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

This video epitomizes what the Internet has become in the last five to seven years. Mateusz Zdziebko, the musician, has taken the ordinary and made it extraordinary by looking at it differently. Where most people see duct tape as an adhesive, he saw a musical instrument. In the same way, social media has taken the notion of community from those you can see to a global spectrum of people you may never meet and who are equally as valuable and important.

It is realm of the possible that makes the new frontier of social technology so exciting. For marketers, public relations professionals and entrepreneurs, now is the time to experiment on what can become viral, what will draw clicks to the site and how far can you push the envelope. Just as television opened up the realm of the possible in the middle of the 20th century, the social Internet has extended the reach.

Sampled Room from Mateusz Zdziebko on Vimeo.

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

Shonali, let’s begin at the beginning, what is your story?
I started my professional career as an actress.

Huh, what, you’re an actress? Who knew?
Yes, I earned my bachelor’s degree in economics and then completed a three-year program from the National School of Drama in New Delhi. I was an actress and director in India. I did mostly theater, but also some television and radio; my acting name was Shonali Ghosh. I began helping people with their public relations needs, which led me to start a business in event management and PR before I moved to the US.

[the author’s mouth hangs open as Shonali continues]

I moved to the US in 2000 after marrying an American, and he was very keen that I continue my acting career. But frankly, I’d been in the throes of the whole “drama thing” for so long, and I didn’t want to have to start at the bottom all over again in the States. Since I had some experience of PR, I started networking and found a job with a boutique PR agency in San Francisco, where we were living at the time. That was actually a terrific fit, because at the time, the agency did a lot of PR & marketing for Bay Area engagements of Broadway shows…so, in a way, I was still getting my theater “fix.” The rest is history as they say.

Now, having worked at small and large agencies, as well as in-house, I consider myself a PR agency of one. I’m not your typical agency, though, focusing solely or primarily on media relations. I like to work with individuals and organizations on their overall communication strategies.

Nugget of knowledge: My goal is to get them to understand how good communications can help them solve problems.

How have you been able to capitalize on your acting training and experience to help organizations with their communications?
Excellent question. First, part of acting is reacting, listening to your fellow cast members and reacting to them, this is where magic happens. To become a good actress, you have to listen with your eyes and your body. You have to pay attention and react to your audience as well because their reactions are not predictable. My training taught me how to be a good listener, and in turn, I’d like to think I help organizations become better listeners. Second, I learned to understand body language, which is an invaluable skill. Our tweets have body language. Word choice, capitalization, grammar and so on, comprise the body language of our tweets. Finally, I learned to project, not just my voice, but my energy. I leaned how to interact with an audience and bring them into the story we were telling.

Nugget of knowledge: This is key for organizations, as they have to capture and hold an audience’s attention with stories about products and services. It’s about my clients first, not me.

How did you begin your virtual life?
I began slowly with Twitter. I followed people I knew and respected in real life. My “tipping point” came after the terrorist attack in Mumbai, where I was anxiously trying to find out how my friends and family were. When the attacks started, there was nothing on TV here in the US. So I found news feeds from Indian television online and started sharing what I was seeing, or “secondary reporting” via tweets. I became immersed in it over those days; I remember it was Thanksgiving, and I pretty much spent it in front of my laptop and then the TV, when they started reporting on it here. And as you know, once you start, you can’t stop. Twitter is tough to understand until you actually do it. It was my comfort level with Twitter that led to my blogging.

Speaking of which, your blog is Waxing UnLyrical, how do you maintain it with everything else you’re involved in?*
It is difficult to get one’s head around blogging if one hasn’t done it before, and I’m trying to get better at it. I was hesitant at first, thinking like a lot of beginner bloggers, “why would anyone want to read my blog?” But as I got comfortable on Twitter, I realized that I often wanted to share opinions that needed more than 140 characters, and felt more and more compelled to turn to the medium. I jumped in at the start of 2009 and am trying to find ways to make it engaging, entertaining and enjoyable.

One advantage is that it’s a personal blog, so I write about whatever I want. Initially, I took this all over the place, even sharing recipes that I developed (I love to cook), but as I’ve been reading and learning more—I subscribe to quite a variety of different blogs to see what I can learn from them—I’m trying to focus it more and more on PR, social media and related topics. But there’s still a personal voice, I think, which I would not want to let go of, if I can help it. The other thing I’ve started doing recently is bringing on regular guest bloggers. This helps with the regularity of content and it also helps keep the blog fresh.

Is this a personal pay-it-forward plan?
You can say that, my first blog post was for Communication Overtones, by Kami Watson Huyse, APR, aka @kamichat. She really gave me the confidence to start writing; I mean, I’ve always been a decent writer, but not having written consistently for a while, I was intimidated by some of the blogging I saw. I still am, but a little less scared now, and I want to give that same opportunity to other bloggers.

Since so many people helped me get started, I figured that if I can help someone find their voice, then I want to do it.

*For those who don’t know Shonali, she is an adjunct faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University, the current president of the International Association of Business Communicator’s DC Metro chapter, managing editor for Women Grow Business, contributor to BNET.com, an entrepreneur, public speaker and last, and certainly not least, a wife.

On Thursday October 28th, Network Solutions hosted a Twitter chat, You Don't Have to be BIG to Get Media Attention: PR Tips for Your Small Business. PR expert Shonali Burke (this week’s Awesomely Fantabulous Woman) and Washington Business Journal blogger Jennifer Nycz-Conner, along with the collective brilliance of the Twitterverse, shared valuable information on how small businesses can generate buzz about their organizations, products and services.

Below are some of the edited nuggets of knowledge from the chat. The complete stream is found at #netsol.

Where do I start with my public relations strategy?
@Shonali: Far too often we focus on PR tools & tactics without laying a foundation to tell a good story. That should be #1.
@Shonali (cont): I wrote this for @ownersonly recently: first lay the PR foundation for your biz: Three Keys to Laying a Strong PR Foundation
@CathyWebSavvyPR : PR strategy starts with goals - what do you want to accomplish, who is your audience, etc.
@ShannonRenee: [PR] strategy is like planning a road trip, gas up car, get snacks, map out direction, hotels, sites along way...then hit the road

What makes a story newsworthy?
@WBJonline: Newsworthiness comes down to one thing: News.
@WBJonline: For us, news means: Something new. Something different. Some big change that our readers will want to know about to run their biz.
@WBJonline: For #WBJ, news can be company A buys company B, or trend X is happening here.
@Susan_w: News = change or controversy!
@WBJonline: Also, exclusivity is important. By the time a press release goes out, it's no longer new news usually.
@CathyWebSavvyPR: A story's next steps are matching it 2 the right publication & writer & crafting it 2 meet needs of their readers
@WBJonline: Timeliness is key, too. We used to have weekly deadlines. Those are now daily, hourly.
@Baskervill: news is anything that is of interest to your audience

How can I get the media’s attention?
@WBJonline: Get our attention by knowing what we care about on behalf of audience and when we need it.
@Shonali: Remember the media are getting pitched a ton of stuff all the time. If you start using [social media] smartly, you can use that to get attn.
@CathyWebSavvyPR: PR is not about getting "THE MEDIA'S" Attn - but about finding the right media outlets that match your audience & theirs
@WBJonline: Getting media's attention is like anticipating client needs.
@Baskervill: You need to build a relationship with the media prior to submitting to their publication.
@WBJonline: Know what we're looking for. In the #WBJ case, we write stories about local businesses. Don't pitch non-local companies w/o DC tie.
@WBJonline: What does get our attention: Good, targeted, short pitches with exclusive info.
@WBJonline: Example: "Company A is about to hire 150 people because they landed client X. Would you like to know more?"

How do I dertermine what outlets would be interested in my story?
@WBJonline: I know this sounds totally obvious, but read them. Know what we have written.
@WBJonline: Oh! And don't, for the love of everything, try to interest us by telling us a competitor wrote about you. Please. Please.
@WBJonline: Nothing makes my eyes glaze over faster than "XYZ publication just wrote about us, so you should too."
@WBJonline: When someone else has written the story, it's no longer news. (See A2)
@Shonali: No way around it, gotta do your research. Learn who the media/bloggers are that are important to you/your biz. Local + national.
@Shonali (cont): there are several databases you can subscribe to to build media/blogger lists. Note: they are usually not cheap.
@Baskervill: You have to research the publication. You can't send a press release to everyone.
@Baskervill (cont): It needs to be specific to that audience
@Shonali: When you're doing your media research, CRITICAL to find out more than name/contact. What are they interested in? Recent stories?
@scottstead: great resource for getting ur story in front of reporters, is be a source
@Baskervill: You have to remember that the journalist is more than an email address to send a release to.
@WBJonline: Re: Best time to contact: Deadlines, in a way, are dead. We're all publishing around the clock.
@WBJonline: Best thing to do is pitch short, bulleted, and if on phone, ask if it's a good time.
@WBJonline: Also, when pitching, keep in mind newsrooms are small, open spaces. If you pitch my colleague, and then me right after, I know.
@WBJonline: This is off Q, but something a lot of people don't know: Skip the attachments. Please. Keep emails short and attach free.
@WBJonline: Don't worry about making releases pretty. Just get us a few lines of text with the important why we care stuff first.
@WBJonline: Being a source doesn't always mean revealing a massive story, or even talking about yourself.
@WBJonline: Some of the best sources just call and say, hey, did you hear about XYZ... Or, I heard this thing is happening, did you know?

These are some of the other questions posed during the chat, along with resources:

What online tools can I use for public relations for my business?
Using Online Smarts to Become a Media Source

What are the best strategies & tactics for blogger relations?
The 5 C’s of Blogger Relations

Moving forward, How do I make a plan/set goals for PR for my small biz?
STACK the Deck in Your Favor

Social technology is fantastic!

It has made ways for you to connect, link, friend, fan, like and follow people, causes, organizations and brands around the world. People who would have otherwise never met have established business and personal relationships via social technology. However, getting to know someone, even a organization or a brand, online is only the beginning. It is "social" technology, meaning you eventually have to come from behind the computer screen.

To that end, meetup.com is a great tool that uses a social platform to facilitate people meeting in real life. There are people, places and things for you to discover and explore, and meetup.com helps you do it in geek-fashion. The first video shows you the "what" and "how" and the second video shows you the "why" of meetup.

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.