Social Media | Marketing Muse

Get your Groupon, or not?

February 25th, 2010

In some circles, the notion of a coupon is a wonderful idea, and people can share and share on the deals they have found. In others, a coupon would never find its way in to a conversation. Groupon (Indianapolis) is finding its way in to conversations with the same love/hate tone.

Group is a relatively new web-based marketing tool to reach new clients, and possibly unengaged past clients, to take action on your offer. Think coupon, but with a twist. The offer works simply enough. As a small business owner, you’re able to make an offer or discount for a certain value. This part works like a coupon. The twist is that you also get to determine how many people you want or need to take advantage of that offer before you will actually release it as an offer.

Let’s take an offer from this week as an example. Source Yoga Studio offered three yoga sessions and an hour massage for $35. In order for this offer to become active, Source Yoga Studio determined they needed 35 people to take advantage of this offer. Once the 35^th person said yes, I will buy this offer, the other 34 people who already said yes, I will buy this offer, get activated and thus you have your offer. As you can see with this twist, had 35 people not found this offer valuable, one of two things can happen: 1) the people who did find it valuable may want to invite their friends to take advantage of the offer, therefore getting to that 35 number, or 2) the offer would have never activated due to lack of interest.

This video from Groupon is a great visual explanation:

Learn How Groupon Works! from The Point on Vimeo.

This is definitely a marketing medium to consider for your product or service. It is a trend in the making! This is also a low-budget and low cost way to market your company to get new leads and clients. The learning curve is minimal, especially if you match this up with other social media means you may be considering in your marketing mix, and trial and error is easy to test and adjust.

Stay tuned for more info on this as we are currently working with a client on their Groupon offer. Have you used Groupon? Pleaes share your experience in our comments section.

Raquel Richardson

business smarts, marketing, social media

advertising, branding, Groupon, local business, marketing, social media

no comments

Big, fabulous ideas you take and use how you like.

Raquel Richardson

branding, marketing, social media

no comments

Catch Jeff Heinzmann on Silver Square's Intimate Invasion

Update Your Profile Picture Across Multiple Websites All At Once

February 19th, 2010

I visited a social network this morning that I haven’t been to in almost three months. I wasn’t surprised to see that it still had an old picture of me on my profile. I thought I had updated my picture on all my social media networks a while ago, but this wasn’t a network that I go to a lot. It did get me curious, though, so I checked some of my other profiles. It turns out I only thought I updated all my online avatars with that new photo. More than half still had my old photo up.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I could update my photo in one place and have it updated everywhere? I think so, and the folks at Gravatar agree. They’ve created a central repository where you can upload photos of yourself.

Then any social network or other website that uses Gravatar doesn’t need to ask you to upload a photo. They can look at the email address you used to sign up and pull the image straight from Gravatar. So when you update your Gravatar photo, it automatically updates your photo on every site that uses Gravatar. Makes life a lot easier.

Who uses Gravatar?

I’d love to tell you that Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIN all use the Gravatar protocol. They don’t. If you want to update your photo on these sites, you have to go to each one individually and upload an image.

Most of the action that Gravatar gets is on blogs like this one. That’s right. If you create a Gravatar account (it’s free) and leave a comment on this post, your picture will show up right next to your comment. It will also show up on comments you leave on thousands (if not tens of thousands) of other blogs.

What if you leave a comment and you don’t have a Gravatar? Nothing breaks. You’ll just have a non-descript gray icon that looks vaguely like a human being. I find that when I’m reading a blog post with a long list of comments, the ones with a unique image next to them tend to catch my eye.

Why doesn’t every site use Gravatar?

My first guess is that they want to allow you to be unique on their site. You might put a casual photo of yourself on Facebook and a more professional photo of yourself on LinkedIN. I prefer to have one photo that works in a professional or casual context, but maybe I’m in the minority.

Clay Mabbitt

social media, web

blogging, facebook, linkedin, social media, social networks, twitter

2 Comments

How to use Twitter in Sales

February 14th, 2010

We talk a lot about how your marketing and sales must mesh together well. In fact, this month on the 25th, we have a workshop to help you align marketing and sales. Likewise, we talk a lot about Twitter (you can follow me @silversquare if you’re not already). So, I thought it would only be appropriate to give you some tips on using Twitter for your sales effort. Here are some easy places to start thinking about how Twitter can help you sell.

Research. Yep, I love using Twitter for research. I use it for sales, personal, marketing, business advice. I use Twitter more often for research than I do google. The minimal effort of deciding if I want to read more (ah, the true beauty of 140 characters or less!) before hitting a link is great. The fact that just about everything is recent and relevant to what’s happening in the world right now is even better.
Industry news. I have admitted I am a news junkie, but Twitter makes it a lot easier to stay up on what trends are taking place in my industry, or a client’s industry I’m monitoring for them, or, an industry I’m trying to break in to. We all know knowledge is power. Take that power in small, relevant doses and who knows where you’ll go.
Best time to call. Oh yes. Once you start following people, you’ll learn where they are traveling, what time of the day they are most often on Twitter, i.e. what time they may be at their office in front of their computer, and if they will attend or be somewhere you can connect with them or share in an experience. Learn about your prospect, professionally and personally.
Job change. I recently learned of a friend’s super big job change from Twitter. It’s where they decided to put the news. I also see what other friends and clients are jumping around from place to place. I have worked with clients as they have moved from business to business, so keeping up on where they are and what new needs they may have is important.

I’m sure some of you can think of other ways you’re using Twitter in your sales process. Drop us a comment and let us learn from your greatness!

Raquel Richardson

marketing & sales, social media

ideas, marketing, relationship building, social media, twitter

1 Comment

Being Funny on Twitter is Good

February 12th, 2010

Raquel recently wrote a post about using humor in your marketing – especially your online marketing. That principle doesn’t just apply to your big campaigns. You can also inject humor into your bite-size marketing endeavors. Case in point: Twitter.

Earlier today, Indianapolis-based Twitter aficionado Kyle Lacy ( @kyleplacy ) wrote the following tweet:

Follow @claymabbitt : It is very rare to find an individual that can make you laugh through Twitter. This guy does it.

Do I make people laugh on Twitter? Well, I certainly think I’m pretty funny. Apparently Kyle does, and I imagine there are at least a few others out there. Is it the tweets about the songs playing in the bathroom where I work? The inappropriate things I say to my wife? Road rage? Maybe it’s just because I make a point of following very funny people and retweeting their best stuff.

Would Kyle have told people to follow me if I had never made him laugh? Well… hmm… maybe? I do also tweet about serious stuff in the online and social media spheres, which are areas most of Kyle’s audience probably cares about. But it certainly isn’t “very rare to find an individual” who does that. (Actually Twitter is crawling with us.) Kyle decided to endorse me because he thinks some of the stuff I’ve put out there on Twitter is funny.

That endorsement had a positive effect. My new followers have spiked in the last few hours. That’s more people who get to see me be funny on Twitter. While they’re chuckling, they also get to see my occasional tweets about upcoming Silver Square seminars and new resources we have available. Because I’ve made them laugh, they like me a little bit. Because they like me, they’ll be more inclined to look for the value in the seminars and resources I’m talking about.

Does that mean everyone I’ve made laugh will become a paying customer? Not even close. My product or service still has to address some pain they have, be appealing, be in their price range, and fit dozens of other variables that go into a buying decision. But I have a bit of their attention, a bit of their interest, and a bit of their goodwill.

And that’s a good place to start.

Clay Mabbitt

branding, business smarts, just for fun, marketing, social media

humor, ideas, indianapolis, relationship building, social media, twitter

2 Comments

2010 is a Great Year for Using Humor in Marketing

February 1st, 2010

I have been thinking about quite a few marketing ideas for a few clients who have marketing plans in the works, and I keep coming back to a common theme – humor. I am pretty sure right now, 2010, is one of they best years to have some humor with your marketing. At a minimum, it’s one of the best years to test how well the funny works with your audience. So why do you ask is 2010 one of the best years to have fun with your marketing? There are many great reasons, but this one’s the best: It’s easy to test.

Social media often gets a bad wrap for things like… it’s time consuming, it’s always changing, there are too many mediums, I don’t know how to get started, etc. but in my opinion, it’s one of the best places to throw out new ideas and tactics and see if they stick. Think of 10 years ago, or let’s take five, even, and how quickly would you test out a new marketing campaign? How would you test ? People were a lot less willing to try multiple new marketing ideas in a given year. I think that mindset is gone, and hopefully gone for good.

Let’s discuss an idea I know a bit about. The Proust spoof we have been doing at Silver Square, launching with the new year, was a new marketing tactic for us. We came up with it to show and tell the great people in our network, whether they be clients, friends, family, family friends, peers, etc. and to also bring new people to our site. We can already tell this tactic is working. In 30 days, we know a spike comes each Tuesday, when our Proust appears on our blog, and typically visitors read three more additional posts. They come, they stay, they read, they get to know us. Exactly the point. Even more to the point we get a few people signing up for the blog, interacting with us, signing up for our newsletter… you see how this works? Had this marketing idea cost $10,000 to implement do you think we would have thrown it up there for kicks to see what happens? As the driver of this bus, I can tell you most definitely not. This idea is fun, is interesting, and brings about a personal side to our marketing mix.

Another way using the web makes testing for humor easy is that you can change it and make updates on the fly. Can you imagine how loud you would gasp if a promotion in a printed magazine went out with the wrong phone number or web address? Well, if you do that on a Facebook ad or on your LinkedIn status, you just go change it. Ta da. It doesn’t live forever wrong.

So your challenge for this week is to come up with some humor for your marketing. Have an extremely fun brainstoming session, have some of your employees play like your clients to make sure your humor is actually on target with your audience, and toss out some fun campaign ideas. Pick the best and decide which medium(s) you’ll post your greatness. How will you get people to your funny? Do you want them to interact? Do you want them to go to an event? Think through the idea, give it some legs and run with it. If it didn’t work, it cost you an enjoyable brainstorming session with your team, and a step further in learning about what works for your audience.

Try again. Measure, repeat.

Raquel Richardson

business smarts, marketing, social media, web

ideas, relationship building, social media

1 Comment

Etiquette of the Twitter Follow

January 28th, 2010

It’s an almost daily occurrence. I get a notice that someone has stopped following me on Twitter. I don’t recognize this person or organization that has decided they aren’t interested in my tweets any longer. I hadn’t even known they were following me until they stopped. My total number of followers (that all important number on which hardcore Twitter users hang their self-esteem) remains steady because some different person that I’ve never met or heard of has started following me… at least for a few days.

So what’s happening here? In all likelihood, these people are following me in the hopes that I will follow them back. From what I can tell they don’t care about hearing what I have to say or starting a conversation with me. But when Twitter was still a fledgling social media startup, it was customary to follow anyone who followed you. Some would say that reciprocal following is still the appropriate etiquette today.

Ultimately you will decide how you want to use your Twitter account, but you have some options when deciding how you want to dole out your Twitter follows. Spoiler alert: my recommendation is the third option mentioned below.

1.) Auto-follow

With this approach you reciprocally follow anyone who follows you. You can even set up third-party Twitter add ons that will take care of the following for you. Perhaps appropriate when Twitter was just starting out, I’m not a fan of auto-following these days. Not only do you get inundated with a stream of tweets from people you don’t know or care about, you’re also rewarding “Twitter spammers” who follow thousands upon thousands of accounts just to inflate their own number of followers. It’s not too melodramatic to say this practice is bad for the social economy of Twitter.

2.) Ignore New Followers

On the other end of the spectrum you can simply ignore any stranger who follows you out of the blue. That’s not to say you don’t follow anyone, but when you add a new follower it’s because you found them and are interested in what they have to say. It doesn’t matter who is following you. I personally feel like this devil-may-care attitude is a step above auto-following, but it certainly doesn’t leverage the power of a social media network like Twitter.

3.) Selectively Follow

When I learn someone new is following me on Twitter, I’ll usually check out their Twitter page. I’ll look at the quick bio and read some of their latest tweets. If I find value in what they are talking about, then I follow them. At the beginning of this post, I mentioned that new people follow me all the time that I don’t even know about. But there are a very intelligent few who don’t just hit the follow button and call it a day. They mention me in one of their tweets. Something like…

if you want a good web guy in indianapolis, you could do worse then @claymabbitt

When I see that tweet, of course I go check the sender out.

I think selectively following is hands down the best approach. The power of a strong social media network like Twitter is you can make connections and start a conversation with new people. You just have to be smart about it.

Clay Mabbitt

social media, web

relationship building, social media, social networks, twitter

2 Comments

The Pope has spoken, and he says you should blog

January 24th, 2010

You probably think that headline is a joke, but it’s far from it. Mashable reported that Pope Benedict XVI has shared that the cultural shifts have come and it’s time to reach out in the social media world. The Pope himself has launch social media efforts and wants others to follow. Here is an expert from his original message:

“The spread of multimedia communications and its rich “menu of options” might make us think it sufficient simply to be present on the Web, or to see it only as a space to be filled. Yet priests can rightly be expected to be present in the world of digital communications as faithful witnesses to the Gospel, exercising their proper role as leaders of communities which increasingly express themselves with the different “voices” provided by the digital marketplace. Priests are thus challenged to proclaim the Gospel by employing the latest generation of audiovisual resources (images, videos, animated features, blogs, websites) which, alongside traditional means, can open up broad new vistas for dialogue, evangelization and catechesis.”

Social media is defintely here to stay. It can be a perfect outlet for your message, with one of the key phrases of the Pope’s message being: “exercising their proper role as leaders of communities.” Use these wonderful outlets to see how you can speak to and engage your community. If you want more on this topic, I’ve listed a few other posts as reference: