His excuse was, “It wasn’t personal.”
Which made her react by demanding, “What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn’t personal to you. But it was personal to me. It’s “PERSONAL” to a lot of people. And what’s so wrong with being personal, anyway?”
“Uh…nothing,” he timidly backs down.
In triumph and in spite, she concludes, “Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal!”
The dialogue may be from the 1998 hit movie, “You’ve Got Mail,” but it applies most anywhere where business and personal issues struggle to co-exist. Of course, with the dawning of the digital age and the onslaught of virtual technologies that virtually and literally keep millions of addicted users in their bathrobes while blending both their personal lives with their business pursuits every day, there is hardly a difference anymore.
Just what is personal and not business? And what is business-only and not at all personal?
A few months ago, ESPN faced this issue after Ric Bucher, an ESPN NBA analyst, tweeted about how his company was treating Twitter (and all other social media interactions for all ESPN employees). The company’s policy was overwhelmingly restrictive, he claimed, especially since he had difficult separating his personal brand from that of the company. And who can blame him for that? Was he a sports expert before they hired him to be a sports expert or did the company make him into the sports expert he claimed to be? At the end of the day, who really cares? The company may have hired a sports expert, but what they got was a person. A whole person.
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Aside from the act of giving birth or gently succumbing to a natural death, I can think of nothing that doesn’t at least hint at one while appearing altogether entirely the other. And vice versa.
Which is both a dream and a nightmare for folks concerned with branding. Personal or otherwise, nothing is more engaging that an attractive brand. In the world of public relations, it’s easy to find examples of this. Unfortunately, in the rest of the world, it’s disturbingly easy to find good examples of bad branding just by reading the headline news.
And in these times of overlapping personal brand with business ideals, it’s important to start looking at the bundle. Because if you are a potential partner or a potential customer, you will likely want a sneak peek at the entire package before committing to anything worth keeping.
The good news is that there is a simple solution to overcome the obstacle of getting too personal. In business, in uneasy social settings, in life; the key is to remain authentic.
William Shakespeare said it best when he penned, “This above all: to thine own self be true.”
That said, here are a few rules for branding yourself in a world that doesn’t have a backspace.
1. Don’t lie.
2. Don’t be mean. Or stupid.
3. Don’t wear or say anything uncomfortable because you’ll regret it halfway through the evening and the discomfort will outweigh the benefit of putting on such a front.
4. Realize that you are human. Act human. Act humane. Make business personal.
5. When – not if – you screw up, admit it and move on. With a smile. Because even a half-assed smile is better than no smile at all.
Just ask Tiger Woods.
Jennifer Tofanelli writes jeniontherun.blogspot.com; a lifestyle blog on trendy topics, headline news and communication strategies. She offers advice and consultation to businesses, organizations and individuals on how to use social media to build relationships and deliver value. You can contact her direct to discuss freelance opportunities.
As a life long reader of fashion magazines, I use to devour their glossy ads of luxury designers. Like many, I coveted the down time to read my stack of magazines on long plane trips, or on vacation. Recently, while preparing for one of those trips, I noticed my stack seemed lighter than usual and my desire to lug those magazines less. What was going on?
I realized my fashion fix was already being satisfied on a daily basis from a variety of Facebook fan pages and Twitter followings. Many who don’t use social media assume that it is a waste of time. For me and many others, it is an efficient way to follow the things I am passionate about.
On Twitter, I follow magazines and the fashion designers themselves. Of course, I read InStyle Magazine’s Twitter feed, but beyond that I follow a few fashion blogs. One of my favorite blogs, The Glamazon Diaries has great articles on fashion trends, and tweets them to twitter followers. As an added bonus she knows what I like and often will tweet me a link about an article I might personally enjoy on her blog. InStyle or Vogue Magazine can’t engage a reader that way.
I have a handful of designers I shop at on a regular basis, and the fact that they are on Facebook and Twitter builds on my devotion to their brand. One of my favorite designers, Diane von Furstenberg, will on occasion personally tweet. I know she had never been to a basketball game until she went to a Lakers game over the holidays. In real time she posted a twitpic of herself at the game. This tweet had nothing to do with her latest design, or sale in one of her stores. But, I love her and the brand more after that tweet - it is genuine and personal.
Unfortunately, late players to the social media game are luxury brands, which is really no surprise given their sluggish and reluctant entry into offering e-commerce on their branded sites. However, Burberry has taken a different path, and is the clear leader in luxury brands that are manipulating social media. Last year they launched the site TheArtoftheTrench. The site is beautifully executed showing urban settings with all types of people wearing their signature trench coat. The site links users to their Facebook fan page. There the users can comment on the photos and even upload photos of themselves wearing a trench coat. It is their attempt to bring a younger audience to their brand by reaffirming that the trench coat is still a classic item, something a younger demographic is willing to pay more for.
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Other ways fashion brands and retailers can use social marketing tools is to communicate during a crisis. A few weeks ago the New York Times wrote a story about how an H&M store was destroying and throwing out clothes that were returned. As in many breaking news scandals, Twitter lit up with the disgust of this behavior. H&M’s U.S. twitter feed was able to respond quickly, and direct those concerned to a link that this was not their policy. This certainly calmed the crisis down with an immediate response, shortened the news cycle on this story, and potentially reduced the risk of long term damage to their brand.
As a disciple of marketing and a devotee to fashion, I get giddy thinking about all the access to engage fans through social media that fashion and retail brands now have, which helps get the ‘golden goose’ all marketers strive for – brand loyalty.
Kelly Collis Fredrick is the publisher and founder of CityShopGirl, delivering daily discounts and promotions to D.C. area retailers, restaurants, spas, specialty stores as well as ecommerce sites.
If you’re a business owner, chances are you know three letters very well: R.O.I. (Return on Investment.) It can be tough to put PR into numbers, which is why most of us work in the field. We checked out of math class when the algebra teacher started putting letters next to numbers on the chalkboard.
Online Media
We want to impress you, so we value impressions. There are many different ways to show these and many different web sites you’ll hear PR people reference. For online coverage, we’ll use Google Analytics, Quantcast, Compete and TrafficEstimate, just to name a few.
Oftentimes, these figures are compiled monthly, as in “unique monthly visitors.” If you’d like to know weekly or daily figures, those can be determined quite easily.
Now, because we are looking at a media web site, such as Forbes.com, it is tough to know if visitors actually clicked through to the article about your company’s news. That said, nothing’s guaranteed in media impressions; Forbes could have 2 million subscribers, but 1 million of them could have left town the month you were in the magazine; The Today Show could have 4 million average viewers every day, but they could have gone to work early the day that your CEO lands on a segment.
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Online reporting is a bit easier to read, as your site can trackback click-throughs. Additionally, online coverage can get re-posted via social media networks and through wires.
Print Media
Print media is still alive and kicking and its tough to judge its effect on the public. Sure, we can look at circulations, but many conversations around the world start with, “I was reading an article in/by/about…”
In print, circulations are often multiplied as a sort of “pass on” factor. For example, BusinessWeek’s circulation is 926,785, but there is a “pass on” factor to consider, as families, offices and other places of business pass magazines around. So, an agency may report it as 926,785 x 4, or 3,707,140.
Newspapers are often sent to families or offices, as well, but since they are daily and not weekly or monthly, they are often multiplied by 2.6. Each issue is thought to have a shorter shelf life. Thereby, it likely gets “passed on” less. So, the Financial Times’ circulation of 500,000 is often reported as 1,300,000.
Ad Value Equivalencies (AVE) is also not an exact science. AVEs are determined by multiplying a medium’s ad rate by the size of the placement. In print and online, this is measured in inches or quarter inches. In broadcast, this is measured by seconds or half minutes. Many people value content more than size though. For that reason, we have developed a Publicity Value Analysis, which will be discussed soon here on the Green Buzz Agency Blog.
Alison Walsh is an Experienced Public Relations and Marketing Professional. You can reach her at alisonhope.walsh@gmail.com
Happy New Year!
This year will be dominated by one theme: Location-based social networking companies. These companies allow consumers to check into physical locations and earn points, discounts, and show where nearby contacts are. Some of these companies such as FourSquare and Gowalla started gaining traction in the last quarter of 2009 and will pick up major speed on the path to monetization this year.
Picture yourself walking into Target because you blew a fuse on your hairdryer. Upon entering, a location-based social network registers that you’re in the store and offers you a discount on your cell phone. Even further, it tells you that your best friends Ben and Jerry are down the road having coffee. What started as a mundane errand has been transformed into a more fulfilling outing.
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Retail and local companies no longer need to be threatened by the digital world. There is value by partnering with online technologies that capitalize on location. Location-based social networks have the ability to put brick and mortar stores back into the online/bricks and mortar competition.
Some Location All Stars
Foursquare | 1.35M in funding | Launched in 2009*
FourSquare allows you to check into location, earn badges and discounts, and stay in contact with your friends near you.
Gowalla | 10.3M in funding | Launched in 2009*
Much like the other location-based social networking game, FourSquare, Gowalla allows you to check into locations and earn points.
*Via TechCrunch’s CrunchBase
Reasons to Leverage Location
- Immediacy. Location inherently breeds immediacy and action. If a consumer is at a location, close to a location, or close to a contact, they’re more likely to purchase (if they’re there), travel to purchase (if they’re close), or meet up to share (close to a contact). Immediacy enables actionable behavior, and actionable behavior is valuable because it provides measureable results.
- Measurable results. Using location and proximity to measure effects is easier than measuring what happens when eyeballs read a tweet. Retailers can use the location-based technologies to further understand their consumers. When consumers check into a location, data such as when consumers visit, how often they visit, and their behavior before and after they visit becomes valuable. With added incentives from brick and mortar stores partnering with these technologies, it is valuable through the information they can receive.
- Laser pointer theory. Think of the world as your company’s target – with no map, you’ll fire all over the globe and hit a fraction of your targets. This happens in business too- intentional or unintentional displaced messaging is the result of mis-firing and ill-placement. With location, companies can laser pinpoint and succeed. Misguided marketing and advertising no longer need to be the standard. Marketing and advertising are sometimes described as an art. In 2010, they become a science.
How to Leverage Location
The convergence of location-based digital companies and brick and mortar physical stores are breeding a new type of commerce – digital mortar. Surely different business models will yield different ways to capitalize on it and you can approach it from any angle. But the main outcome should always be deeper connections with your consumers and increased value from your company.
Is your company going to hop on the location bandwagon? I sure hope so. It’s going somewhere. Cheers to a new year of new places.
Sarah Merion is a senior at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. In February she departs for Buenos Aires, Argentina where she’ll study, travel, and learn about the digital culture in South America. To read more about business innovation and digital anthropology, visit SarahMerion.com or connect with her on Twitter: @sarahmerion.
Have you ever walked into the middle of a conversation and suddenly had the awkward feeling that everyone was talking about you?
Motrin has. About a year ago, they became a trending topic on Twitter when Moms, one of their key customer groups, were talking about the insensitivity the company displayed in a recent ad campaign. The consumers summed up Motrin and its use of social media this way: “They don’t get it.”
One year later, we see Motrin exerting an active presence on Twitter and other social media sites and doggedly determined to become “Part of the Conversation” rather than the “Topic of It.” But just “Being” on social media does not necessarily mean you are “Doing it Right.”
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As someone who helps companies wade into the social media waters, but do it in a way that is authentic and in alignment with their brand, I have picked up on a few red flags that I would like to pass along. I call it:
The 5 Ways to Know if You’re Using Social Media Wrong
1) Your Twitter page reads like the CNN ticker. Social media is NOT the place to post your newsfeed! That has become a staple of many homepages, where it is ideal for SEO bots that are scouring the web for updates and new content. But social media is about interaction and one-to-one contact. Nothing says “impersonal faceless corporate entity” like following your favorite brand on Twitter and receiving the Tweet “Thanks for following us. For more information, visit our website.”
2) Your company Facebook friends are also your kids’ Facebook friends. Like any marketing initiative, social media campaigns should be targeting Quality over Quantity. With more than 370 million users, chances are that you have actual customers on Facebook. A simple step many companies overlook is the proactive promotion of their social media sites to gain targeted customers and build relationships with them. Do not let it become a web-based popularity contest where every fan, follower and contact is weighted equally.
3) Your Social Media Marketing is something you’ve assigned to the Interns. Successful marketing campaigns always stem from being integrated across the company. That requires buy-in from the top down! I get very nervous when an executive tells me the company is already on “MyFace” or “SpaceBook.” Too many execs think that new technology is beneath them and refuse to take the initiative in learning what it can do for their business.
4) It Doesn’t Seem Like Your Social Media Profile is “Doing Anything.” Although social media functions in areas like SEO and PR, it is, at heart, a marketing device. And somewhere along the lines, people have forgotten that marketing’s job is to create sales. Which means that social media should be attached to business objectives! That actually generate revenue! A strong advantage of social media over traditional marketing vehicles is its built-in trackability. There are great tools out there to set goals and determine ROI on any social media marketing efforts.
5) You tried social media and it didn’t work for you. I have heard more than my share of marketers explaining, “It detracted from our messaging” or “It’s not a good fit for us.” 9 out of 9 times, what they’re really saying is they didn’t like it or understand it, they didn’t integrate it into an overall marketing campaign and they got tired or bored of it after a few half-hearted attempts. My favorite is when I later find out that the boss’ 16-year-old niece put them on Facebook. I’ll be the first to admit that for many companies, a Facebook Fanpage makes zero sense–so don’t waste your time. But you are missing valuable customer insight if you are not monitoring these powerful online conversations. Effective use of social media, like traditional media campaigns, requires an intelligent strategy tied to real world objectives, executed consistently over a long period of time.
If these all made perfect sense to you, congratulations, you are among those who “Get it” in the new media environment. If any of these sound like you or your company, I would encourage you to re-evaluate what you are doing or who you’ve put in charge of it. Like so much in life, there is more to success than just “being there.”
Shawn Butler is a campaign strategist at Relevant Social Media based in Atlanta. You can contact him at Shawn@RelevantSocialMedia.com.
