Social Media Strategy « Flint Group Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Social Media Strategy’

The Power of “Listening.” A Case of Timely Response.

By Colin N. Clarke, December 8, 2009

The appropriate starting point in any social media strategy is to establish a managed listening program where a brand or company can monitor what is being said about them. Blogs, message boards, comments sections and the myriad of social networking tools all hold potential for word of mouth harm (and good).

In a recent post I discussed the importance of managing misinformation in the digital realm, and I’ve found a wonderful example of effective “listening” to share.

In the post AOL’s SEO “Strategery,” blogger Frank Reed makes the case for why he feels the new AOL strategy will not succeed. He refers to AOL’s intentions for unique content generation and gaining ground through search engine results. Reed recalls this type of approach as creating “craptent” and cites the company Associated Content as “the master of ‘craptent’ generation for search engine gain.”

This is where the value of a “listening” program comes to bear and a perfect case for effective listening. Associated Content President Luke Beatty reviewed the blog and commented the same day, likely within hours (or minutes?) of the post going live. Beatty’s comment appears within the first 3 comments and provides an effective clarification of the Associated Content model and respectful rebuttal to the ‘craptent’ tag. And as any blogger worth his salt should do, author Frank Reed acknowledges Beatty’s comment with a respectful tip of the hat (Read the blog article and related comments here).

The point is not whether the AOL blog article is right or wrong. This point here is that Associated Content was called out in a blog and they felt was it was a misrepresentation of their brand. Quickly and efficiently, Associated Content made their counter-argument for all the world to see – and it was done in a tactful and respectful manner.

Associated Content perfectly demonstrated the importance and value of an effective listening program and the efficiency of an organized and planned approach for response. A case of social media strategy, implemented and executed perfectly.

So, if faced with a similar situation, could your business respond the same way?

Colin is a senior strategist for AadlandFlint and the Flint Group. Follow him on Twitter at @colinnclarke.

(Image: David Allison, Listening Post at Whitney Museum of Art, 2002)

Posted in AadlandFlint, Flint Group | Comments

Tags: AadlandFlint, AOL, Associated Content, Frank Reed, listening program, Luke Beatty, managing misinformation, social media listening, social media response, Social Media Strategy

If you build it they will come…will they?

By Andy Reierson, November 19, 2009

Last week I was speaking to a group of students at a college in Duluth about the different ways businesses can use social media. As I was finishing, a student asked a very important question, a question I’m confident many of you are struggling with.

His question was this, “I intern for a local company who has a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account but we don’t have any fans or followers. How do we get more people interested and engaged in our social media efforts?”

Am I right? Do you find your company in this same predicament?

Take a step back

First off, why did you jump on Facebook or open a Twitter account? Do you have a strategy or was it because you heard all of the hype and thought you needed to be there? If it’s the latter, at the minimum you may want to think about and answer these questions…

What are your goals for your social media program? Is it to gain awareness? Increase sales? Or create loyalty? Do you know who your target audience is, what social media services they use and how they use them? Do you have a plan to engage, empower and connect your followers/friends? Or are you going to use it as a message board to talk about yourself or your company? If that’s the case, use your website.

Okay, I get it…but that still doesn’t get people to “follow”, “fan” or “friend” me.

When you open a new location or add a new service, do you just sit back and hope that customers will figure it out? No, you tell people right. The same is true about your social media efforts…if you don’t let people know where you are and what you’re doing, nobody will know or care.

How do you do this? Use your website, online media, signage in stores, and/or TV and radio commercials, basically any and all different forms of media will work. The important thing is to give them a reason to join – what added value are they going to get from joining your social media program?

What companies do you connect with in social media? How did you learn about/find them? How active are you? What benefits do you receive for being a part of their social media community?

Photo courtesy of Justin Brockie.

Posted in Flint Group, WestmorelandFlint | Comments

Tags: Advertising, Conversation, Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Twitter, WestmorelandFlint

5 Question Friday with Flint Group Senior Communications Strategist Colin Clarke

By Andy Reierson, November 13, 2009

Colin Clarke sits down with me to discuss communications strategy, social media, hockey and work/family balance. He shares his insight on how he keeps up with the new developments, technologies and advancements in marketing and applying them to client work.

Posted in AadlandFlint, Flint Communications, Flint Group, Flint Interactive, HatlingFlint, SimmonsFlint, WestmorelandFlint | Comments

Tags: 5 Question Friday, AadlandFlint, Colin Clarke, Communications Strategy, Flint Group, Marketing, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, Twitter

Social Media Without the Trial and T-error

By Colin N. Clarke, November 12, 2009

The American Marketing Association – Alaska recently hosted a presentation by the Anchorage Concert Association (ACA) on its experience in using social media. ACA’s experience proves that social media provides some great opportunities, but comes with some pitfalls to watch out for as well. Here’s how your business can take advantage of social media opportunities, without the dangers of trial and error.

Strategy BEFORE tactics - A common pitfall: A business will say, “We need a Facebook page,” or “We need to do something with Twitter.” Truth is, worry about tactics LAST not first. The tools will change over time. Two years ago there was no such thing as Twitter, three years ago, no Facebook, four years ago MySpace was a HIT, but not so much anymore. Develop a strategy FIRST. The tactics that follow will then become obvious. Read Jay Baer’s article “The 7 Steps to Creating a Social Media Strategy” for more.

Establish objectives - What do you intend to accomplish with a social media strategy? Just saying you want 500 new followers or fans isn’t enough. Go deeper and establish some clear objectives. With social media you can address many areas, but define them now so you can stay on target.

- Improve the company image as being _________ (professional, caring, responsive, more…)

- Increase trial/use of our products or services

- Increase customer access to information on our company / products / services

- Increase membership / participation

- Improve customer / member communication

Budget for it - There is a common misconception that social media is FREE. Well, it isn’t. Yes, access to many tactical tools are free, but effectively employing a social media strategy that yields results requires an investment. Josh Lysne’s article, “It’s a lot of things… free is not one of them,” talks about the significant investment of TIME required to appropriately deploy a social media strategy. “You need to regularly engage your audience. You need to actively monitor what is being said. You need to review, refine and rework your engagement strategies.” All of these are vitally important and all of these require TIME – so budget for it. This may mean a new full-time position (or two) simply to execute your social media strategy, so be prepared.

Follow through - In consideration of the TIME factor mentioned above, follow through can become a pitfall and challenge for many. Social media creates an environment for audiences to engage with your brand – whether you like it or not. You need to be prepared to initiate and respond. How will your business deal with a situation that suddenly goes viral like the YouTube video “United Breaks Guitars?” It can happen at any time, but if your social media strategy is thorough, you will have a listening program and a response plan in place… AND you will have someone assigned to respond appropriately and in a timely manner.

The biggest tip of the cap to the Anchorage Concert Association is their willingness to JUMP IN. They’ve established a Facebook presence and are beginning to find their way through the social media maze. Alaska-based businesses have been a little hesitant to adopt digital communications solutions, but that is starting to change. Effective social media strategy and planning can remove the fear of trial and error and replace it with a confident approach to optimizing customer engagement and relationships.

Colin is a senior strategist for AadlandFlint and the Flint Group. Follow him on Twitter at @colinnclarke.

Image: www.freedigitalphotos.net

Posted in AadlandFlint | Comments

Tags: AadlandFlint, AMA Alaska, Anchorage Concert Association, Flint Group, Jay Baer, Josh Lysne, social media budget, social media objectives, Social Media Strategy

Web content: it’s not about you

By Phil Hunt, November 10, 2009

The web changes everything!

The most shocking thing about this idea is that it shocks at all. People in general are comfortable on the web. Interacting online is ordinary. Buying online isn’t new or unusual.

It’s the sellers among us who can’t seem to move on. We’re spending a lot of time and energy talking about the challenges of the web. But the way to effectively communicate online is actually very basic.

Stop selling and think like a buyer.

Buyer’s perspective and good communication
As a seller, your tendency is to talk about your needs: selling products or services. A customer cares about something entirely different: his or her needs.

A customer’s point of view is essential.

That’s another idea that isn’t shocking. It makes sense anywhere, not just on the web. But it’s more relevant now. Online attention spans won’t tolerate content that doesn’t speak to customer objectives. It’s easy to jump somewhere else for help.

Check out this interesting video with renowned copywriter* Herschell Gordon Lewis. He understands buyers, and the strategic value of thinking like one, better than anyone. Jump ahead to about 3:55, and watch until about 5:20, if you want to save some time.

* Interesting trivia regarding the“Godfather of Gore” title: Herschell Gordon Lewis was once a low-budget film producer and director who essentially invented the modern horror movie.

Creating content from a customer’s point of view.
As Lewis mentions in the video, an ad agency, freelance copywriter or a marketing consultant is uniquely equipped to think about a customer’s point of view and create content around it. Like the customer, outside marketing experts can’t know as much as internal staff. The strength of a good writer is his or her ability to absorb your information, and distill it down to things that the customer cares about right now.

If you don’t have a marketing expert to turn to, you can keep the following things in mind to ensure your content achieves customer objectives as well as your own:

What is the business objective?
Develop your strategy and write the content to match a specific goal.
What are the customer’s objectives?
What does the customer want to achieve online? Ensure your content helps them.
What do I have to offer the customer?
Cut down on product education and industry jargon. Instead, think about what your customers will do with your products or services. How will they benefit?

Most importantly, seek an outsider’s point of view:

Use research.
Ask your target audience about their online habits.
Find someone on the outside.
Ask anyone from outside the company to read your content. How do they react?
Try role playing.
Sit down at the computer and act like a potential customer!
Use social media.
Social media is a great opportunity to communicate on a customer’s level, because they are actually telling you what they’re thinking. Look for people to help and help them.

Has customer knowledge (or lack of it) changed your content strategy? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

Posted in Flint Communications, Flint Group | Comments

Tags: Communications Strategy, Flint Group, Interactive, Marketing, Social Media Strategy, web content strategy

Using Social Media to Elicit Customer Insights for Innovation

By Andy Reierson, November 3, 2009

Companies who have managed to survive and thrive for many years have managed to stay ahead of customer demands through research and development. With social media, doors have been opened for every company to develop a community of their best customers and gain insight that can lead to new opportunities for products and or services. A good social media strategy and program can help you form a connection with your customers that wasn’t possible even 3 years ago and can drive your ability to adapt to customer needs and wants.

Posted in AadlandFlint, Flint Communications, Flint Group, Flint Interactive, HatlingFlint, SimmonsFlint, WestmorelandFlint | Comments

Tags: consumer relationship, Conversation, Flint Group, Social Media, Social Media Strategy

How to fall in love with Twitter

By Debbie Morrison, November 2, 2009

I was first introduced to Twitter about two years ago when someone invited me to join, so I did. I took a look around, didn’t understand it, ignored it and eventually just completely forgot about it. Another year goes by and suddenly Twitter is a household name. Friends, celebrities, TV stations, businesses, you name it, are all agog about Twitter. So I decided to dust off my old account and give it another try.

I hated it.

But because so many people loved it, I was determined to figure out why. So I asked my 12 followers at the time, “what is the key to liking Twitter?” and this is what I learned:

Follow your passions – This is by far the most important thing to do. Start by searching for and following people who have like interests as you. For me, those interests include organic farming, bee keeping, cross country skiing, food, art, and anything to do with the outdoors.

Read the posts of others – Perhaps you don’t know what to say. That’s ok, because others have a lot of interesting things to say, so just enjoy the thoughts and comments that they are offering. I found that by reading what others had to say was the best way to learn how to use this tool.

Be interesting – Rather than just giving a report about what you ate for supper, share your thoughts, comments about events, photos, or links to articles that you think your followers would be interested to know. My PBJ sandwich report wasn’t nearly as interesting as the number of bee stings I got in the apiary that day.

Have conversations – If you need advice, ask your followers for help, or share your own insights with those who are seeking info that you may know. I discovered this benefit one day when I had a concern about a pest on one of my crops. I posed the question to my organic farmer friends on Twitter and instantly received some great advice – from all over the world. I also learned that there is no grey area on the issue of eating brussel sprouts, but that’s another story.

Be yourself – Relax, let your personality shine through and don’t try to force yourself to be someone different online than the person you are at home. I started to just think about my twitter posts as being a comment I would say to a friend who might be sitting right next to me. That gave me a perspective, and helped me to be, well…. just me.

When I first met Twitter, it was not love at first sight. But over the course of several months, after giving it a chance, my relationship with Twitter has begun to blossom.

Now I’m starting to fall in love with it.

xoxo,
@SapsuckerFarms

Posted in Flint Group, HatlingFlint | Comments

Tags: Advertising, Flint Group, HatlingFlint, Social Media Strategy, Twitter

5 Question Friday with Jason Baer, Social Media Consultant

By Andy Reierson, October 30, 2009

Today we ask Jason Baer, Social Media Consultant and author of AdAge Power 150 blog, Convince and Convert, 5 questions about social media, his career and life away from work. Jason provides training for our employees and insight on social media strategy for some Flint Group clients. He’s a multifaceted man who also writes a restaurant review blog with his wife entitled, Hottie and The Fatso.