Social Lessons Learned from the Beach! Integrate!

Summer!

Ahhhhh!  I love the summer and what better summer fun, that being in the ocean.   I love riding the waves .. and you quickly that another wave is always coming!  There is always the next one ---that provides continuous action.  So your plan of attack is ride the one, and for the best, combine their power!

The same is true in Business.   Make sure you are taking into account the consolidated effect!

Did you know that less than one-third of marketers have integrated social media and mobile marketing with other campaign?  The State of Marketing 2013, IBM's Global Survey of Marketers 

Since 68% of social networking is done on a mobile device, the lack of combining the trends that come on top of one another is a non competitive view!

How might you accomplish this integration?   Combine location, customer identity, and customer interactions to personalize mobile apps

It seems that customers in banking, retail, travel, and media and communications are prioritizing their mobile strategies and many have deployed or will soon deploy mobile applications.   Amex’s mobile app presents personalized offers based on a variety of things, including location – In addition to a customer’s purchase history, aka “spend graph”, and current location, Amex allows users to further personalize offers based on in-app thumbs up or thumbs down ratings, which informs the future deals that surface. Learn from existing customer data and from real-time feedback from users.

http://www.fastcompany.com/1837280/american-express-leverages-spending-history-location-mobile-deals-you-actually-care-about

 BUT, it is important to recognize that “context” is more than “location”  – e.g., an unhappy customer is an unhappy customer anywhere (still wouldn’t want to target them even if they’re near a store that they dislike)


You are never too old to boogie board -- or to social network!

In my summer vacation series, here's my next lesson from the beach!

I got to use my boogie board to surf the waves and the wave pool!  What I learned is that you are never too old to boogie!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roQxFb0B9Pw]

Just like you are never too old or too high in a company to use social networking.  The fastest growing group on Facebook are those over the age of 55!  Did you know that 32% of top CEOs have at least one account on a social network! The % of CIOs who say that social is important to their business has more than doubled in the last year per the MIT Sloan Management Review.

What are you waiting for?  Catch the wave and boogie!


You can't feed just one seagull (a series on Social and Vacation!)

This past week I was at the beach -- with a very relaxing time in the sun.  The whole time I was there I saw social in so many different ways.

Once when my daughters tried to feed one seagull , they ended up with a whole flock.   You can't just feed one !  Or can you?

In Social,  you should respond to comments in a way that showcases that your brand really cares and engages around client concerns.   Responding is an important part of interacting and engaging with your audience, while also humanizing your brand, improving brand loyalty and creating brand ambassadors. 

But you don't have to respond to all negative comments.   Have a well thought out plan and know what "level" of comment that you want to respond too.   In some cases, have other clients speak on your behalf.   Unlike at the beach, you don't have to feed all the seagulls.


Thank God it's Monday! Social Business Trend 2

Everyone always celebrates Friday so I thought today we'd celebrate Monday with a great Social Business coffee Break.

Today we are focused on the 2nd core trend in Socialytics:   Marketing not just to a demographic but to the power of 1.  (Reminder;   trend 1 was the power of information sharing and that driving a need socially to recognize expertise and trust!)

As always tell me what you think!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP4ebWmGHos&feature=youtu.be]


Trend #1: Value of Social Sharing is > Information Hoarding

Happy Monday!

Today we are starting a new series of the Top 5 Trends in Social today -- actually involving Social, Big Data and Analytics.

The firs tof the trends is the shift in information value.   To illustrate, when I went to school, value was placed on what I memorized.   Today, it is about what I share. One of my daugther's assignments at school was to find the answer to a question and prove the answer was from an expert who could be trusted!

Take a look at how this trend applies to business!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYuMSIzuX14&feature=youtu.be]


Sweet tea and screen doors. Social Businesses could learn alot from them!

Yes, I am southern pure as they come!  I love my sweet ice tea, grits with butter, screen doors, and Kudzu.

screen door

In the summer, the screen door is an essential element of everyone's home.  The screen door's entire point is that it's not a barrier.  Its job is to open easily.  It is a welcome to all visitor's and friends that approach it.

Is your social media site like that screen door?   Does it open and welcome others in?

Tips to make your site as welcoming as that Southern Door!

  1. Do you make people type in that "code" to enter?   Don't!
  2. Is your site mobile friendly and usable?
  3. Do you have stellar content ?  Content is Queen!
  4. Is Video part of your strategy?  Video is the highest trusted media!  Use it wisely!
  5. Do you have a Twitter Widget on your Home page to engage your audience?  (Check out my blog on IBM Voices!)
  6. Can you feature other guests on your site?
  7. How do you listen?  All relationships listen first!
  8. Are your employees empowered to really represent the brand on your site?
  9. Have you chosen the right social tools that welcome your audience?  For instance, if you are selling to men, Pinerest may not be the best first choice.
  10. Do you constantly review the feedback and make changes to adapt and change?  

Social Media Tip of the Week – Facebook introduces hashtags

Facebook has just announced the introduction of hashtags. Similar to other social platforms like Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram, you can now use hashtags to add context to a post or indicate that it’s part of a lager discussion. Clicking on a hashtag will take you to a news feed containing all posts of users and pages on that particular topic. This will help you to get an overview on a topic or find out what other people think about it. Hashtags won’t affect your privacy settings – you can still decide whether you want to share your posts with the public or your friends only. In the future, Facebook plans to introduce trending hashtags and deeper insights to help people discover more conversations.


What is Marketing 2.0?

What is MARKETING 2.0?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU8jdpTTaUc&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1]

It is leveraging and using a combination of traditional marketing methods like direct mail, e-mail and events with the new Web 2.0 technology such as Twitter, Serious Gaming, Blogs, Facebook, MySpace, RSS, Widgets and so on. Combining the traditional with Web 2.0 technology creates a powerful marketing phenomenon that will bring great results in any marketplace!