Archive for August, 2009

The biggest missed social media marketing opportunity on Twitter is utilizing your messaging to create “call to action”- that invitation that asks me to take a step towards fulfilling your business goals according to Susan. The reason for all the “missing” is the fact that the vast majority of Twitter messages are not strategic.

The Challenge: “What do we say?”

The biggest challenge in creating messages on Twitter, or other social networks for that matter, is understanding what to say and how to say it. This is best illustrated by the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If you examine the picture above you get a very well defined description of a desolate road surrounded by natural beauty. The picture speaks for itself.

How to find “what to say”: Wineries

Consider your winery website and blog your “picture worth a thousand words.” Try the following ideas when looking for messages or what to say about you:

1. Wine Club: mine your wine club page for descriptions, costs, benefits, features, and what makes your winery “stand out” from the rest

2. Events: list the events you host, events you participate in, and charities you support.

3. Tours: describe your tour(s) benefits, features, costs

4. History: list historical facts about the winery, land, region, winemakers, owners, and partners

5. Food: list pairing ideas, recipes, cooking techniques and how wine is a part of this experience

6. Wine Reviews: showcase reviews about your wines

7. Collecting: illustrate tips and strategies for storing wines

8. Tasting: describe the best methods to understand how to taste the various flavors of a wine, what to look for in each varietal, and how to understand the influence of terrior, barrel aging, and fermentation

9. The Arts: if you display art tell us about the artist and the type

10. Concerts: if your winery hosts musical events give us the low down

11. Innovation-Development: describe cutting edge technologes, green techniques, vineyard management or anything that differentiates your winery’s harvest processes

12. Harvest: document your harvest, interview winemakers, interview everyone during harvest that will give your audience the feeling they are right there. Help people understand the science and exacting standards you uphold in your harvest

13. Community: describe your winery’s involvement in the different issue that face the community

14. Library Wines: list and describe the library wines available for purchase

15. Foreign Properties: discuss  your winery’s overseas vineyards, fruit, and wine making processes

16. Gift Shop: list gift shop items, specials, discounts, and new items

17.  Release Days: describe the events of the day and all that makes it a special day

18. Newsletter: provide a description of your newsletter benefits

19. Best of Partners: list your partners from restaurants to limosine companies that you support and evangelize

20. Story: tell the winery’s story. This is not necessarily the history but rather the mission of the winery

21. Wine Competition: list the winery’s competition victories

If there is such a thing as a laboratory for studying how retail businesses are using Twitter, we have a pretty good example. Two months ago Dean and I launched Breaking Napa Valley News, which is part of the Breaking News Network, the brainchild of Domus Consulting Group. The site’s content is fully fueled by live, scrolling Twitter feeds from 151 Napa Valley businesses.

I comb through the site a couple of times a day, looking for the best of what’s happening in Napa Valley to share on our Breaking Napa Valley News Facebook Page. And you know what? More often than not, it becomes the proverbial hunt for a needle in a haystack. While I see a lot of social messaging going on, there is a huge lack of “call to action”—that invitation that asks me to take a step towards fulfilling your business goals.

I’m not talking hard sell here. This is about educating me or getting me interested in what your business has to offer, so that as our social networking relationship continues to evolve, I stay aware of all the ways I can patronize your business.

7 Call to Action Examples:

1. Send me an invitation with a money saving incentive.
2. Share links to valuable tips that I can use and associate with your products or services.
3. Invite me to read spotlights or view photos of other customers experiencing your products or services.
4. Make me aware of events associated with your products or services.
5. Ask me for feedback on how you can make your product or service offerings more appealing.
6. Invite me to share how your products or services are playing a role in my life.
7. Educate me on how your products or services are helping others.

The bottom line: Message with purpose. Before you hit that magic “share” button, ask yourself if the message supports your business goals. Time is money.

“Evangelism is the practice of attempting to convert people to religion” Evangelism Wiki

One of the greatest assets a company or entrepreneur can have in their attempts to market, sell, gain exposure, and broadcast positive information is an evangelist. Social media evangelists are people who support their favorite brands, products, services, and companies by initiating discussions and placing positive messages on social media networks. Evangelists are the equivalent of unpaid lobbyists for your company who help legitimize your messages.

One of the most important social media strategies a company can incorporate in their social media marketing is to build a strong core group of evangelists for their products and services.

10 Reasons Why You Need Evangelists

1. Early Adoption: they are often early adopters of your products and services
2. Legitimize: they often legitimize new products and services by using them first
3. Broadcasting: they often lead the charge to popularize a new product or service by messaging across all social networks
4. Reviews: they always provide positive reviews of your product or service
5. Crowdsourcing: they often can provide valuable feedback that can lead to improvements in your products or services
6. Opinion Makers: they can often sway public opinion in your favor
7. Reputation Management: evangelists will often defend your company’s reputation when under attack by other consumers
8. Eyes and Ears: evangelists will often learn about important opportunities for your brand before you will. When they find something that needs to be addressed by their “favorite” company they inform them of where to look, show up, and provide answers
9. Barometer: evangelists will often be the first people to tell you when you have done something wrong. They will often message you privately, if you have engaged with them correctly, in order to help you gauge your products and services
10. Niche: according to David Armano unlike mass media “the web drives the niche” and in so doing it is perfect for evangelists who can effect a brand on many different fronts and at many different levels

I often share how much my direct marketing background influences how I approach social media marketing. It has given me a framework from which to view social media marketing as a discipline. Yes, I know that social media is about being authentic, yet being authentic doesn’t mean you have to show up without a plan or strategy. Yet this is exactly what most companies do.

To be an effective social media marketer, you must:

1. First get clear on your goals
2. Deliver messages that are designed to inspire responses that align with your goals
3. Understand what kinds of messages produce the results you want

These 3 keys require you think ahead before you deliver your messages and that you look back to see what they produced. Showing up to play in the game is not enough. Just because the tools are free doesn’t mean you can afford to waste your energies messaging at random.

How to avoid random messaging:

• Develop a messaging plan
• Develop a messaging schedule

If that sounds like too much effort and structure, then you’re not taking your social media marketing seriously. Believe me, a little disclipine sees the difference between a swing and a miss and a home run. Which would you prefer?

(Courtesy Carpentry Wiki)

Which social media company:

• Is funded by venture capital
• Has yet to turn a profit
• Has yet to showcase a business model to date
• Was recently sued for patent infringement
• Is the target of ever increasing service interruptions
• Is one of the biggest targets for hackers
• Is the tool for people to find out about events, as they are happening, all over the world
• Is the tool for people to use in order “to have a voice in countries where having an opinion can be illegal”
• Is being adopted by conservative old school mass media sources to distribute and report news
• Is a critical communications tool used by police and fire departments and other government agencies
• Is used by businesses around the world as a lead generation tool                                                       
  
• Is used by businesses around the world as a customer relationship management tool
• Is used by worldwide brands to engage consumers
• Serves as a massive moving research repository
• Is one of the most misunderstood and under utilized social networks to date

Social Media Strategy: Understand and Know Your Network

These are 15 snapshot facts about Twitter. Do you research the social network you are about to use for your business? Do you understand how to plan, roll out, and execute your marketing initiatives within each social media network you wish to use?