Sep 14, 2011 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
About the most commonly asked question on the net is how to make money,” how do I monetarise this great idea”?.
To my mind, it is the wrong question. The right one is “How do I deepen the relationship of those who are attracted by the great idea”?. When you have made the relationship worth having for the other party, it will become evident how to make money from it.
It is analogous to asking “Have you “monetarised” your telephone”? Answer: Probably not, because at least on the surface, you do not make money from it, the phone is a tool to communicate, but remove the phone system in your business for an hour, and reconsider if it is monetarised or not.
Social media is no different, it simply a means of communication, so why the never-ending question about how to monetarise Social media? Answer: Because most have not thought about it as a communication tool, a means of connection, engagement, so they default to SM as a cash register.
Sep 13, 2011 | Change, Innovation, Social Media, Strategy
Coles & Woolies are starting out to reduce the gap between their marketing practices and those of the trendsetter, Tesco in the UK.
I guess this is not surprising given they are both watching Tesco very closely, and Coles management is now dominated by ex Tesco personnel, but I wonder if Australia has the depth of Innovation capability to not just copy what others have done, but to create genuine innovation in this exploding digital space.
We appear to have taken the edge off our capability, Universities and research facilities are starved of funds, hobbled by any current political agenda, and standards do not appear to be sufficiently rigorous to test and train the very best minds we produce. This is a long term challenge, way beyond any political cycle, but in my view should be high on our agenda if we are serious as a nation about the role we play into the future. It is not just about the carbon tax (look at what Iceland is doing) or what to do with a few desperate people arriving in leaky boats, it is about how we set up our nation for the long term.
Insead Business School and the Confederation of Indian Industry have produced a credible report that ranks our performance in the all important “Innovation Stakes” at 18, better than Thailand, but behind New Zealand. Australia’s profile is on page 79.
Sep 12, 2011 | Collaboration, Communication, Social Media
Sharing “content” is the lifeblood of social media, as well as the older disciplines of collaboration, successful negotiation, leadership, even blue collar engagement on the factory floor. With a bit of tweaking the ideas contained in this post from Social Media Examiner work well in all the situations I can think of.
Humans are social animals, that is the way we function, so it should come as no surprise that sharing is an effective strategy to do everything from engaging strangers to become friends, to success in the workplace, and our cutting edge intellectual pursuits.
Sep 9, 2011 | Marketing, Small business, Social Media
A while ago I wrote a short post about QR codes, saying I thought they had the potential to change the way we think about marketing.
Subsequently I came across this post and video on the Social Media Examiner site, that adds to that view, and having seen them work at a trade show a week ago, as a means to capture information off the name tags of attendees, I am even more of the view, that here is something genuinely new, not just a refinement or divergent use of an existing technology.
An update from July 2013. QR codes seem to have stalled, the potential seen by marketers, myself enthusiasticly has not come to p[ass. This post by Marketing Charts details a report that looks at the numbers, and concludes that QR codes are perhaps a failing tool in the marketing arsenal. I for one am having a bit of trouble with the conclusion, somewhere, we have missed an opportunity.
Sep 7, 2011 | Collaboration, Communication, Customers, Marketing, Small business, Social Media
Chatting to a very successful distributor during the week at Sydney’s Fine Food trade show, he said he simply did not “get” facebook and Twitter as marketing tools. “I will wait till my 14 year old daughter gets interested in the business, and does it for me” he said, “but I guess I should be doing something, just too busy to think about it”
Pretty typical in my experience of SME’s and their relationships with social media, just something else to do, and no more time to do it in!
So here are a few thought starters, simple things to do with facebook to turn it from something else to do, to the most important tool ever put in your hands to engage with your customers.
- Change the “face” regularly, the picture on the landing page, the animation, put up some simple recipes of the day, week, or season, just make it interesting. Even Google changes their landing page almost daily, putting up some design that is topical for some reason .
- Have a page where visitors to your site can engage, you just become the facilitator. In the case of food marketers, a place to exchange recipes, cooking techniques, photos of finished dishes, and people enjoying them seems like a sensible idea.
- Make sure you have a spot where other platforms that may be of interest to visitors can be reached, allow them to add their own links to spots they like.
- Have good quality, relevant content, and make sure you keep it fresh.
- Have a range of incentives rolling through, these might be anything from samples and deals, to points type accumulation programs for a prize.
- Make giving easy. If we are talking food products here, and I am, create seasonal hampers and gift to a friend offers, a Xmas hamper delivered to a customers friend with seasons greetings will always go down well.
- Enable Q & A pages, and conversation streams. This may be on the page, or in a linked blog if the topics are a bit more serious. In the Australian food game, SME’s are struggling for survival in a retail oligopoly where housebrands are being pushed by retailers, and imports are growing on the back of the high $A. There is plenty to talk about, some of it commercial and perhaps not engaging for consumers, so keep it linked but separate and do not be afraid to tackle serious stuff, just be a bit careful.
- Be responsive to posts fans put up, engage in the conversations yourself, just don’t try to dominate it.
- Make sure you have a strong call to action, not too overtly commercial, but the point of it is ultimately to get a sale, so find creative ways of asking for the order.
- Ask for visitors ideas, views, and thoughts. Where better to test a new product idea, and do some focussed qualitative mrket research than with those already engaged.
- Watch and learn from what others are doing, the web is a great big learning experience. Social Media Examiner is one site that often puts up very useful information, here is a list of the top 10 SME sites from around the world they have just judged, some good pointers in there.
- And last of all, make it fun, and never let down someone who visits and engages!
This is all pretty easy stuff technically, it just takes time to plan, assemble the content, and make it happen. My distributor friend can probably get his 14 year old daughter to do it for fun, you don’t have to pay someone big bucks, you just need to engage in the conversation as you would over the back fence to your neighbour.
Aug 25, 2011 | Communication, Marketing, Social Media
“Old” marketing is all about a business sending its messages out to their markets, it is what we are all used to, and it is the way much of our marketing ecosystem has evolved, outbound marketing.
The “new” marketing ecosystem is all about attracting your customers, potential customers, and brand building targets to you, inbound marketing.
But is it “new”?
Not really, trade shows which have been with us forever, are largely about inbound marketing, and marketers have always been aware of the power of word of mouth, and have sought ways to harness it.
Inbound marketing is pretty powerful, as by the time a customer has come to you, the first couple of hurdles of awareness, and empathy that need to be cleared by outbound marketing before there is a chance of a sale, have been cleared by the customer before they meet you. They are willing to be engaged in the next stage of building a brand, or making a sale.
Social media, blogs, and all the exploding electronic opportunities to communicate constitute the means to embrace outbound marketing. Increasingly we are seeing research that supports the power of these “new” marketing mediums, and whilst some remain wedded to the old ways, the future is with those who innovate in the ways they communicate.
