Many big businesses have begun to experiment with social media, and have dove head-first into the world of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and beyond. While others still remain traditionally skeptical of the new metrics and pull-instead-of-push approach, companies such as Southwest Airlines and Ford have proven the success of incorporating these new platforms into the company culture.
If you're wondering which big brands do it best, here are 5 big brands case studies that every marketer should know:
Southwest Airlines: Personalize your brand.
Southwest Airlines has effectively used social media to highlight what makes their company unique. From promoting a viral video of a rapping flight attendant on YouTube to informing customers of flight delays on Twitter to uploading customer photos on their blog, Southwest Airlines has developed their image into a friendly, unique, and personable brand, with which customers can build a long-lasting relationship.
Comcast: Serve your customers.
Having an issue with your television connection? Instead of listening to elevator music while on hold indefinitely, tweet about to @comcastcares. Comcast has discovered a way to respond quickly and directly to customers, especially unhappy ones. The company uses Twitter to monitor customer feedback, reactions, and complaints, and responds within minutes to not-so-favorable posts.
Ford: Resolve emerging issues.
When Ford made an internal error that involved threatening enthusiast sites with lawsuits about copyright infringement, the enraged public quickly made the situation a big deal. The saving factor emerged when Ford’s community manager clarified the story and immediately informed the public via social media. Furthermore, as the company resolved the situation, the public was informed every step of the way, preventing further confusion and frustration.
Starbucks: Request direct feedback.
“My Starbucks Idea” is the popular coffee brand’s consumer portal where customers can submit ideas and vote/comment on other’s thoughts about improving the product(s). In a company where the “experience” compensates for the high prices, it is in Starbucks’ best interest to receive feedback directly from the customers themselves. The corresponding “Ideas in Action Blog” is written by Starbucks employees and discusses ideas that are being implemented while responding to other suggestions.
Sun Microsystems: Increase company transparency.
In a world where trade secrets are protected and gaffes are hidden, Jonathan Schwartz, CEO of Sun Microsystems, publishes a CEO blog that addresses company issues and discloses business advancements. By encouraging two-way communication between the head management and employees/customers, Sun Microsystems promotes a culture of transparency and honesty, in which everyone can receive visibility into the company’s actions.
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In case you haven't noticed, MTV’s new reality show, Jersey Shore, is creating quite a stir. The latest drama occurred this week when the actual Jersey shore community, Seaside Heights, rejected the show's depiction of the seaside town claiming it portrayed the population as skimpy, rude party goers. Still, even with the controversy, this reality show about 20-something Italian Americans living in a posh beach home continues to thrive in conversation online.
If you have never been to the city of Seaside Heights in the show, it’s hard to imagine the culture being portrayed, so I can see why everyone is so curious (and why many families in the community are concerned). No matter how you feel about the show, Jersey Shore has developed a passionate niche audience and culture which has spawned a boat-load of conversations.
Since I’ve spent time living and working on the Jersey Shore, I felt qualified to share a few good marketing lessons that can be derived from MTV’s Jersey Shore phenomenon.
With that being said, I want to assure you that I don’t have orange skin or six-pack abs.
Add Some Personality To Your Marketing Mix.
I’ve heard break downs on each cast member of the show, and it didn’t take me long to realize that they stand-out because each person is a character. One even refers to himself as “The Situation." By having a distinct personality in your marketing mix, your audience will feel like they are interacting with a person, not a faceless company.
Be a Little Controversial.
I doubt anyone thinks that MTV was clueless about possible reactions to their use of the word “guido” and that video of a female cast member being punched. Though it's only been on a short time, Jersey Shore's steady stream of controversial episodes has generated a large amount of press for the show and spread the word far beyond their usual audience. While I don't suggest filming people getting punched to attract a conversation about your business (unless it's 1,000 frames per second with your coworker's permission in controlled conditions), I do think it's important to step out of the box every now and then and drum up some controversy. One of my favorite SEO/Branding bloggers, Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media does a great job of using controversy in a good way.
Capitalize On Buzz-Worthy Conversations.
In the past 3 days, I’ve received a number of emails about the Jersey Shore Name Generator and Alyssa Milano’s “Evolution: Jersey Shore” video (which is a spoof on Jersey Shore AND Dove's Campaign For Real Beauty.) In both cases, the marketing teams at Unlikely Words and Funny Or Die are capitalizing on the buzz around a current event or trend to draw in traffic. Create your own content that references the topic for your own purposes. (*cough, cough*)
Ultimately, it is hard to determine what will grab the attention of your target audience. But, when something shows up on the cultural radar, smart marketers should take a step back and analyze what they can learn from it.
Now it’s time to do more sit-ups.
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Everyday I advise a lot of folks on how to implement a web presence that can help them generate more leads and bring more traffic to their site. However, I'm discovering many businesses making the switch to Inbound Marketing still lack a vision of how their web presence or site design will work in achieving their company goals and dreams in 2010.
So how do you develop a vision for an effective web presence? It's a
great question, and let's be clear here - it certainly isn't easy.
Before you change your strategy or completely redesign your website in 2010, you should think about how you want
things to work first.
Here are what I would consider the most
pivotal pieces to develop your site around:
1. Site Optimization (SEO) - Optimization initially tends to go
hand in hand with any re-design that may be happening on your site today.
Start by thinking about what terms or keywords you want to align your company with. You're
then going to want to determine how to break out and build the pages on
your site and optimize them with your relevant keywords on an ongoing
basis.
Keep in mind that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Though your on-page SEO vision should be initially focused on the optimizing and building your site pages, also consider ongoing efforts such as how you plan to continually research keywords and
develop content in order to generate inbound links.
2. Conversion Avenues (Offers and Calls to Action) - Perhaps the
most important part of your internet marketing effort is the method by
which you actually convert leads. Your offers are the avenues that are going to attract site visitors to convert, so developing these should be a top priority. They should also have their own landing page on your site. I recommend envisioning at
least 8-10 different compelling offers which are produced in as many different media
mediums if possible.
Some free content offers you might want to consider are: informative whitepapers on your industry (as it pertains to your products), interviews industry leaders, and
webinars which offer valuable information to your audience.
It's also critically important to develop a vision around how to implement
calls to action within most site pages (certainly your product pages),
as well as within your blog posts. When you're ready to re-design your
site and incorporate some internet marketing best practices, calls to
action should be a big part of your game plan. Here are a few examples of effective calls to action to get you started.
3. Your Blog - Your blog shouldn't just be a shouting platform where you promote your own products and services. It should
incorporate and portray the spirit of your industry. Think about your
blog and where you'd like it to be in 3 years time. Picture it in your
head, draw it on paper, think about what you want your content creation
avenue to look like and feel like.
Think about the culture of your company - your products,
employees and life, and try to capture some of that in your blog, too. Imagine the types of people you want your blog to attract and encourage other writers in your company to speak directly to them on the blog.
-
Developing a vision for a web presence and internet marketing strategy is somewhat like developing a high level algorithm for a program or initially wireframing a user interface. Once you have it in place, the actual building and implementation should be much easier.
By @adrianmott - Connect with me on Twitter!
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You may have read this post title and said to yourself, “Sure, I can do that now that I have been given the special 25th hour every day to get more done.”
That is totally understandable. Whether you are a SMB (small / medium business) owner, a marketing practitioner or an internet marketing expert there is barely enough time in any day to do just what is needed without adding to your work. We get that.
Would there be value, though, in spending about 10 minutes a day that may save you time and create more business from your online efforts? Sure there is and this is how you do it. You pay some attention to the Internet marketing industry news that can help you identify an emerging trend or confirm your suspicions about a dying current practice. There is nothing worse for any business person than wasting time on something that could have been avoided with a little industry due diligence.
Here are five great reasons to make the time to follow the online / inbound marketing industry news.
- Stay ahead of your competition – Sure this makes everyone’s lists of benefits but in this case it’s even more important. The Internet marketing industry already has evidence that the SMB lags behind larger business in online capabilities in general. Since you are likely ahead of the curve already by being places like here you can further distance yourself from the pack. A little information is a powerful thing.
- Prevent wasted resources – In this current economy, it is important to ensure that your efforts are laser beam focused on areas that are forward facing and will not end in an abrupt halt. For instance, if you are spending money on paid search at Yahoo do you know when that search engine will become powered by Bing and what the changes in process, capability and cost might mean to you? Better to be informed than caught off guard.
- Become a thought leader – It’s important to understand tools and tactics in Internet marketing and social media that create business. What may be just as important is to become a thought leader in your market niche as it relates to the entire scope of how the Internet fits in the overall scheme of marketing efforts including offline. By separating yourself from other marketers in your niche, you shine a positive light on your business and company that is attractive to prospective customers.
- Network with other professionals – People who know a lot about Internet marketing are important people to know. One of the best ways to get yourself involved in the industry in a more significant way is to follow the industry pundits and comment on their blogs, etc. Hey, you do that anyway for other reasons just add this to the list. You never know what might happen.
- Drive strategy on information – While a lot of people don’t like to admit it, Internet marketing is often driven by ‘gut feel’ and a herd mentality. The more you can rise above that and apply some serious forward thinking to your Internet marketing efforts, the more dynamic and effective your efforts will be.
There are obviously many more reasons to pay attention to online / inbound marketing industry news . Whatever your reason, it is just as important to stay on top of what may be on the horizon in the industry as a whole as it is taking care of the day to day needs of your inbound marketing efforts. Make sure you keep your head up so you don’t waste time and resources.
Check back as we help you weed through another mountain of information. We’ll give you the best places to get this information and also highlight the stories that will be important to you. Oh and we may even throw in an opinion or two to keep it interesting.
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An interesting email found its way into my inbox today. The CEO of a Fortune 500 company has set up a standard reply to vendor-initiated emails or voicemails which request his time or information in pursuit of sales.
Unable to read, follow-up, or reply to the dozens of emails sent to him every week, the CEO created the standard reply (excerpts posted below) to prevent unsolicited follow-up emails and to try to provide some meaningful answers to the recipient.
Much like how TIVO has created a generation of consumers able to block advertising messages, other tools such as email filters and caller ID have created a generation of CEOs able to block out sales noise. Not wanting to ignore the messages that barraged him daily, the Fortune 500 CEO crafted a response which would spurn almost any vendor’s advances. The email was a little long, so I included just the highlights below:
The CEO Explains the Need for His Email Reply
“Please understand that I get dozens of these types of messages a week. I simply do not have time to read them, dig into them, follow-up on them, or reply to them. The most effective solution to this problem is for me to ignore the messages, which is what I usually do. This, however, is unsatisfactory for you because you never hear back, and possibly unsatisfactory for me if indeed your product would be attractive. So I have my email system send this reply back to let you know that your message was received.”
He Lists Several Ineffective Outbound Marketing Tactics
“Similarly, I find the following things difficult to deal with, so please:
- Do not send endless follow-ups.
- Do not reach out to many of us on the team.
- Do not try connect to me on some social networking site. I get too many of those requests too.
- Do not subscribe me to your newsletter. (This will eventually get all email from your company blocked; sorry.)
- Do not include attachments.
- Do not embed HTML that contacts your website.”
Some of you might be thinking, “Wait, is connecting to influential individuals on a social network considered be an ineffective Inbound Marketing strategy?” That depends. Trying to connect to someone who has not solicited your friendship/connection can be just as interruptive as cold calling someone. You want to create content that draws influential people to you on social networks. Therefore, I can understand if this particular CEO finds endless friendship requests to be annoying.
Remember, social networking sites have different intimacy levels. On Twitter, someone can follow me, but I don’t necessarily have to follow them back. I assume that this CEO must be talking about a social networking site like LinkedIN or Facebook where adding someone as a friend requires a second step or action from the recipient.
His Advice: Use Inbound Marketing To Get Found Online
“Finally, a small comment. As a customer, I find this type of approach to sales to be largely annoying to me and unproductive for you. We learn far more about what we want to purchase by searching the web, looking for customer references in blogs and forums, word of mouth, and by finding white papers on your site that concretely describe solutions to problems we are having.
I apologize that I cannot be more responsive. I do hope that this message is more helpful than no response at all. Let me reiterate that this response has nothing to do with you or your company in particular, but is simply the only way I have to deal with the volume of requests other than to ignore them all.
Thank you for your understanding.”
As we draw closer to Thanksgiving, I can’t help but be thankful for the power of Inbound Marketing. It’s so powerful a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (who is constantly blocking out messages that interrupt his work life) recommends it as the best way to grab his attention. Online search, blogging and social media have profoundly altered the way business deals are done. Are your methods in touch with this new marketing reality?
Let this email be a friendly reminder to all of us that creating meaningful content such as whitepapers, webinars, and blog posts that “concretely describe solutions to problems” is a much more effective way to get found by your customers than sending an unsolicited sales message via email.
photo by avantard
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