through the use of or withholding of the almighty dollar. This begs the question, who controls a product's brand? The reality is closer to marketers and consumers share brands.

Social media is causing paradigm shifts (and some mild heart attacks) because of brand transparency. This phenomenon is causing fear and trepidation in the hearts of most traditional marketers and a false sense of bravado in consumers. For marketers, consumers used to call or write letters when they had complaints. Now they can blast brands on blogs, ravage products with scathing reviews and flog your flagship endeavors on Facebook. Brands are at the mercy customers, and truth be told, they always have been. The difference is customers now have a way to express and disseminate their discontent to hundreds, thousands, even millions of others almost instantaneously. For consumers, brands can easily share their cases of consumer abuse, exaggeration and fabrication to self promotion and gain. Brands and products can now go the offensive, telling their side of the story, heading off the firestorm of consumer ire before the clouds even begin to form. And while the axiom of "the customer is always right" may have been the governing principle for 20th century customer service, seemingly the pendulum is swinging back to center, where consumers and brands share responsibility for fulfilling the brand's promise.

As marketers learn to release their brands, they gain real time engagement, communication and recognition with their customers, all of which can improve the brand as its advocates take part in its success. Companies, C-suites, agencies and public relation firms should remember, consumers chose their products and services, they want brands to succeed, and working together, they can.

Additional resources:
What is a brand?
What is a logo?