Posts Tagged ‘voco creative’

One of my favorite Twitter truisms is “Don’t piss off the Tweeple.  They’re opinionated, easily convinced, and roam in packs.”  A few weeks ago, I saw a phenomenon that caused me to add “or online news site commenters” to the list of people not to mess with.

Observe this article about a local coffee shop opening a few locations in Boulder and Longmont.  What started out as a typically innocuous and celebratory Daily Camera feature quickly turns into a virulent dumping-ground for Boulderites’ venom against Vic, who apparently has a reputation for not treating his customers like kings and queens.

Treat your clients right lecture aside, this is a great example of why social media is so vital to reputation management.  If Vic’s had a Twitter feed for example, or, oh, a website, Vic himself would be able to guide the story and at least respond to his customers’ complaints and accolades in a public manner.  Instead, I assume he is glowering in private and cursing the Daily Camera for providing a forum in which disgruntled customers vent their spleen against him.

Moral:  You can’t control a conversation in which you take no part. Most of the time, simple communication trumps reputation management.  A bit of transparency goes a long way.

As a marketing and brand strategy person, one of my chief responsibilities is to stay up to date on trends, techniques, and news in the industry. In the course of my Internet travels I run across all kinds of companies that have invested in some kind of Web presence…and that turn me off.  Here, in no particular order, are three mistakes that belong on the wall of shame:

The lights are on, but nobody’s home.  Have you ever gone to a fancy-schmancy website, only to get the feeling that it was designed and implemented by ghostly phantoms who disappeared soon after they hit “publish”?  Over the years, I’ve come to respect marketing as a living, breathing entity, much like a company’s business plan or the business itself.  If you’ve never bothered to update the age-old news on your home page or fix the multitude of broken links, the time is now!  You can’t afford to lose a client who gets bored by stale or broken content.

I don’t care.  You’d be surprised how many marketing pieces are shamefully inaccurate or boast horrid typos and grammatical errors.  I was recently at a workshop sponsored by a highly respected community organization and presented by a company that boasts a long client list and a great pedigree.  Surprise!  The collateral they left on my desk had not one, but four simple typos that, frankly, made the company descend a few notches in my estimation.  Is anyone perfect?  No.  Does spell-check exist for a reason?  Yes.

You’re gonna have to find the baby somewhere in the bathwater.  There’s a reason designers love white space.  It helps point the eye to important information, creating a pleasant user experience.  If your site is so cluttered with badges, feeds, useless graphics, widgets, ads, and irrelevant text that I can’t figure out who you are or why your services can benefit me, I’m gonna move on along with my now pitifully addled and confused impression of your business.  As Dorothy Parker said, “Brevity is the essence of lingerie.”

Photo courtesy of bolobilly

Spring 2009 is all about social media education, and Twitter is on the tongues of everyone from devoted power-users to confused newbs who can barely use a mouse.

Despite all the hype, news programs and even devotees haven’t quite hit their mark.  I keep running across the same question over and over again…why should I care about Twitter?  Who gives a hoot about whether you had a croissant for breakfast, anyway?

In lieu of writing a thesis on the subject (and if you really want to hear the advanced reasoning behind my use of Twitter, pretty please come to my new Twitter class June 25 and July 9), I’ll give some simple answers.

Why should you care about Twitter?

It’s all about conversation.  If you aren’t having a conversation with your potential clients and colleagues via social media, you’re missing the boat.  Twitter doesn’t just give you an unprecedented chance to engage with your base…it allows you to start, shape, and exert a degree of cotrol over the conversation that just can’t be achieved by a press release, a sound bite, or an advertorial.  And the options are endless:  you can talk directly to your base, ask them questions, gauge their opinions, solicit their feedback, be helpful and offer advice.

It’s happening.  Whether or not you like it, Twitter has taken off in a big way.  Does every business need Twitter?  No way.  But don’t dismiss it because it’s new, trendy, and admittedly overhyped.  The amount of creativity and excitement generated by Twitter is truly energizing and engaging…if you know how to use it properly.

It’s opportunity.  Opportunity to find out what your customers and your colleagues care about.  Opportunity to make mistakes, hone that brand, and get deep into voice and vision.  Opportunity to dip your toe into a huge conversation and watch it morph before your eyes.  Opportunity to be on the cutting edge before it changes into something else (just look at the evolution of hashtags over the past few months). And, yes, opportunity to get business.  I can count twenty or more instances in which Twitter has brought me business or allowed me to refer business to someone else in the last two months alone. Now that’s opportunity.

Sure, you may think you don’t care about whether your client had a donut or a croissant for breakfast…until you use that fact as the launchpad for a personal conversation.  Twitter can seem scary:  it’s immediate, vast, and fast.  It’s also vibrant, thrilling, exciting, maddening, and hilarious.  Go ahead…dip that toe in.

Readers, why do you care about (or shun) Twitter?

Photo courtesy of godsmoon

I’ve been spending lots and lots of time on Twitter lately (@vococreative’s the name if you’d like to follow) and am continually amazed by the creativity and passion being brought to this deceptively inane program by its millions of users.

Unfortunately, all the Twitter hype is made even more confusing by a growing universe of Twittiquette that is very, very easy to violate.  My recent Social Media for Mere Mortals class has prompted me to think about the most blatant violations I’ve seen of late.

Here are the top 3 Twitter mistakes I see on a regular basis:

1.  An all-or nothing mentality.  As with other marketing attempts, people tend to go whole hog or not-at-all.  The result:  schizophrenic tweets.  If all you talk about is yourself and your business, there’s no room for dialogue or relationships.  If all you do is shout out to your friends with endless @ messages, there’s no way to get a good sense of who you are.  If you tweet 92 times in one day and 2 the next, we can’t figure out what the heck you’re doing.

2.  Bad etiquette.  Calling out other users for flame wars?  Tasteless.  Failing to credit others when you retweet a message?  Lame.  Forgetting to use the @ symbol before names on a regular basis?  Thoughtless.  Auto-DMs and spammy repeat postings?  Passe.  Twitter etiquette is still a developing field, but it’s definitely becoming more standardized.  If you can’t bother to take the time to familiarize yourself with the lay of the land, should you really be tweeting at all?

3. Timidity.  In a world where  follow count is king and it’s all about who you know, there’s no point in being bashful.  Go ahead, make some friends and followers!  Sitting back and keeping your Twitterverse to your known friends closes you off from the wacky fun that is Twitter.  And it won’t do your business any favors, either.  Be bold!  Have fun!  See you in Tweet Town!

What Twitter mistakes tick you off?  Sound off in the comments!

Image courtesy of grendelkhan

Thanks for hanging in during the hiatus…I’m feeling much refreshed after a severely needed vacation.  We will return to our regularly scheduled blog postings on Monday.  In the meantime, here’s a drive-by glance at this week’s two biggest stories in marketing and brand strategy:

Twitter is on fire:  You know Twitter’s hitting the bigtime when a Twitter race between two public entities is front page news, the local news starts running fluff pieces on Twitter, and Oprah, ambassadress of all that will be embraced eventually, finally relents and throws a few Tweets to her followers.  (We’re loving Twitter here, but all this coverage is a huge sign to be on the lookout for The Next Thing…)

Crisis management is a whole new ballgame, folks:  The nasty Domino’s YouTube scandal is only the latest in a series of online gaffes and frantic scrambling.  (Remember Tropicana, the Motrin Moms, and the Whole Foods CEO’s lame astroturfing?)  Ironically, the big D apparently plans to use social media and SEO to improve the image spit upon by its own employees.  Though the best offense is always a good defense, it’s fascinating to see crisis management adapt to these let-it-all-hang-0ut times…who will be the next victim?

What was your favorite story this week?

I frequent many Yahoo! groups and bulletin boards frequented by writers and small business owners.  Lately, among the laments about the demise of newspapers and the perils of a shaky economy, I’ve been hearing an interesting war cry:  “Social media is a huge waste of time!!! It will distract you!!! Don’t listen to its siren song…it will destroy your marketing, your career…everything you’ve worked so hard to establish!”

I personally think that you can’t afford not to participate in some form of social media, especially in a world that’s ever more populated by Net-savvy, time-crunched people.  However, it’s a tool like anything else in your marketing arsenal…only worthwhile if you use it wisely.  Here are three ways to know when to rein in your social media use in favor of more traditional marketing means:

You are unable to manage your time.  Some people are able to resist the call of a blinking Tweetdeck and a buzzing iPhone.  Others, sadly, are not.  If you’re unable to manage the amount of time you spend using social media, consider limiting it to a certain amount of time per day (timed, with a timer) and pledging to spend an equal amount of time on the marketing messages you used before you converted to Twitter or Facebook.  Yes, this may involve picking up (gasp!) the phone.

You are undercutting your existing marketing.  If your many profiles are not customized and integrated in with your existing brand, you’re wasting your time.  Sure, you may be able to better interface with long-lost-childhood-friend X, but you’re spinning your wheels in terms of your marketing.  Don’t have time to brand your social media or give thought into how it might integrate with your existing marketing strategy?  Then don’t do it.

You are uninterested or undercommitted to the marketing you did before adopting SM.  Yes, social media is slick, instantaneous, pretty, and even inexpensive.  But if your social media activities have replaced the marketing you did before you logged on, be honest with yourself.  Have they really yielded the return on investment they should?  Have you abandoned sucky marketing in favor of micro-efforts that won’t ever pay off? If the answer is yes, it’s time to reassess.  Social media should be part of a marketing plan…not the entire plan.

Simply put, social media without strategy might just be a waste of time.  Interested in figuring out how to use it to your advantage without losing your mind?  We’re giving a seminar in Denver on April 20 that will help you with jus that.  Click here for more information on Social Media for Mere Mortals.

Photo courtesy of bogenfreund

Mondays have that spinny, reeling, to-do-list spitting out tasks kind of feeling, don’t they?  Luckily, VOCO has condensed today’s must-reads into a short and sweet list!

• PR is the new marketing:  A nice vlog on the intersections of two former cousins…now conjoined twins?  [via SmartBrief on Social Media]
• AdWeek has released its Magazine Hot List for ’09.  What’s hot:  Fast Company and Wired.  What’s not:  anything that can’t (or won’t) adapt to changing times.
• Are we “exquisitely, irretrievably f*!ked“?  You be the judge.
• Say it ain’t so:  Google has a “paralyzing lack of design focus”?!

“In this economy” (the new way practically every statement made by a human in March 2009 begins), companies are scrambling in an attempt to determine the proper use of their marketing budget.  And it ain’t easy, especially if you’re a solopreneur, a small business owner, or any other variety of human with a pulse and a finite pocket.

But are you really in over your head?  Is it time to hand off your marketing, or can you keep doing it yourself?  It depends.  Here are five signs you’re ready to take the plunge:

You’re insane. My favorite definition of insanity?  Repeating the same actions over and over and expecting a different result.  If your marketing routine isn’t producing results, you may need an outside eye (or some outside assistance) to determine where to cut the fat and where to ramp up the effort.

You’re (over)reactive.  True marketing results come from consistent and measurable actions, not reactions to every trend, shiny object, financial flutter, or bump in the road.  If you have slipped into reaction mode, you may need a dose of reality and some externally-enforced priorities to help you rein your marketing efforts back in.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.  If this is your reaction to the news that it’s time to market your business, you’re not alone.  Marketing (especially in a down economy) is not a cakewalk.  In fact, marketing can really, really suck.  However, if the slightest mention of a marketing task makes you want to crawl back into bed with your jammies and evade reality, you are likely in need of intervention and assistance.

You’re hurting. You know those growing pains you got when you were a kid and your muscles and bones were shooting upward and outward and all over the place?  They can (and do) wallop a business.  Transition points — going national, expanding your staff, changing your client base, raising your rates — are healthy, but they can place immense stress on your business, your budget, and your time management skills.  Shore up your resources and get help to bridge the gap and transition with ease.

You’re superhuman.  Wait, doesn’t that mean you can do your marketing yourself?  …Not necessarily.  If you take on too much, something will have to give.  Usually it’s those all-important routinized marketing tasks that fall to the bottom of the to-do list.  If you have trouble prioritizing marketing, it might be worth handing it off while you focus on saving the world.

Photo courtesy of gruntzooki

Yesterday I arose with the sun to attend a seminar on cash flow and budgeting presented by my esteemed business advisor, Trish Thomas of Akamai Consulting, and Connor Morganti of Johnson-Morganti, a financial planning and insurance company.

Though the topic is at best snooze-worthy and at worst panic-inducing, I came away with plenty of insight on how to make cash flow even when financial times are tough.  Here’s a selection of tips and advice from Trish and Connor.  If you like them, drop me a line or a comment and I’ll make sure to invite you to the next in the series…it’s totally free!

Take money in quickly and consistently.  This means invoicing promptly, collecting aggressively, and making sure to require deposits and down payments to spread the financial love.

Hang on to $ as long as possible…and spend wisely.  Trish told the story of a client who paid off a huge bill at the end of last year…only to have to lay off an employee this year due to lack of cash.

It takes a long time to build up financial credibility…and only an instant to tear it back down.  You owe it to your financial reputation to be proactive if times are tight.  Be the first to reach out with a credible plan.  It can save you with banks, lenders, and vendors.

Don’t run and hide from the word “budget.” It can seem pointless to budget with uncertain cash flow, but you need to create a system that puts expectations in place and allows you to measure performance and set goals.

You get out what you put in.  Work on abolishing the poverty-minded mindset and resist the temptation to play into the panic that characterizes this downturn.

Photo courtesy of garydenness

I always enjoy an evening with the members of the Rockies Venture Club, especially when there are investors speaking on panel.  Last night was no exception:  in a version of funding lightning-round, three companies seeking funding presented and were followed by notes and suggestions from three investors.

Lorenzo Carver, CEO of bpCentral’s Liquid Scenarios, was up first.  I loved his “aim small, miss small” philosophy for market share and his product, which provides deep analysis of financial information.  Frank Mendincino of Access Venture Partners had some great insights on Lorenzo’s presentation:

The three things he thinks about when considering a deal:  What problem is being solved?  How does the company in question solve it?  Why is their solution better than the other options?

Why companies need to break the rules and include a feature matrix comparing their companies against the competition:  Because it allows them to show why their company is better, not just state that it is.

Focus on conquering one market segment…then move on.  Keeping your initial segment small can allow you to have less initial competition and show your mastery more quickly.

Next up was Eric Remer, founder and CEO of PaySimple, a company that helps small businesses process payments.  He was able to sum up his business model (simplify and empower small business transactions) succinctly.  Jim Conboy of Wolf Ventures critiqued his presentation.

There’s nothing better than results.  Everyone talks about serving small businesses…it’s a very different thing to actually do so.

Your credibility is only as good as your communication.  Show how you nailed a particular market segment and whether you know when to cut your losses and move on.

Toot your own horn.  Your audience of investors will be skeptical.  It’s your job to win them over by pointing to your successes.

Keith Mountain of Spatial Corp. was last, but not least.  His story of a software company with a complicated past was a great view into the challenges that face a company seeking independence from a corporate entity (and the ups and downs any skilled management team will face).  Seth Levine of Foundry Group admitted he specializes in early-stage and seed investing, but was up for the challenge of critiquing Keith’s complex presentation:

Sometimes the cultural aspects of your firm are as important as monetary and management issues.  Still, focus on what makes your company unique.

Look forward, not backwards. Investors are interested in movement and momentum.

Highlight your competitors, even if it hurts.  Show their strengths and their weaknesses, then offset them with your company.

Look for what’s bright and shiny.  If it doesn’t belong to the exciting part of the story, don’t include it in your presentation.

Read more about the event at Rocky Radar.

Photo via eurleif