Disclaimer: This article will be divided into two sections. The first section will be more-a-less ranting about the state of the social media industry and how it affects all of us in business. The second section will be a practical look at why—despite the ranting—you shouldn’t ignore Google+ Pages. So if you don’t have a lot of time, or are sensitive to blunt and cranky ranting, skip to section two.

Why Google+ Pages Should Make You Cranky

It’s no secret that Google is competing with Facebook Pages (if you don’t know what Google Plus Pages even is, read here). Over three months ago they launched Google Plus. Before that, they gave a college go at social media integration with Google Buzz. The former is replacing the latter and the reviews have been mixed. There are strong opinions and features to back the yay’s and nay’s on both sides. It’s like the iPhone vs. Android, or Firefox vs. Chrome. No matter which way you want to slice it, from maps to email, Google wants to be the digitally institutional standard of awesome everywhere.

This frustrates me to no end.

Why? It’s just another glaring example of how fragmented the social media industry is. I don’t care what anybody says, nobody really knows the full application possibilities of social media for brands and marketing. Yes, there are pockets of geniuses that happen to stumble upon viral greatness. But anybody tells you that they’ve figured it all out is lying, selling you something, or a combination of both.

Right now, I consider Facebook, Twitter and a blog the holy trinity of social media. From there you can add options like Youtube, Four Square, Flickr, Yelp, Linkedin and all other social web offerings with their own features, functions and fickle audiences voraciously ingesting content on iPads, netbooks, smart phones and of course the desktop computer.

Coming up with an integrated strategy for all digital channels is not easy. Integration can be accomplished by anybody, but it’s not for amateurs or the faint of heart. It requires organization, discipline, and commitment. People have a hard enough time getting one digital channel optimized let alone three—or nine.

And if you’re the kind that thinks of just linking all your social media channels to distribute the same content in different forms, think again. Twitter content does not make good Facebook content and vice-versa. Not to say you can’t link for efficiency, but each channel requires a unique approach. But I digress.

Enter Google Plus Pages.

Google Plus Pages is basically the yin to Facebook’s yang. They’re intended serve the same purpose, but are very different. The primary difference being Google+ works with a concept called “circles.” This gives the user ultimate control of who gets to interact with them and how, which can be quite lacking in Facebook.

The whole “+1” function is a completely different animal to the “Like” button. For example Google’s +1 button will not automatically subscribe anyone to a brand page. Of course not. That would be too simple. Instead, Google is introducing a new button that brands or publishers can use to allow visitors to join a “circle” in one click.

I’m not going to get into how it all really works (still exploring it myself). There are plenty of great resources on the web that will teach you how to get your business up on Google+ Pages. The point is we now have yet another digital channel to manage. But what gets me even crankier is our next topic.

Why Google Plus Pages Should Not Be Ignored

First off, Google is not going away. They are an institutional monster that plans to devour all in its path on the way to universal domination. So you can either get the monster working for you, or pretend it’s not in the room while a competitor figures out how to use it against you. So with that being said, let’s look at the benefits of Google+ Pages.

Benefit 1: A Billion Searches a Day On The Top Search Engine

Google is the number one search engine. This means that whatever Google thinks is worth ranking will get ranked. Google’s relationship with Twitter is done. No more indexing tweets. Google already doesn’t index everything on Facebook and I don’t see the two getting cozy ever. Already, there are reports from the field that Google+ content is doing very well in the search engine rankings. Regardless of whether you feel this is fair practice, it’s a reality that can only be ignored at your own peril. So if you rely heavily on SEO or SEM strategies, start working on your Google+ Page right now.

Think about it. People search because they actually want to make a transaction. That can’t be said for all social media. So integrating Google Plus Pages with your search engine spending has the opportunity to catch people right at the moment of highest receptivity for a brand message or offer. This is by far the number one reason Google Plus Pages cannot be ignored.

Benefit 2: Everybody Has a Facebook Page But Not a Google+ Page

Where Google rules the realm of search, Facebook is the largest social network. However, being on Facebook is not always an advantage. You can get lost in the clutter very easily. There are pockets of social media users who are rejecting Facebook completely. Facebook is a great tool to organize people you already know and share stuff you collectively enjoy. But Google Plus is proving to be a unique opportunity to connect with people, that aren’t in your social network, based upon common interests and purpose. So if you are trying to reach a niche untapped audience, Google+ Pages seems to be the place to be in the near future.

Benefit 3: You Can’t “Buy” Fans

This is a mixed benefit. Google will not be generating any revenue from Google Plus Pages. This means you can’t technically advertise except by using Adwords. This is, in my opinion, incredibly smart on the part of the company. It keeps things honest and integrated with search. Right now, there is a lot of gamesmanship out there to drive likes, followers and subscribers. By eliminating advertising and changing the way fans can join circles, it will be interesting to see how much value a Google +1 is worth compared to a Like on Facebook. Google Plus only has 40 million users compared to Facebook’s 800 million. But that might not necessarily be a bad thing if the value is really there.

So there you have it. Google Plus Pages is definitely yet another sign of more social media fragmentation. But if you can get Google Plus Pages rocking for your brand, any crankiness will be totally worth it.

What do you think of Google Plus Pages? How has your experience been with Google Plus? Will you be migrating from Facebook or doing both? Please comment and share your perspective.

Please join the Full Frontal ROI team in welcoming Ed to our team

Related articles

• John Haydon: You Finally Have a Google Plus Business Page… Now What? (huffingtonpost.com)
• Google+ Pages; The War Hots Up (umpf.co.uk)
• 20+ Helpful Google+ Brand Page Resources for Freelancers (freelancefolder.com)

Today is a big day for the Full Frontal ROI team. We have been working tirelessly on some amazing resources to help readers take their social media measurement strategies to a whole new level. We want to make sure that we provide you with content that gives you actionable tips that you can walk away and execute and we are delivering on that promise. Here’s what released today.

Social Media Measurement Boot Camp

You’ve been asking for courses on measuring social media and we are proud to announce that we are releasing the first no-fluff social media measurement boot camp. You won’t find a bunch of information on how to gather stats on mentions and retweets. No way, that’s not how the Full Frontal ROI team rolls. This is a series of 5 courses dedicated to tying your social media strategies to financial results. Plus they come in a convenient e-book format so you don’t have to schedule time at your desk to get the information. Thanks to the convenient PDF format you can take them with you on-the-go and even read them on your mobile device, iPad, or Kindle.

Check out the Full Frontal ROI Social Media Measurement Boot Camp

“This project has been a labor of love. It was something I had been working on in my spare time, but while I was working on the white papers with HootSuite, I decided there was no better time to jointly release a full-blown course with everything a marketer needs to measure social media to the results executives care about: sales, revenue and cost. That led to over 175 pages of actionable tips that are offered in The Full Frontal ROI Social Media Measurement Boot Camp. It truly represents some of the best content we’ve ever released and I’m very proud to finally introduce the Full Frontal ROI product line.” – Nichole Kelly

Social Media Measurement White Paper Series in Partnership with HootSuite

Nichole Kelly from the Full Frontal ROI team has been working with HootSuite (affiliate link) to release a series of 5 white papers over the next few weeks. Today, the first in the series “Introduction to Social Media Measurement” released with a huge bang. These white papers provide you with tips on measuring social media down to financial goals and even include How To documents for using HootSuite to get the metrics.

Download “Introduction to Social Media Measurement”

“Marketers want to measure social media in a way that is meaningful to the organization, but unfortunately most of us aren’t metrics junkies and there isn’t a silver bullet answer. This whitepaper series is about showing marketers how they can finally tie their results to financial metrics like sales, revenue, and cost. I partnered with HootSuite on this project because my analysis of their Custom Social Analytic Reports shows that it fits with the Full Frontal ROI approach, which isn’t about giving you a pretty set of social media metrics. It’s about data that will drive better decision making in your organization.” – Nichole Kelly

Are you trying to generate brand awareness at events? Do you want to make a splash at your next tradeshow? Several brands are working to incorporate social media into their event strategies read on to see what you can learn from a couple of brands that have done it exceptionally well.

Every year that I make the trek down to my beloved Austin for SXSW I’m always on the lookout for a brand that makes an impact. As an attendee we almost expect to get lots of schwag and get pitched numerous times. It’s just part of the show and I honestly welcome it when done really well. I am encouraged by brands that think outside of the box and leave a lasting impression. This year Chevy was that brand. Let’s take a look at what they did.

Chevy Provided a Needed Service

Chevy utilized a mini promotion called “Catch a Chevy” where they had several intern-esque drivers riding in marked Chevy’s that attendees could wave down to get a ride to several desired locations. This worked because attendees “needed” transportation. Two tracks of sessions were at locations that required a shuttle to get to and the shuttles didn’t leave at scheduled times so that attendees could plan their trek. Many, like me, found themselves waiting on shuttles trying not to be late for the next session. This was brilliant because Chevy is after all selling cars, they have an inventory of them that they can use at little cost, and it gave them the opportunity to get people who may not normally check them out at a dealership actually inside their cars. Now, I think they also did this last year but I didn’t notice last year. This could have been because I didn’t go to any of the sessions that weren’t in the convention center or Hilton last year.

They Trained their Drivers on Pitching the Car

Providing a service was great, but the execution on the service was brilliant. I personally, “caught a Chevy” on three occasions during the show. Each time, I was greeted by a friendly driver who asked where I was going. After figuring out my destination the driver proceeded to welcome me and tell me to send a tweet or check in on Four Square telling my friends that “I just caught a Chevy in Car 13” or whichever car number it was. On the drive, I was extremely impressed that each driver would tell me about the type of car I was riding in and the special features the car had that I might be interested in. I rode in a Chevy Cruz 3 times.

Here’s what I remember about what I was told. The Chevy Cruz gets 35 miles to the gallon and is uber eco-friendly. It even has a special plate that runs across the bottom of the car to give better aerodynamics and increase gas mileage. It has Bluetooth capability, XM, OnStar, navigation, and optional leather seats to compete with luxury vehicles. And oh, it has a much desired USB port that is lacking in my Acura.

I noticed that the cup holders were conveniently located; the car rode nice even from the back seat and even had a little sporty feel to it. I liked it!

They Extended the Experience

Before leaving the car, I was encouraged to go to the side of the convention center where I could test drive one of several cars including the new Volt.

That was it. I welcomed the pitch because they were doing me a favor and actually remembered it because they had made my experience at SXSW more pleasurable.

Last year, I was really impressed with FourSquare’s creativity. They didn’t buy a big tradeshow claiming; hey we’re the next big thing. They used some side walk chalk outside of the show and actually played FourSquare with attendees. It provided some needed enjoyment and left their brand name on the tip of people’s tongues. They also had a super cool party with Ashton Kutcher in attendance, but the lines were too long for my tastes.

What Should they Measure

So in Full Frontal ROI style, the big question is, “did Chevy make a measurable difference.” If I were them I would compare this to traditional PR, TV, and Radio metrics. This is the list I would use.

Reach and Cost Per Impression

How many people did they reach and at what cost? This should be compared against the cost per impression of their TV and Radio spots as well as their standard public relations story. They should include mentions in stories like these in addition to Twitter and Facebook mentions.

Cost Per Engagement

Did people actually engage with the brand and at what cost? This can actually be measured with an index of engagement built on a scale from actually riders in the car, to tweet mentions, to retweets generated.

Cost Per Incremental Site Visitor

Did the experience actually drive more people to Chevy’s site? Did they look at vehicle features, etc? I would argue that they should only measure the gain in site traffic rather than total site traffic for the day, but while only directional it is interesting to see what happened to site traffic and at what cost. If they wanted to try and isolate SXSW users they could try to look at referring URLs only from social media sites as that would be the likely path.

While I don’t personally have the data, I believe if Chevy looked at these metrics they would show that this was a relatively inexpensive promotion for them that generated lower costs than their traditional advertising and PR channels.

What are your thoughts? What brands stood out for you at SXSW? How would you measure the impact? Please drop a comment and share your perspective.

Other great articles about SXSW

• Chevrolet Provides Ultimate SXSW Experience (geardiary.com)
• GM at SXSW: Blending Social Media, Branding and Real Life (prnewswire.com)
• The Over-Branding Of SXSW: How Much Is Too Much? (adage.com)

Do you need tips for managing your brand when it’s under fire? Do you want to be prepared if the unexpected happens? Are you prepared to do the unexpected when people are giving your brand a bad name? This post will give you the tips you need to manage when your “brand” hits the fan.

The Fear Factor for Crisis Response

While we never expect that our efforts will lead to a major public humiliation many companies have found themselves trying to bail water when all of the sudden something they thought would help the brand ends up leading to a slew of negative coverage. School taught us how to use “corporate communications” and “official” channels to respond to crisis when it happens. But the expectations of the audience have changed and readers want to see authenticity and genuine heartfelt responses when things go awry and unfortunately your official press release ain’t going to cut it. So how can you give them what they need and not further inflame the issue? Let’s start with where it begins.

Two Drivers of Public Relations Crisis

1. There is an unexpected third party article that throws your brand under the bus
2. Your awesome earned placement unexpectedly gets bashed in the comments section or across social channels

Do you manage comments on articles that mention your brand? If not, this is a huge missed opportunity for your firm and/or company. The comments section is truly where the action happens. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an article about a brand that has tons of comments and not a single one of them is from a representative of the brand. Why is that? You rarely see this happen on blogs, but if you look at a mainstream news site you rarely see members from the brand participating in the discussion. That my friends is a crisis in and of itself. But it’s never too late to start.

The question is, how do you know when to enter the conversation? Fortunately, for you that is a really easy one.

The Fear Factor Scale for Crisis Response

There is one guide that I use to determine whether or not a brand needs to respond to negative comments on mainstream news sites.

To figure out if you should respond ask yourself these questions

1. When I think about responding does it scare the begeezus out of me?
2. Do I break out into a sweat when I imagine my response spurring even more flame wars?
3. Do my hands start to shake when I reach for the keyboard to begin typing?
4. Have I deleted my response at least 3 times?

If you answer yes to any of these questions then you ABSOLUTELY have to respond. I believe your need to respond directly correlates to how much fear it instills in you when you consider it. If it scares the shiznit out of you then you better sit down and get to typing, now! Your brand is depending on you.

Okay so now that you realize you need to respond it doesn’t lessen the fear so here’s what you need to do.

Okay, I need to respond but how?

1. Tread lightly – the reason you were scared to respond is because you know that it could make the situation worse. You will need to read and re-read your response several times to make sure that you do not fan the flames.
2. Don’t be corporate – Avoid corporate speak at all costs. You have to sound like a human here not a PR robot.
3. Don’t respond as the brand – This is a mistake I see a lot. Don’t respond as “the brand” respond as a person representing a brand. The person has to come first here, because without the human connection you will likely make it worse.
4. Don’t cut and paste from your press release – This just further reinforces being human. If you want to point people to a press release on the subject feel free to link to it at the end of your response, but avoid responding with sound bites from your release. It makes you sound like a corporate PR robot.
5. Don’t be inflamatory –make sure that your response does not sound defensive, accusatory, or superior. You want to kill them with kindness here and don’t be scared to admit fault if it’s required. Chris Brogan had a great tip for this in his book Trust Agents (affiliate): Acknowledge, Apologize, and Act. Acknowledge their feelings, apologize…that’s it just say you are sorry with nothing disclaimers or qualifications, and tell them what you are going to do about it. Remember, this is a no BS zone so don’t think you won’t get caught if you aren’t honest with what you are going to do about it.
6. Don’t engage the “Troll” – Thank you to Scott Stratten for giving us this brilliant term to describe the person who continues to argue no matter what you say. You owe every person who expresses dissatisfaction a response, but only one. If the person comes back and continues to bash the company they are probably a troll and continuing to respond will only empower them to drag you into a quagmire of treacherous debate. Focus your time on those who are genuinely upset and that you actually have a chance of turning their displeasure around.

Choosing to respond in a crisis can be a tough choice for a brand, however the real question is what is the risk of not responding? We have to remember that every one of these articles and comments are indexed in search engines and if our company doesn’t show that we tried to do what was right and resolve the situation we are guilty by association. We have essentially said that the article or the comments are factual because for the outside world reading it, they are thinking if they weren’t accurate the brand certainly would have responded. And if the negative statements are factual or you are trying to cover something up, well you have bigger problems than worrying about whether or not to respond to comments.

What do you think? How do you know when to respond to bad press? What examples do you have of companies that suck at it? What examples do you have of companies that totally mastered it? Leave a comment and join the discussion!

I caught up with Maria Ogneva, Director of Community for Biz360 at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement. I came up with 7 questions to help take the mystery out of social media measurement.

After you watch the video leave a comment below and let me know which category Maria fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

This interview was conducted for FolkMedia.

Leave a comment below.

I caught up with Amber Naslund, Director of Community for Radian6, at South By Southwest Interactive 2010 to ask about social media measurement. I came up with 7 questions to help take the mystery out of social media measurement.

 
After you watch the video leave a comment below and let me know which category Amber fits in and why…

1) Houdini – all smoke and mirrors

2) Miami Vice – definitely trendsetting

3) CSI – Crime Scene Investigator – so smart with social media measurement that NOTHING gets by.

This interview was conducted for FolkMedia.

Leave a comment below.

The question of the day is how do you measure social media? It’s the question brimming on every marketers mind as we look at how social media will fit into our current marketing mix. Because let’s face it, if you aren’t looking at social media you might just be left in the dust. So for those of you who are trying to tackle this daunting task, I’ve put together a few tips and a social media value index model that you can use to guide you in the process.

In looking at the #smroi conversations on Twitter recently, one of the big discussions is the ongoing debate of whether or not social media will prove a positive ROI.  In addition, there are many who are using ROI to talk about value rather than an actual monetary return and it is causing confusion about the true value that social media can bring to an organization and how to explain it to stakeholders in a meaningful way.

To get started you need to develop a plan. I’m not a huge believer in the let’s try it and see what happens strategy. Not that you can’t try and see, but the trying it out should lead to a well-defined plan. There are four-steps to creating your plan.

1. Define Goals and Objectives
2. Align Strategies to Meet Goals and Objectives
3. Create Metrics to Measure Success
4. Develop Execution Plan

As I’ve said in my previous posts, I focus on three core goals. Will you use social media to retain existing customers, generate brand awareness and/or acquire new customers? For social media newcomers, I’d be very cautious about starting a social media plan geared towards acquiring new customers. This takes finesse that comes with experience and I’d wait until you’ve mastered the other two before broaching customer acquisition. Once you have determined what your goal for social media is, you can then start to align strategies with those goals, determine how you will measure if those strategies are successful, and put together a plan for execution. I’m not going to spend much time on those areas in this post, perhaps in a future post if readers are interested. Rather, I’m going to focus on how to create a model to measure success and then give you some ideas on different metrics you can use to build your model.

In order to be able to explain the value of social media to your stakeholders I prefer to use Key Performance Indicators as the term of choice.  Mainly because this is a standard term that people are familiar with and you don’t have to do a lot of explaining about what it means.

So here I’ve defined 10 Key Performance Indicators for social media and I ranked them in importance from 1 to 10. Then I assigned a weight to each ranking.

Click here for the full list. Social Media KPIs

Social Media KPIs

Social Media Monthly Worksheet

Then I took the 10 KPIs and put in metrics for how to measure them on a monthly basis. For each one I used a baseline measure of 0-1 either through doing a percent to goal or a ratio. I used a 1,000 point system to determine where I stand on each of the measure and apply the weight to determine how many points each measure received. The actual formula is (Score on 0-1 scale)*(Percent Weight*1000) to determine the number of points that indicator received for the month. To see the full worksheet click here. Social Media Value Index Worksheet

Finally, I took the sum of each KPI score as the total for the Social Media Value Index. This gives you a baseline measure for how the all of your social media activities are performing over time. The closer you get to 1,000 the better closer you are to reaching your goals.

Social Media Value Index Score

You can chose any key performance indicator that you believe adds value to the organization. You can also choose more than 10 if you like. I chose to use ROI as one of my KPIs, but on its own I don’t think it tells the whole story, which is why I developed this model. Choosing your KPIs may be the hardest part. So I’ve included some ideas of what you can measure below.

Twitter

• Number of Followers
• Number of People You Follow
• Relevance of Followers (I only follow people that are relevant and use a ratio of followers to those I follow to measure this)
• Number of Retweets
• Number of @replies to you/from you (you can do a ratio here also)
• Number of Clicks on Links Posted
• Twinfluence metrics
• Twitter Grade

Social Networks i.e. LinkedIn, Ning, FaceBook, MySpace

• Number of Connections Made
• Number of Discussions
• Number of Comments
• Number of Groups Participated In
• Level of Involvement in Groups

Video Sharing/Live Webcasts

• Number of Monthly Views/Attendees
• Monthly Average of Views/Attendees
• Number of Linkbacks to Videos

There are many more I could list here. Joe LaTona did a really nice job of providing a list to start from in his “What Are Your Social Media Goals” post.

Now that you have your plan it’s time to execute, measure, and refine!

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts on how you are measuring, suggestions you have for refining this model and what you would add to the list of possible KPIs.

If you would like a copy of the excel worksheets used to develop the model please email me at nichole@nicholekelly.com and I’ll send you a copy.

Well, yes!  But there is some real validity to the concept.  It may be defined in many ways but this is how I look at it.

Marketing Integration means that you must take activities that are currently being executed individually and work to do them in tandem ultimately with the goal of making them support one another.

Now that’s just my spin on it and I’m sure others have their own.  But why is this really important?  Well, take a minute and think about the activities that you do today within your own sales and marketing department.  Here’s my list from marketing: Brand Strategy, Brand Awareness, PR, Advertising, Lead Generation Campaigns, Lead Nurturing Campaigns, SEO, SEM, Social Media, Product Marketing, Customer Retention Programs/Campaigns, Events, and Product Demonstrations.  From the sales side of the house there’s: outbound telesales, inbound telesales, field sales visits, and relationship-building contacts. I’m sure I missed a few, but you get the point.

Pretty much every company likely does these activities regardless of the role of the person doing them or which side of the house they fall.  What I find really interesting is how many companies do NOT align these activities so they achieve a common goal. Further, how many times I’ve seen individuals steaming ahead down a path and how the other side of the house has absolutely no idea the project is even going on!  I’ll admit I’ve been guilty of this in the past.  Sometimes, you get so busy that stopping to put together yet another death by power point presentation seems daunting.  I’ll get into my thoughts on how I feel about power point presentations in another post, I suppose!

I truly believe the perception at many companies is that the entire marketing mix does in fact work together because it is the sum of all the inputs that delivers the expected output, right? Sure, but do you want to deliver the sales results you had yesterday for the next 5 years?  Or do you want to exceed projections and deliver unprecedented profitability?

Well, I sure as heck do.  And here’s how I think it can be done.  Now, I’ll admit I’ve never been allowed to actually do all of these things in tandem because someone who doesn’t get it always cuts something out.  But it’s my theory and if you want to prove it for me, AWESOME! Let me know, I’ll watch you and cheer every step of the way.  So you wanna be a rockstar?  Well I don’t know what business you’re in, so I’m just gonna call whatever you do…well, IT.

Theme It

In order for your audience to get it, and for you to be able to keep it straight internally you need to have relevant themes of what you are trying to accomplish so everyone can align themselves to support it.  Now don’t go all crazy here and drink from the cup of stupid. You need to pick no more than 4 or 5 common themes or it will get confusing.  Ideally, you could keep it to 2 or 3.  And it doesn’t really even matter what your themes are, think of them almost like secret mission code names.  Now, that could be fun couldn’t it!  So my favorite three themes are Customer Acquisition, Customer Retention, and Brand Awareness. Why?  Because they are simple and I don’t know a single company who isn’t trying to accomplish all three at any given moment in time.  If you get really good at those things, then you can get all fancy schmancy and expand.  But quite frankly, I have yet to work for a company that had mastered all three.  So, if I was going to be clever and come up with some codes names for that..hmmm…let’s see…bear with me…YES!…Here you go…I would call it…Operation Kidnap the Baby, Operation Friends in Low Places, and OperationPerez Hilton.  Now the deal is, EVERYTHING you do has to fall under one of those operations.  Now it is possible you’ll have some that straddle the fence and support multiple operations. And for some people that just sends them for a loop, they can’t throw it into a bucket and therefore it is wrong.  Well I say, I wish everything I did supported multiple objectives.  Why?  Because that is freaking integration and you can truly peg like 1,000 birds with one stone if you play your cards right.  I say peg because I’m an animal supporter, but I’m not all nutso fanatic about it and couldn’t find a cooler way to say it.  No really, it is all about the cool.  So here we go.

Promote It

How do you promote yourself today.  Yeah, that.  Do that.  Tie it into your direct mail campaigns, your web campaigns, your social media activities, your PR activities.  Everything.  See what fits together and push the issue to make them work together.  Gasp…did you say align PR with sales campaigns???  Yup, sure did.  And here’s how.  Stop using campaigns that are about your product to open the door, unless your like mega-huge and everyone wants your product.  I’ll admit, Sherwin-Williams could get away with this effectively and so can Apple and every other mega-brand out there.  But you know what, chances are…YOU can’t.  So do something that the customer finds value in and promote that. Capture their information, and then Kidnap the Baby!  Use something people care about whether it’s a free training class, e-book, chotzky or something else, and then give it to them.  Yes, give it to them FREE.  Why because we all walk around still believing that you can really get things for free.  Now, us marketers, all know that NOTHING is ever really FREE!  Because you are going to give us your information to get it, and then we are going to use it to Kidnap the Baby and afterward we’re going to tell everyone you are one of our Friends in Low Places.

Socialize It

One of my brilliant co-workers who taught me everything I know about social media, whether she knew it or not, coined that term and I totally just stole it!  You know who you are, @JessieX! So, if you are using social media then you know it’s a two-way street as I’ve mentioned before.  And as long as you haven’t upchucked your marketing messaging all over your followers then you still have followers, right!  And since they are still following you then you have done something to provide value to them.  And no, tweeting freaking article links all day doesn’t count. So tell your network what you are doing and start a conversation around it.  Do they like it, hate it, jump up and down on it, or what?  You need the feedback to do better next time, so you might as well get it from your loyal followers.

PR IT

Yeah, I know press releases are pretty much worthless pieces of space but you have to do them.  All companies have to do them.  So if you have to waste your worthless piece of space on some corporate crafted puppet-speak then make it work for you.  Don’t just send out the press release and check it off your list.  Create an optimized version of the release for your website. What does optimized mean?  Well first it means you started with a list of keywords that are relevant to your announcement and you have interwoven them in, and second it means you include links and make it easy for others to link to the page using those cool little web 2.0 linky icons.

Community IT

Do you have a community?  Yeah, I think most companies have invested a couple of dollars in some kind of community board at least.  And some have really set the standard for what community is all about.  My two cents on that starts like this.  A real community offers ways for people to connect, draw value, and find other like-minded individuals to be “friends” with and then use that opportunity to suck the information I need out of them like a Hoover. Because unless you are Mary Theresa, you’re probably a little narcissistic like the rest of us and mostly care about your own needs.  I found a great one in my research.  www.intronetworks.com The level of information they collect in their profile is truly astounding, and they do it in the coolest way I’ve ever seen.  Did I mention, it is all about the cool.  And back to the Hoover, you can use that information to profile groups of your customers into nice little common categories so you can address their needs in one fell swoop.  Now, hold on a minute.  I’m trying to see how many useless catch phrases I can throw into one post.  So count ‘em with me and throw a comment with your guess.  At some point I’ll go back and count them myself.

Rave It

Do you have people who don’t respond?  Sure all of us do.  Well make sure you tell them what they missed and then if you can turn around and give them whatever they missed it’s even better. For example, if you’re holding a webcast record it and send a link to the people who missed it, then turn around and put the video on YouTube so people who don’t come to your site have a chance of seeing it.

Support It

I read a really great two-part e-book called funnelnomics that really drove this home to me. http://is.gd/vXOC You’ve just got to stop doing things one time, or even twice and expecting some phenomenal results.  The key is to keep doing it and measuring it when you have some true data to work with.  Some of the best ideas don’t pay off the first time they are tried.

Don’t Forget About It

Make sure you put every single person into a lead funnel.  If you’re talking about your Friends in Low Places then there is a retention funnel that should exist for them.  You’re still working on Kidnapping the Baby?  Okay well you probably have some funnels for that to.  I personally, like the slow, medium and fast track. Oh, but what about Perez Hilton? We haven’t talked much about him?  Well, all of his friends go into a track to.  You should have a communication plan for all of your press outlets, your advertisers, your tradeshow associations and anyone else.  We get caught into the trap of viewing these as activities or projects that we execute.  But you have to remember that on the other end there are people.  And anytime there is a person you have an opportunity to build a relationship. And when you truly have “friends” in both high and low places who you work to equally support, the rest is history!