You know what I’m talking about. New media. You know, social media, social marketing, blogging, and Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc, for your company? Many have found success where many others have failed. In the corporate environment, pursuing social media marketing is a full-time job.

Corporate social networking functions require individual special skills and knowledge, plus clear corporate objectives and goals. For companies that want to get with it in social media and marketing, don’t just try a few things here and there using inexperienced resources. What you need is focus and dedication. The key is to develop a clear reason why you want to be in the blogosphere, and provide dedicated resources to achieve those goal.

Here are the minimum considerations that must exist for your social media marketing to stand any chance of making a difference. Anything less will be just a waste of your time, money and human resources.

• Establish a clear corporate social networking policy, the rules of engagement so to speak. It does not have to be detailed or elaborate, but it needs to have the basics in place. Remember this is still emerging technology.
• Create your team from enthusiastic and knowledgeable individuals. They don’t have to be your best marketers or sales persons. In fact they should not be. The key characteristics you’re looking for include: being savvy with new technology and tools, being passionate about the company, its products and services, and above all, being honest with high ethics.
• Empower and authorize team members to do what’s best for the company. If your team is knowledgeable and passionate, then they’ll do anything to ensure the best interest and protection for the company and its reputation. They are smart, and they’ll do the right things.
• Always be on the look out for opportunities to go viral, especially in support of customer-generated viral media. All you need is to be there, provide support, and maybe give a little nudge. It’s social marketing after all. Do it right and you’ll attract loyal followers.

What about corporate legal? Do you need to get their blessing all the time? Probably not. Just do what’s right. Here’s what I mean. As long as you’ve made the proper communication with legal department and addressed corporate policies from the beginning, legal may just be your best friends in the company to get your social networking job done.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

How to Build a New Media Corporate Marketing Team

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Trending topics on Twitter is a double-edged sword. It gives users instant snapshots of what the hot topics are on Twitter. At the same time it opens the floodgate for Twitter spams and misinformation. I’m all for pushing the latest and greatest tools for marketing use, but it should be done responsibly.

We all know Twitter is free (at least for now.) And because it is a social tool, interestingly, Twitter itself can potentially be destroyed by how its users use it – mass destruction so to speak. Spams and misinformation will only have negative effects on Twitter, which eventually will hurt the whole community.

So here are some tips on how to use Twitter trending topics to your benefits while maintaining your own integrity and ethics.

• Get involved in hot and active conversations.
• Stay on topic and be relevant.
• Have fun, be yourself, and help others.
• Leave self-promotions at the door (or at the keyboard.)
• Un-follow those who regularly and knowingly start and/or re-tweet spams and falsification.
• And most importantly: Don’t try to benefit from Twitter trending topics.

Share your views with a comment below.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

How to Benefit from Twitter Trending Topics and Keep Your Marketing Integrity and Ethics Too

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Updated 08-18-09. We’ve read all the buzz about using Twitter, from sources in print and online, from friends to co-workers. Do a quick search on your favorite search engine and you’ll find the latest tips on how to deploy and employ Twitter for personal and business purposes. It’s not hard to find tweeting theories, tips, tools and zillions of other advices on how to tweet successfully. What’s really lacking is a practical, realistic step-by-step guide to tweet, but I believe I’ve found one that’s easy yet detailed enough that will work with almost all things you apply to. I’m still testing it but so far it’s working great for me, and based on the process I believe it will continue to help me for a long time to come.

Like many marketers, I’ve looked for solutions for tweeting but never really found anything that sounded and looked good enough to even start. And I know many others have actually tried a few with varying degree of success, but those were never long-term successes for many reasons. This process I’ll describe here works because it’s simple, realistic and doable. There are some pretty basic ideas mentioned here, plus a few more advanced concepts. Together as a package they provide one powerful tool. So here’s the process.

1. Social network etiquette still rules. Whatever you do, do not forget the basic rules and etiquette of social network and social marketing. After all Twitter is a blogging tool and a social networking tool that you should respect while using it. Take advantage of it like you would LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace, but do not abuse.
2. It’s still all about helping others find what they need. Unlike traditional marketing (some call it “outbound marketing”,) social network has never been and will never be about you and/or your company. It’s all about contributing what you can to the social network and help other people solve their problems.
3. You must know your target social groups and customers. Assuming you have something to offer (expertise, skills or knowledge,) you need to focus on your niche and not take the shotgun approach. By focussing on your target groups you’ll be more relevant. There are plenty of tools out there to help you find people with particular interests, but one of the best ways to target a group is to tweet from both your heart and your head, consistently (see 5. below.) Over time your group will find you. It’s inbound marketing at work.
4. It’s important to apply your branding to your Twitter account. This includes your username, bio, background, etc. Use your business sense to do this, but whether this is for personal or business purpose, your brand is what you present to the world about you.
5. Start blogging, not just about what you had for lunch, but what you’re all about, what your interests are, and what you find important and useful you can pass on to others. You should know what your brand is about, and many tools are available to help you post/blog relevant topics all day long (as your time permits.) One such tool is the Google Alerts service. Also there are tools to automate posting of your content as well.
6. Find your targets to follow. Just like in any other industry, it’s all about finding and associate with people with the same interests, problems, pursuits or passions as your own. In the business world, another layer would be finding people with the same interests, problems, pursuits or passions as your business, either to give help to or get help from. In time if you have something to offer they will follow you back. And this is how you build your network. Again automation tools abounds to help you find targeted people and build your follower network.
7. Set up automation to greet new followers when they first follow you. It’s part of the social landscape, and greetings, together with your brand, are the first impressions in the social networking sphere. Be professional and never pushy. People who greet others with a sales pitch give a poor first impression.
8. Know what you want. I saved this for last but it may as well be your very first step. You must know what you want to achieve with Twitter in particular, and with social network in general. Whether it’s brand awareness, click through rates, traffic counts or whatever else is important to you, only you know this. So clearly define your goals and stay on track.

I have applied the above process successfully in conjunction with a tool called the “Twitter Traffic Machine.” It is an effective tool and process combination, and I’m applying it with great results for my clients. The Twitter Traffic Machine, and a few other similar offerings currently floating around the Internet, are getting a bad rap for what they’re trying to do as the end goal and are considered spam tools by many. My view is, of course any tool in the “wrong” hand or used irresponsibly can result in undesirable consequences. For me as a marketer, it’s a tool that I’ll take advantage of in my own ethical way.

The bottom line is, if you put this tool/process combination in your marketing toolbox and use it everyday with your other tools like SEO, SEM, direct/email marketing and ad promotion and tracking apps, then you’ll benefit from it. And like other great tools of the trade, you’ll have to really use it to benefit from it.

By the way for interesting reads on the Twitter bird and the brand, read Nils Geylen’s “The Twitter Logo, Or Is It?” and Cormac Kelly’s “The Birdie brand and the Twitter bird.” As it turns out Cormac Kelly is not making his post available online any longer, but he is very generous to allow his full post content republished here. Thanks Cormac! Find out what Cormac is up to these days, head over to Birdie Web Design.

The Birdie brand and the Twitter bird

Since I launched the Birdie site a couple of weeks back, there has been loads of great feedback, which is always appreciated, but it’s been mentioned a couple of times that the Birdie icon is similar to the Twitter bird. In this post i’ll address the comparisons and give a bit more background on the brand.

About Twitter

Twitter, for those living under a rock, is a mobile micro-blogging application. Users send and receive updates via text messages, and there are a load of third-party apps to feed updates to blogs and the like. I havn’t played with it much myself (it’s a bit too pervasive for my taste, but thats just me) but it’s a bit of a phenomenon and is widely used. Twitter have a very strong brand presence as a result.

In hindsight the comparison was always going to happen. Twitter has a lot of momentum right now, especially within the blogging and web communities, so pretty much anything with a little bird reference is going to bring Twitter to mind at the moment. Obviously this wasn’t my intention!

The origins of Birdie

A bit of context on the Birdie brand will help here. I came up with the name while I was looking at domain hacks, inspired by the social bookmarking site del.icio.us and the (really nice) Irish photo sharing site pix.ie. I started going through words that end in .ie and came across Birdie. It was perfect – memorable, personable and, in combination with the domain name, it gave me a real ‘smile in the mind’ as they say.

It all tumbled along from there really. I ran it past a few people and they liked it (and my girlfriend loved it), so I registered the name, and then the URL. (Which I couldn’t believe was still available.)

Visual Designs

I designed the logotype and decided on the colours based on nothing more than my current personal taste. The final element was an icon to fit the name.

It’s here the Twitter comparisons really come in I guess. I don’t think it’s all that similar, or at least it’s no more similar than any other vector bird. Nils Geylen has kindly provided a comparison which puts this better than I can. (Thanks Nils.) Thing is, the two birdies have very similar histories: They are from the same place.

The Twitter bird imagery, on the home page at least, is from iStockPhoto, and is mostly by Simon Oxley of idokungfoo. The Birdie, um, birdie, is taken from iStockPhoto illustrations by Freelance Bloke. Take a look at Twitter’s here and Birdie’s here.

So there you have it. It’s all very flattering to be compared to such a good brand, and though I resent the rip accusation a bit I know it’s not true. There is also quite a long story about how I got my particular icon, but it’s too long and dull to get into here. Anyway, you know what they say – there is no such thing as bad publicity!

Have a tweet tip? Share it with us.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

How to Increase Twitter Followers: Putting Twitter in Your Marketing ToolBox

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Online marketing. It’s very important to know your numbers. For marketers, especially Internet or online marketing professionals, analytics is an absolute must-have. But while your own numbers can tell you a lot about where you need to improve, looking at the wider market analysis and trends can quickly point out where the big holes are in your marketing strategy. If you’re not targeting your products or services to the 45-and-older demographics, you may be leaving a lot of cash on the table.

Here’s the problem. Many think of the younger generations as being web savvy. You know, the Gen-X and Gen-Y demographics. This is definitely true. However, the latest numbers may surprise you. In the post called “Generations Online in 2009“, Sydney Jones, Research Assistant, and Susannah Fox, Associate Director, of Pew Internet & American Life Project, reported on the latest trends of online activities of different age groups by specific activities. While you can go there and read the complete article, here are a few things online marketing professionals can take some action on immediately based on the numbers. All graphics courtesy of PewResearch.org.

Below is the definition of generations as segmented by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Internet use and email

While the younger generations (Gen-X and Gen-Y in the 18-44 age groups) dominate Internet use, older folks are actually getting more involved. At 22% (ages 45-54) and 13% (ages 55-63) for a total of 35%, older Internet users are coming on strong and are expected to continue to push this trend in the future.

There’s no surprise here as we’re really looking at the group of Boomers. With modern advancements, life expectancies continue to increase and people stay active for many years longer, further contributing to the growth of Boomers’ presence on the web.

With respect to email usage, the tendency is also similar. While the younger users prefer instant messaging, social networking, and blogging as their communications tools of choice, email are still the most popular application among older Internet users.

So without knowing these facts, many may not realize the following:

• A third of Internet users are above the age of 45. And the trend is continuing upward, not downward.
• Though the exact numbers can be argued, the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that peak earning years of U.S. male workers are now between the ages of 45 and 54 (1999 data). That’s exactly the leading group of this 35% older Internet users.
• If you’re not marketing to this group on the Internet and via emails, you’re missing out.
• The point: Don’t forget the 45-and-above demographic!

Tool for research, shopping and banking

While fully 80% of Gen-Xers continue to lead in online shopping, noted the study, the 45-and-above crowd prefer information research (mainly health care and other products), shopping and banking. And even though still trailing behind younger generations in shopping, 56% of users ages 64-72, and 47% ages 73 and older do in fact buy products online. However you look at it, these are pretty big numbers.

In the online banking segment, both Gen X and Gen Y maintain their high rate of activity to manage their day-to-day spending and finances online. And as these users grow older, they will effectively take their habits with them into the older age groups. Again

• The point: Are you prepared for the 45-and-above demographic?

Video downloads, online travel reservations and work-related research

What about these other online activities like video downloads, travel reservations and work-related research? Well an interesting trend emerges here. According to the study,

Generations on the oldest end of the spectrum also became significantly more likely than they had been two years before to download videos. Some 13% of G.I. Generation internet users (age 73+) reported downloading videos, up from 1% in 2005, and another 13% of the online Silent Generation (ages 64-72) say they download videos, up from 8% in 2005.

If one looks at these “smaller” numbers in context, they are actually huge. Considering that the Internet concept itself never existed to these age groups during most of their life, the numbers really indicate that the older folks are not only already savvy with Internet technology and communication, but their numbers are increasing as well. And again when you further consider that the younger generations are growing older all the time, you’re looking at a growing market.

• The point: You need to target for the 45-and-above demographic!

Broadband Internet Access Tripled in Oldest Groups

Let’s take a look at the broadband Internet access in the homes in the U.S.A. This is an indication of the capability of the users to do more online. It really is an enabler, because without it, user experience (or the lack of it) will always keep the users away, resulting in limited Internet use and growth.

Recent technology advancements, and more affordable price points, have helped large growth in broadband install for home use across the board (see graph below). While there was a doubling of broadband access in the home between 2005 and 2008 for many age groups, the real kicker is the tripling of broadband access in the 65-and-older group. Again absolute numbers are probably small, but the growth is phenomenal.

• The point: Go ahead and market to the older demographics. They’re well-equipped and ready for you.

So online marketers, times may be bad and the economy may not recover for a while. But if you dig deep and make an honest assessment of your online marketing goals and strategies, you may find new and untapped opportunities right in front of you in the form of the 45-and-above customers. Like in any other market groups, just make sure you understand your customers, prepare the proper and targeted marketing messages to solve the customers’ real problems and needs, and you can position your organization for growth.

Share your experience with us. All comments and feedback are welcome.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Online Marketing Success: Don’t Forget the 45-and-Older Demographic

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Updated 02-20-09. I took part in a mobile marketing campaign without realizing it until later. I just used an electronic coupon straight from my iPhone the other day. In the transaction I got what I wanted quickly and conveniently, and the merchant made a quick sale because the business took to online marketing. It’s cool, easy and simple, and I think companies will do more of it.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the restaurant Souplantation, you have to love their “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons. I must admit that we only go there when my wife finds a coupon in the mail. There are times when our cravings for soups and salads had to be overcome with some other alternative because we didn’t find a coupon that week, or didn’t have one on hand – I assured my wife that we’re not the only ones doing this.

Anyway we signed up for their Club Veg membership and now we receive special offers directly in our emails. So on a mid afternoon the other day while we were out on some errands, on a whim, she wanted to get some soups and salads. I remembered receiving something from Club Veg a few days ago, so I pulled out my iPhone, checked the email and guess what, there was a very nice looking coupon staring back at me, with bar code and everything!

Now normally you’d print the coupon out and take it with you. But I said let’s just go straight there since I wasn’t going to stop anywhere to print the darn thing to save a few bucks. I reasoned that they should be able to scan the barcode off of the iPhone if they must, or they can always key in the coupon numbers by hand. No big deal.

When presented with my electronic coupon, the guy at the register froze for a moment, then said he’ll have to check with the manager. When she came over, I showed her my coupon on my iPhone screen. She immediately approved the transaction. I paid and we were off to our table. My wife was very happy.

This is one perfect example of why mobile marketing should be in your company’s marketing mix. When executed correctly, everybody wins. The customers win with convenience, instant gratification and on-demand savings, and the merchant wins with quick sales resulting directly from their marketing campaigns targeted to customers’ real needs and demands.

I guess there is one loser in all of this mobile marketing excitement. Eventually, the U.S. Postal Service will see their business fall off even more as people find more ways to do business electronically.

Here are a few quick and easy tips to get your organization on the mobile marketing bandwagon quickly:

• Keep your message simple, relevant, timely, and take advantage of and exploit mobile behaviors. The offer and call to action must be clear. Try this quick 1-2-3 approach in your message:
  1. State what the offer is, clearly and quickly,
  2. Explain how to get the offer immediately from the mobile devices in their hands, and
  3. Suggest that they share the deal with their friends.
      
• Start with quick download or coupon offerings because they are simple and easy to implement, and satisfy the need for immediate gratification.
• Use short deadline offers to drive consumer action. Do daily deals, hourly deals, etc.
• Never take the mobile marketing medium for granted. Assuming you did the proper front-end opt-in process to ask your customers’ permission for mobile communication, you must continually respect their time and privacy, and never abuse your mobile messaging privileges.

So have you experienced or been involved in mobile marketing in some capacity, from either business or customer side? What is your favorite mobile marketing campaign you’ve seen? Share with us in the comment below.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Buy One, Get One Free Electronic Coupons: Mobile Marketing at Work

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Want to make a customer happy even before s/he becomes your customer? Make your website site navigation easy to navigate. It’s really low-cost marketing and even easier customer service.

A website’s navigation is important for several reasons. It helps visitors find information faster and more efficiently. It can also help search engines understand what you consider important on your site.

First make sure you get the basics down by making available a sitemap (a webpage on your site displaying the structure and a hierarchical listing of all important pages on your site, otherwise known as HTML sitemap) and a Sitemap (a file submitted to and utilized by major search engines to easily discover pages on your site, otherwise known as XML Sitemap.) Here are a few easy ways to ensure your navigation is user friendly:

• Create site navigation that flows naturally from general content to specific content. This means giving the readers an overview of the subject matter before showing detailed information. Do this without forcing readers to make too much effort in finding what they want, including making them click through 4, 5 or more levels down from the top. I would recommend no more than 3 levels deep in your navigation.
• Create site navigation that is not complex where all pages are linking to all other pages. If this is the case, then each page will be laden with navigation links, crowding out your real content. Practice selective linking by using keyword rich text links within your content to relevant pages when appropriate.
• Create site navigation using mostly text instead of images. Search engines especially like text content, and this will aid them in going through your site to find them. You can do your site a real disservice if you only use drop-down menus, images or animation in your navigation.
• Create site navigation with breadcrumbs links to help readers see exactly where they are on your site at any time, and to quickly go back up the navigation structure. A typical breadcrumb navigation (below) starts with a “Your Are Here:” or some other similarly user-friendly phrase, and is normally located just under your site’s navigation/header area, and above all main content.

• Create site navigation that gracefully handles errors, incorrect urls, nonexistent pages, and the ‘page not found’ faux pas. One way is to ensure these problematic pages will be taken care of by a custom 404 page. Your custom 404 page then will kindly guide readers on what to do next, including offering a list of popular links on your site, a search box to find the content, or other suggestions. In any case avoid having just the “Not found” showing, or even worse, no 404 page, leaving your readers stranded. Here’s a link to nowhere on our site which will serve up our custom 404 page.

It’s all about making it easy for visitors to find what they want. It’s no different from providing easy way for customers to find products a brick-and-mortar store. They’ll love you for it. This is low-cost marketing and easy customer service.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Give Customers What They Want: Easy Site Navigation

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How does an organization implement social media? A better question: How do you implement social media with resources at your disposal or do you go outside for help? The answer lies in who owns social media in an organization.

Ownership of social media can cross several organizational lines, at the same time it may require specialization in new sets of skills and disciplines. The line of responsibility is fuzzy at best and confusing at worst. As Jason Baer writes over at the MarketingProfs in an article called “Who Wins the Struggle for Social Media Control?” there are four combatants who may rightfully claim social media ownership. Although the article looks at the struggle between outside agencies or specialists rather than that within a company, I think the struggle is just as valid for internal departments. The 4 combatants are, in Mr. Baer’s words:

• Advertising. Because social media often requires making stuff, and can impact overall brand perception, advertising should be in charge of social media. The rising importance of video within social media also favors advertising types.
   
• Digital. Because social media is (at least for now) an online construct, the Internet marketing agencies should be in the driver’s seat. Plus, social media has major SEO implications in some cases, and most SEO is still handled by digital specialists.
   
• Public Relations. Because social media is ultimately about conversations, and is non-linear, public relations is best equipped to manage social media efforts. Especially so given the demise of traditional journalism, the importance of blogger relations, and the blurring of the lines between customer and reporter.
   
• Client. Because social media is ideally an extension and manifestation of the brand’s operations and culture, and requires near-constant vigilance and engagement, the client is best able to oversee social media. Comcast is a good example of this philosophy.

In closing the article, Mr. Baer advocates that public relations should be the gatekeeper for social media, but admits that PR still has a long way to go. To me this is a valid conclusion, but I would go a few steps further to clarify the issues and offer more realistic solutions that enable successful corporate social media thrusts.

Social media itself can have variations in definition depending whom you talk to. As Wikipedia defines it,

Social media are primarily Internet- and mobile-based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings. The term most often refers to activities that integrate technology, telecommunications and social interaction, and the construction of words, pictures, videos and audio. This interaction, and the manner in which information is presented, depends on the varied perspectives and “building” of shared meaning among communities, as people share their stories and experiences. Businesses also refer to social media as user-generated content (UGC) or consumer-generated media (CGM).

The key words to take away here are: sharing, discussing, communications, social, human beings, interaction, Internet and mobile-based, communities. Social media was clearly embraced by the public/consumer. Millions are already participating in “social media” activities as a way of life. All this while corporations are still trying to figure out how to get involved.

The answer is to keep it simple. From a corporation’s viewpoint, social media should really be part of marketing and PR, but the rules are really set by the consumers or the audiences. So you’ll need to get in the game, provide the resources to do so, and make sure you follow established rules of the game and not insist on pushing your own rules. If you’re talking about a specialty agency, then I think it’s still about marketing and PR, and the rules are still set by the consumers or the audiences. The only difference is what you want your agency to specialize in, in the same way that advertising agencies decide to specialize in print, radio, TV, Internet or a combination of these.

Either way, there is a final critical element to the answer of who owns social media in corporations: leadership. Corporate leaders must understand what social media is, what it’s for, why it can be a powerful tool, and how it can help. Alternatively, entrust it to and empower someone who understands it. This is important because only with informed knowledge comes informed decisions; deciding not to pursue social media because you don’t understand it is really an uninformed decision. Social media is already an important communication tool chosen by the consumers. Therefore it must be a part of corporate marketing and PR tools used to reach those consumers. There just is no other way.

There are still a few outstanding questions. Companies, by competitive nature, have been very aggressive in bringing messages to the consumers using whatever new communication tools to get an edge on the competition. And marketing and PR, by definition, are very creative groups of people. So why is social media, as a communication tool, not being looked at as another important tool for marketing and PR? Are we sleeping at the wheel, or what’s really holding us back? Is the social media concept so difficult to grasp that we’re still scared of it? Share your opinions and comments.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Social Media: Who in Your Organization Should Own It?

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Back in August 2008, Peter Kim blogged about “How to set an ego trap” on his beingpeterkim.com site. He received lots of feedbacks from both regular readers and the “influentials”, as Guy Kawasaki calls them.

Mr. Kim wrote, “In a nutshell, social technologies use game mechanics to get users hooked on participation.  People often get addicted to ego-stroking system feedback, until they can temper their usage (addiction?)” He gave a few examples to illustrate how well-known bloggers have used social networking for viral marketing and promotion, for both products and services. These can be read on his blog so I won’t repeat them here. For each example Mr. Kim observed some simple yet important characteristics. In one, he noted, “So why did it work?  The offer was simple.  It was personalized.” In other, “So why did it work?  The offer was limited.  It was relevant to the bloggers and their readers.” And in the third example, “Why did it work?  Game mechanics – competition and a somewhat objective comparison scale…” Mr. Kim ended the blog with the some suggestions on how to set an effective “ego trap” with your own offer:

• Keep it simple.
• Make it scarce.
• Personalize it.
• Use numbers.
• Appeal to the head…and the heart.

So now you may ask, “Ego trap or just human nature?” I would say probably both. It’s all about feeling good and important. We’re all humans, and many would agree that feeling good and important are two of human’s strongest straits – they’ve helped build empires and cause wars in our history. It’s all about self-importance. That’s why face-to-face networking works. That’s also why social networking works.

It’s no surprise we’ll use social media and networking to our benefits, and we’ll be glad to be used by the medium. So here’s a question: We’ve done face-to-face networking in older times. We’re now doing social networking in the Internet age. How do you suppose we’ll network next? Let your imagination flows.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Getting Used by Social Media Marketing?

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Most of us recognize a marketing creep when we see one. But not many are willing or equipped to deal with it.

What’s a marketing creep? Marketing creep is comparable to feature creep in web development, or design creep in engineering. In whatever name or industry, marketing, feature or design creep refers to unforeseen requests for additions and changes that are outside the project scope. Generically it can be called scope or requirement creep, but again they all mean the same thing: You’ll run into trouble if you’re not careful.

Why is this important? We all have our own way of dealing with marketing creep in a traditional marketing, but with online marketing, the problem can be much more easily compounded. New features can creep into the project at any time, therefore strict project management and control is crucial.

The fact is, features are normally agreed upon with the client and formalized in a contractual agreement at the beginning of the project. Considering today’s communication options are available in many forms including voicemail, email, text, instant messaging, even through social media channels like Twitter and others, ideas being kicked around in these remote communication methods can easily become a new, undocumented feature or requirement without a formal agreement. Over time the list grows uncontrollably and can spell trouble for your marketing project or campaign. SEO itself is especially vulnerable to feature creep.

Kevin Lee writing for Online Marketing for Marketers touches on this issue in his article “Learn How to Say No to Dumb Ideas“. He suggests to deal with the issue by paying attention to these 4 things:

Beware “Pet Projects”
There are always plenty of tasks and projects on any road map or agenda, many of them with a high likelihood of success. Otherwise those tasks and strategies wouldn’t have made it onto the roadmap (assuming the team putting the roadmap together was competent). Yet it isn’t unusual to see a strong personality on a team or outside supervisor suddenly derail a highly profitable project plan with some pet project…

Remember: You’re Being Paid For Your Expertise

Sure, saying no feels dangerous. And there’s still a decent chance that a superior or client will override your objections. In reality, once you become a search marketing professional, your opinions (backed up by experience and expertise) are what you get paid for…

Fully Analyze the Cost of Changing Directions

The question becomes how do you present your case when you think a campaign is about to go off track due to a “pet project” inserted by a well-meaning senior manager or a client. The first method that can be effective is the pros and cons discussion…

Search Engine Reps Will Never Have Your Unique Expertise

Interestingly, as a search marketing expert, your responsibilities include protecting the marketing budget and campaign from outside influences who promote projects that have a low expected return…

Jacob Gube also offers some excellent ideas in “Eight Tips on How to Manage Feature Creep” in his post over at SixRevisions.com. Based mostly from his own experience, you may find them useful below:

1. Accept that feature creep will happen.

Feature creep is a natural part of any project-based work. Acknowledging this eventuality will allow you to be prepared when it finally rears it’s ugly code-retrofitting, design-wrecking head. Anticipating unforeseen changes in your plans forces you to be more adaptable, and promotes the development of a solution that’s flexible and malleable to your client’s ever-changing needs.

2. Commit enough time to requirements-gathering.

Easy and fairly common sense. Just don’t rush the planning phase of projects.

3. Giving a hand might cost you your arm.

If you constantly give in to changes, you might be get more of them in the future. Try to set boundaries of what is and isn’t appropriate to revise, this not only prevents unneeded requests for changes, but gives the project strict quality-control guidelines.

4. Be the devil’s advocate when changes are requested.

You were hired and assigned to the project because of your knowledge and expertise. Don’t be afraid to contradict unwise feature requests by providing well-formed reasons that the project should proceed as originally planned.

5. Be task-oriented, not vision-oriented.

Be clear on what it is, exactly, you’re developing for the client. Don’t promise a grand, exciting, but ambiguous/ambitious end result.

6. Shed the “Customer is Always Right” mentality.

You, more often than not, are a more qualified judge of how things should be developed. You’re not working to get a big tip at the end. Don’t feel pressured to do something that isn’t in the job description or something you feel will lead to a less desirable end product.

7. Research before committing.

If you think the budget and timeline can handle a modification in plans, research thoroughly on what the change actually entails before committing.

8. Realize that feature creep is a two-way street.

Clients and employers aren’t (purely) evil. They don’t intend to make our jobs more difficult. Oftentimes it’s our desire to please, to prove our worth, and our perfectionist mentality that can be, in part if not equally, to blame. If feature creep happens, it’s only because we allow it to.

So how are you dealing with your own marketing creeps?
What would you do if you realize, way deep into a project, you now have a long list of features that were regretfully accepted verbally?
And what do you suggest the best ways to bring feature creep back to the negotiating table?

Share your experience with us.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

Beware the Marketing Creeps

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Over at eBizMBA there is a list of the top 30 social bookmarking sites that just went up, dated December 2008. Based on a combination of Inbound Links, Google Page Rank, Alexa Rank and U.S. traffic data from Quantcast, the list gives an relative view of who are the biggest players in this social media field.

We all know that these are real big names and many are recognizable even to the most casual Internet users. On the other hand there are many that you’ve never heard of! That’s what amazing about the list. Regardless, I must say some of these numbers are staggering! They really show how huge and popular these sites are, and how small the rest of us are. Here we go, courtesy of eBizMBA, the sites are:

1. digg.com - 382,792,751 – Inbound Links | 22,578,945 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 10,300,000 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 124 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 8
2. Yahoo!Buzz - 900,571 – Inbound Links | **128,556,575** – Compete Monthly Visitors | 2,500,000 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 1 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
3. Technorati.com - 75,306,437 – Inbound Links | 3,231,709 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 1,400,000 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 216 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 8
4. del.icio.us - 171,593,051 – Inbound Links | 1,699,128 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 1,300,000 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 248 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 8
5. Propeller.com - 997,000 – Inbound Links | 1,454,912 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 2,180,176 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 2,308 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
6. StumbleUpon.com - 19,050,177 – Inbound Links | 1,313,586 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 695,239 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 300 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 8
7. reddit.com - 45,307,577 – Inbound Links | 2,587,503 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 344,383 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 852 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
8. mixx.com - 6,175,082 – Inbound Links | 507,100 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 475,000 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 1,880 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
9. Fark.com - 11,438,723 – Inbound Links | 306,597 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 1,767,165 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 1,958 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
10. MyBlogLog.com - 1,742,265 – Inbound Links | 1,972,847 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 84,922 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 432 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
11. Slashdot.org - 13,555,035 – Inbound Links | 724,424 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 269,884 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 579 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 9
12. kaboodle.com - 100,266 – Inbound Links | 1,751,763 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 851,858 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 9,125 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
13. Bloglines.com - 50,717,948 – Inbound Links | 382,663 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 103,711 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 853 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 9
14. newsvine.com - 24,200,775 – Inbound Links | 315,857 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 203,761 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 3,977 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
15. blinklist.com - 23,770,576 – Inbound Links | 243,277 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 165,306 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 4,647 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
16. netvouz.com - 8,112,272 – Inbound Links | 75,507 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 54,325 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 15,048 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
17. clipmarks.com - 164,419 – Inbound Links | 196,107 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 147,131 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 6,740 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
18. Furl.net - 49,595,144 – Inbound Links | 148,975 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 57,547 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 4,112 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 8
19. Mister-Wong - 13,214,146 – Inbound Links | 25,416 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 3,432 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 1,889 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
20. dzone.com - 1,065,009 – Inbound Links | 100,784 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 117,897 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 5,187 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
21. ma.gnolia.com - 13,701,444 – Inbound Links | 110,662 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 32,363 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 7,454 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
22. Tailrank.com - 5,320,211 – Inbound Links | 71,563 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 35,783 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 28,920 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
23. ShoutWire.com - 168,480 – Inbound Links | 101,738 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 55,337 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 10,552 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
24. simpy.com - 13,107,730 – Inbound Links | 62,645 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 49,205 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 10,948 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 7
25. BlogMarks.net - 9,748,453 – Inbound Links | 61,740 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 28,075 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 11,880 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
26. BlueDot.us - 1,159,780 – Inbound Links | 107,717 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 60,045 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 12,072 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
27. Spurl.net - 18,628,253 – Inbound Links | 42,300 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 3,483 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 14,300 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 6
28. linkswarm.com - 150,842 – Inbound Links | 14,504 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 10,476 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 47,267 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 5
29. Spotback.com - 97,564 – Inbound Links | 42,838 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 5,037 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 42,015 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 5
30. MyBookmarks.com - 25,191 – Inbound Links | 10,934 – Compete Monthly Visitors | 7,727 – Quantcast Monthly Visitors | 108,226 – Alexa Ranking. | Page Rank: 5

By comparison, digg.com has 10.3M and Yahoo!Buzz 2.5M. Very impressive numbers and I think they will continue to grow at least for the foreseeable future, regardless of any market condition. Social bookmarking is only a subset of this whole larger social networking movement, which is probably one area that is pretty much independent of any social, market or political conditions around the world. In fact any new or extreme social changes will only serve as fuel for the social network to grow as we’ve seen it already time and again.

Despite this, many of us marketers are still struggling with this thing called social marketing. Well social marketing is here to stay, so just don’t get left behind.

So here are some questions:

What’s your favorite social bookmarking site or sites? How many of these accounts do you have? What’s the reason(s) for the multiple accounts and how do you manage them?

Do you prefer to get the news from social sites like these or from more traditional news sites?

Finally, as social networking evolves, what tools do you think will become important (or need to be developed) for us to streamline our online activities? Are there enabling technologies that we have yet been able to master? Your thoughts are welcome

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
© 2009 Marketing Autopsy Blog.

30 Largest Social Bookmarking Sites, December 2008

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