This is great analysis of Netflix's flub. I was one of those angry customers, for a few reasons but mainly because 1) I received an email that simply stated it made more financial sense for them to charge me more for less, and 2) There was no sentiment of empathy with the customer! Hello, they should have used social media to address the change! And a different tone in their email.
Pass the “so what?” test. Churning out content for the sake of going through the motions will ensure failure. Content marketing must inspire trust, bolster one’s reputation, and influence the marketplace. Throwaway content accomplishes nothing.
Create valuable, utilitarian content. If you hope to make your content head, take a stance, break the mold, and become a go-to resource.
Understand that speed and agility are key. Be timely and topical, if you hope to touch audiences in a meaningful manner and become top-of-mind. The Web rewards the nimble, so beware complex approval processes.
Develop a brand personality. People connect with content that reflects a genuine personality, so avoid impersonal "corporatese." Injecting personality and emotion is a powerful way to connect with prospects.
Connect with content. Content marketing can build connections and relationships, which delivers social and SEO returns. Connections help you build inbound links, increase share in social channels, and gain visibility. Incorporate connections into content naturally.
Worry less about perfection, more about tone. Forget about perfection, and focus on being thoughtful and genuine. Minor flaws are forgivable, but the wrong tone can result in lasting reputation management issues.
Make content easy to scan (and attractive). Your prospects are busy. Respect their time. Use headlines and sub-heads, bold text, creative formatting, and whatever it takes to create a fast read.
Stick the headlines. Pen intriguing headlines to attract visitors. Without strong headlines, blog posts will be overlooked in a busy RSS reader or inbox, PDFs won’t be passed along, and social news sites will yawn.
Be consistent and seek quality. As we wrote earlier, every company is now a media company. The quality of your content is a direct reflection of the way prospects envision your product or service. The consistency of your content signals dedication as a professional.
Tend to your content. Content marketing should be an organic process. Advertising content is an admission of failure. Your content must work on its own to naturally connect. Trying to force weak content to spread virally is a waste of resources and a danger to your brand reputation.
Mastering social media means learning how to communicate your ideas with sincerity and passion. It’s not rocket science, it’s reciprocity.
I love this slideshow, it really highlights the important points for any brand or small business to understand about using Facebook.
At the end of the day, companies cannot afford to ignore their customers any longer. Customers now have the tools available to them to mobilize and communicate with themselves far faster than the company can communicate on its own behalf. Recent PR trainwrecks like Motrin Moms and Kenneth Cole’s #Egypt tweets on Twitter attest to this. Companies have to not only be aware of what their customers are saying, but find a way to bring that conversation into their walls, and vice versa. This process helps them get started along that path.
What surprised me most was #4: The Emergence of the Super Socials. One-third of Americans with a profile on a social network, use those sites several times per day or more. This group of “super socials” (my label, not Edison’s) numbers 46 million, and increase of almost 20% in one year.
The balance shifts however toward potency as the degree of difficulty escalates. Here we see the following programs carry greater reward for consumers and businesses alike, but as such, you get what you pay for. - Blogging - Engagement in social networks - SMO (Social Media Optimization) - Blogger and influencer relations Social media doesn’t have to be void of “fun.” It must offer value and usefulness to be successful.
In the marketing world of we often think of the “brand” as the impression of a product, service, company or person held by existing or potential customers...
The key to deciding how fast to respond on Twitter is to take off your business hat and put on your person hat. How would you handle it in a social situation.
If you don't trust your employees to do social media well, you don't have a social media problem, you have a hiring problem.
LOVE IT!
Whether you are competing in a business-to-consumer or business-to-business segment, one of the most important assets that you possess is your brand image. Years and millions of dollars are spent by organizations to promote and enhance their image with the hope of forming a bond with consumers/clients to prompt them to buy on a consistent basis.
Research from advertising agency DDB Paris found that amongst the top reasons for Liking a brand were: “to take advantage of promotional benefits”,” to be informed of new products offered by the brand”,” to access exclusive information” and “to give my opinion about the brand”. Four very clear reasons to bother, which could easily be affixed or suffixed onto any “Find us on Facebook” message for greater impact.
Some brands have found interesting ways to incentivise people to make the jump:
• Dingo, a dog food brand from Ohio, included a promotion that would only kick-in when the Facebook page reached 5,000 fans (from a base of 300). They had an unprecedented take-up, with fans forwarding on the email to their friends and encouraging sign-ups to get the offer. They hit the 5,000 mark in just 3 days.
• Bag retailer Timbuk2 included an opportunity to win a bike, helmet and messenger bag in an email to its 100,000 newsletter subscribers. It received 6,500 clickthroughs vs. just 9 from its generic social call to action.
We were discussing how a brand’s marketing improves as it better understands the customer. The better understanding comes from connecting, which leads to the brand speaking in a language that more closely resembles that of the customer. And as that happens, the brand’s marketing becomes more effective, and more efficient. Both the brand and the customer begin to understand the other a bit better, and at some point, that leads to trust. Which helps move the customer to being an advocate for the brand.
A lot of us remember when the role of the CMO was much simpler. Information flowed in one direction: from companies to consumers. When we drew up our plans and budgets, the key metric was consumer impressions: how many people would see, hear or read our ad? Today the only place that approach still works is on Mad Men.
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