Professional communicators and marketers often struggle when talking to internal audiences. Our job is to communicate the organization’s message. We sometimes assume that employees are a dedicated group of people, hungry for information from higher up. That assumption can get us into a lot of trouble. Here are a few ideas that may help: read more
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2011: A New Year’s Wish
When 2010 began, I received several calls from prospective clients asking about building websites. This was the obvious place to start for most people when thinking about using technology to reach their consumers. In 2011, I have a wish for our clients, existing and new. I want them to think beyond just websites in conveying their digital messages. I want our clients to think not in terms of individual tactics, but in terms of a comprehensive digital strategy.
As we work with clients we look at the entire digital ecosystem.
(dig•i •tal e•co•sis•tŭm) - Complex web of digital touch points in which your target audience interacts. Includes everything from websites to social media pages to the strategy unifying the approach. It ensures that all of your online components work cohesively together. read more
ONE Silver Bullet
Growing up, the term “silver bullet” made me think of werewolves and the Lone Ranger. As a young boy, the silver bullet concept fascinated me. It was the ONE thing you could count on to solve your biggest problem.
Some companies still ask us to create their silver bullet. They request a website or print ad to promote their products or services with the expectation of increased revenue.
The old school method of finding your audience and putting your logo in front of them simply doesn’t work anymore. There are now more options for getting your message out compared to even five years ago. It takes deeper thinking and planning to reach today’s audiences who are constantly bombarded by messages. read more
Latest Trends in Digital Marketing
November saw updates and changes for some of the big players on the Internet. These changes bring new opportunities for your digital marketing plan and strategy.
LinkedIn Company Pages
On November 1, LinkedIn began allowing users the ability to update and modify their company profile pages. Company pages allow organizations to showcase their latest career openings, services and products while receiving recommendations from current and past employees and clients. These customizable pages allow a company to add website links, blog feeds, YouTube videos and contact information. This will be an effective marketing tool for all organizations especially B2B companies. Imagine providing information about your top services in a social setting where your clients can share their experience and their testimonials for everyone to see. Read more about this new exciting feature from LinkedIn or visit JPL’s new company page to see an example.
Facebook Deals and Updated Profile Pages
Also in the beginning of November, Facebook announced a powerful new addition to its mobile application with Facebook Deals. With Facebook Deals, a marketer has the ability to reward customers with special discounts and offers when they check into a business using Facebook Places. Deals generate in-store traffic and can foster increased brand awareness and customer loyalty. The great thing about Facebook Deals is that when people check into your location, they create buzz about your business through word-of-mouth marketing that happens naturally on Facebook. I see several large chain retailers already offering Deals, and a real opportunity for local businesses taking advantage of this new digital marketing tactic. Learn more about Facebook Deals and who’s using it.
More recently, Facebook updated its profile pages. The layout of the profile pages has changed to allow for a quick overview of the user. These updated profile pages also allow you, as a user, to add more information about yourself, such as favorite sports or TV shows. With all of this new user information, Facebook Social Ads have become even more powerful with the ability to further target users based on their new updated profile information.
Google Instant Preview
Not to be outdone, Google released the latest version of its search tool this past month. Google Instant Preview offers a visual comparison of search results, allowing users to interact with the search page before clicking through. It’s as easy as hovering over the little magnifying glass next to each result to see a snapshot of a web page. This tool will make the integration of your search engine optimization efforts and your website design even more important.
Interesting Internet Stats
According to comScore, a global leader in measuring Internet activity:
- More than 16 billion searches were conducted in November 2010. Google represented 66 percent of these searches.
- 84.2 percent of the U.S. Internet audience viewed online video, with an average time per viewer of 4.5 hours over the course of the month.
- Cyber Monday surpassed $1 billion in the U.S. with a spending increase of 16 percent over 2009; it became the heaviest online shopping day in history.
The NFL – A brand at a crossroads
Recently, the NFL’s bone rattling tackling has been getting a lot of attention. The league has been handing out fines and suspensions for “overly aggressive” hits, and the sports media have been dedicating significant air time to the subject.
So what does this have to do with marketing? Everything. The NFL appears to be struggling to determine where to draw the line between clean, hard tackling, and dangerous, malicious play. The decisions they make today will potentially affect their brand long term. read more
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How to Get 100,000 Online Video Views (without using Chimpanzees)
A client recently asked me if I could help her develop a “viral video” for her large industrial parts business. I asked what she meant by “viral video” and she said she meant a video with a low production budget that gets passed around the web and seen by thousands of viewers. I joked that something from the “stupid pet tricks” genre might fit the bill, perhaps a chimpanzee spraying a kitten with a hose. I told her if we include a chimp we could get at least 100,000 views.
We then talked seriously about what is happening with video on the web because, in case you haven’t logged on in a year or so, people are watching a lot of video online. read more
Tags: Advertising, video, Viral Marketing No Comments »
Negative Ads: Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Loss
We made it! We have been released from the torrent of negative political ads that poisoned our airwaves from coast to coast.
Actually, it’s worse than that. Negative advertising taints our faith in government. When candidates and their supporters stretch, mangle and spin the truth to justify outrageous claims against their opponents, there are no winners.
Sure, someone will win the election, and we know that negative ads can work. But they leave a terrible taste in our mouths for all politicians, the winners as well as the losers. When candidates portray each other as liars, cheats, thieves and worse, how can we possibly feel good about government? read more
Tags: Advertising, Marketing No Comments »
What have you done for me lately?
Can the strength of your brand come from the longevity of your business?
No one would argue that surviving business challenges for twenty, fifty, or even a hundred years is admirable. It certainly shows the ability to make sound business decisions and the agility to evolve with the changing needs of the market. It’s not, however, a true brand differentiator. Far too often, businesses and organizations align their brands with the number of years they’ve been in business. read more
Video SEO – Optimizing Your Videos for Increased YouTube Views
Online video consumption in the U.S. has reached staggering levels. Consider these numbers reported by comScore for the month of September 2010:
- 175 million U.S. Internet users watched online video content. This represents nearly 84 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience.
- Viewers engaged in more than 5.2 billion video-viewing sessions during the course of the month with an average of 14.4 hours per viewer.
- During the month, YouTube was the top online video content property with 144.2 million monthly unique viewers. That’s nearly half of the U.S. population!
- On YouTube alone, people are watching over 2 billion videos per day which is nearly double the prime-time audience of all major U.S. TV networks combined.
- More videos are uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than the traditional television networks created in 60 years.
- By the time it takes you to finish reading this blog post (2 minutes) there will be 48 additional hours of video content uploaded to YouTube. read more
A World with 60+ Million iPhones
How does your 2011 marketing plan account for 60+ million new iPhone users?
Apple is projected to sell 60 million new iPhones in 2011. If you stacked all these phones one on top of another you would create a column 350 miles high. But of course these phones aren’t going into a gargantuan stack; they’re going into people’s pockets, into their hands, and up to their ears.
The iPhone experience will change each new owner; each feature of their phone will become their new “normal.” And normal for them will become an expectation about how they want to interact with your brand. So what exactly will the new normal be? read more